Set watchers about
it, as if at the gate of a besieged city; bind it together with
iron when it loosens; stay it with timber when it declines. Do not
care about the unsightliness of the aid--better a crutch than a
lost limb; and do this tenderly and reverently and continually,
and many a generation will still be born and pass away beneath its
shadow."
[Illustration: Relic of Lynn Siege in Hampton Court, King's Lynn]
[Illustration: Hampton Court, King's Lynn, Norfolk]
If this sound advice had been universally taken many a beautiful old
cottage would have been spared to us, and our eyes would not be
offended by the wondrous creations of the estate agents and local
builders, who have no other ambition but to build cheaply. The
contrast between the new and the old is indeed deplorable. The old
cottage is a thing of beauty. Its odd, irregular form and various
harmonious colouring, the effects of weather, time, and accident,
environed with smiling verdure and sweet old-fashioned garden flowers,
its thatched roof, high gabled front, inviting porch overgrown with
creepers, and casement windows, all combine to form a fair and
beautiful home. And then look at the modern cottage with its glaring
brick walls, slate roof, ungainly stunted chimney, and note the
difference.
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