In domestic architecture, while there has been no style so original and absolutely defined as to be definitely called American, we may roughly classify three periods--the Colonial, the Middle, and the Modern. These terms have no close application, and you must understand that I use them rather for convenience than because they accurately, or even approximately, indicate particular styles. The mansions of the Colonial period are, perhaps, most easily recognized, and in some respects were the frankest and most independent class of houses ever built in this country. The early settlers took whatever suited them from all styles, and instead of imitating the English, the Dutch, or the French manner of building, mingled parts of all, with especial reference to the needs of their climate and surroundings. [Illustration: FIG. 130.--SIR WILLIAM PEPPERELL'S HOUSE. _Kittery Point, Maine._] This fine old house (Fig. 130) shows the plain, homely, yet quaint style of many of the mansions of the Colonial period. It was built near the beginning of the last century, and occupied by Sir William Pepperell until his death. Its interior, with heavy wainscoting of solid mahogany, was more imposing by far than the exterior. The Van Rensselaer homestead at Albany is an excellent example of a more stately house, possessing much dignity and impressiveness. The Middle period was a time when domestic architecture, still without any originality and losing much of the independence of the Colonial, copied more closely from foreign models. Some fine old mansions belong to this period, which covered the last years of the last century and the first half of this. The celebrated Cragie House at Cambridge, occupied by the poet Longfellow; "Elmwood," the home of James Russell Lowell; "Bedford House," in Westchester County, New York, the home of the Hon. John Jay, are to be referred to this period; and so is the imposing "Old Morrisania," at Morrisania, New York, the old Morris mansion (Fig. 131). [Illustration: FIG. 131.--"OLD MORRISANIA." _Morrisania, New York._] It is modelled after a French château, and was erected by General Morris after his return from France in 1800. It is one of the most striking among the mansions of its time, and both its interior and exterior are highly interesting.