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1F <br />286 COUNTRY HOUSES. <br />the elegant culture and variety of accomplishment of the retired <br />citizen or man of the world, and as it is capable of the most <br />varied and irregular as well as very simple outlines, it is also <br />very significant of the multiform tastes, habits, and wants of <br />modern civilization. On the whole, then, we should say that <br />the Italian style is one that expresses not wholly the spirit of <br />country life nor of town life, but something between both, and <br />which is a mingling of both. <br />The leading features of this style are familiar to most of our <br />readers. Roofs rather flat, and projecting upon brackets or <br />cantilevers; windows of various forms, but with massive.,_ <br />dressings, fre uq ently running into the round archzwhen the <br />opening is an important one (and always permitting the use of <br />the outside Venetian blinds); arcades supported on arches <br />or verandas with simple columns, and chimney- of. charac- <br />teristic and tasteful forms. Above all, when the composition <br />is irregular, rises the campanile or Italian tower, bringing all <br />into unity, and giving picturesqueness, or an expression of power <br />and elevation, to the whole composition. <br />In designing this small villa in the Italian style, our object <br />was to show as much of the force and spirit of this style as <br />possible, within a very moderate space, and for a very moderate <br />cost. It would have been far easier to have increased the effect <br />by adding more apartments—for it is one of the merits of this <br />style that it permits additions, wings, etc., with the greatest <br />facility, and always with increasing effect. <br />We must call the attention of the reader to the semicircular <br />arcade or veranda thrown out on the drawing -room or lawn <br />side of the house, which combines elegance with comfort, and <br />is an agreeable variation of the common veranda. The win. <br />