THE COUNTRY HOUSE.

Mr. Robert S. Peabody, of Boston, lectured last evening in the Fogg Museum on "The Country House." The lecture consisted for the most part of a tracing of the gradual developent of the modern country house from the ancient Roman villa.

The educated American naturally asks himself of what character his house shall consist. He may strictly follow the plan of ancient houses, but such an interpretation is too strict to be generally adopted. There are new ideas which must of necessity influence an architect of today. The monkish cloisters cannot be conformed to modern needs. While the ancient Roman villa would answer the requirements of Lenox or Newport, other forms of architecture would be illsuited to our time.

The simple country houses of Pliny and the somewhat more elaborate villas of Cicero would form a not unfitting background to the life of today. In the Italian villa we find brought into subjection the main ideas and features of its Roman predecessor. On the borders of Lake Como we find the best examples of these houses. Here the blue waters of the lake contrast strongly with the pure white country houses with which the lake is bordered. Art and nature seem to have combined to make a paradise. During the Renaissance the art of building was continually changing, largely owing to the work of the Italian architect, Palladio. His buildings with their stately proportions and immense pillars were most impressive. They gave expression to the Italian and classical views. While stately and aristocratic they would be somewhat vain for modern structures.

In France, England and Germany architecture closely followed the Italian model. Step by step in France the stony fortresses gave place to the chateaux. But Frenchmen, refusing to accept Italian ideas in their entirety, adapted them to their own use. The grand houses of the time of the Valois are full of suggestion, and many of them form the models of houses of today. With the age of Louis XIV. grace and caprice in building take the place of gravity and severity.

Turning to England, we find the architecture here starting with the home as the unit. One by one the various phases of French architecture took their places in England. The native artists, however, modified and changed these ideas to suit their own tastes. The world has never known more homelike homes than these English country houses.

The most obvious course for modern designers is to turn to the remains of old houses in our own country. They possessed dignity, simplicity, modesty and grace. By going back and studying the ancient types of architecture, and then adapting them to modern ideas, an architect can evolve a plan for a modern house that will possess at once the grandeur of the Italian villa and the homely simplicity of the old English manor house.