|  | and subservient to the powers and processes of nature. We  
will now take a view of the same agency - acting, within  
narrower bounds, for the production of the few works of art  
and accommodations of life which, in so simple a state of  
society, could be necessary. These are merely habitations of 
man and coverts for beasts, roads and bridges, and places of 
worship. And to begin with the COTTAGES. They are scattered over the  
vallies, and under the hill sides, and on the rocks; and,  
even to this day, in the more retired dales, without any  
intrusion of more assuming buildings;
 
 Cluster'd likes stars some few, but single most,
 And lurking dimly in their shy retreats,
 Or glancing on each other cheerful looks,
 Like separated stars with clouds between.
 MS.
 The dwelling-houses, and contiguous out-buildings, are, in  
many instances, of the colour of the native rock, out of  
which they have been built; but, frequently the Dwelling or  
Fire-house, as it is ordinarily called, has been  
distinguished from the barn or byer by rough-cast and white  
wash, which, as the inhabitants are not hasty in renewing  
it, in a few years acquires, by the influence of weather, a  
tint at once sober and variegated. As these houses have  
been, from father to son, inhabited by persons engaged in  
the same occupations, yet necessarily with changes in their  
circumstances, they have received without incongru-
 
 |