The Blue-Grass Region of Kentucky, and Other Kentucky ArticlesAllen, James Lane
General
The Blue-Grass Region of Kentucky, and Other Kentucky Articles
Allen, James Lane
Kentucky -- Description and travel; Kentucky -- Social life and customs
Of domestic architecture in a brief and general way something has been
said. The prevailing influence was Virginian, but in Lexington and
elsewhere may be observed evidences of French ideas in the glasswork
and designs of doors and windows, in rooms grouped around a central
hall with arching niches and alcoves; for models made their way from
New Orleans as well as from the East. Out in the country, however, at
such places as those already mentioned, and in homes nearer town, as
at Ashland, a purely English taste was sometimes shown for woodland
parks with deer, and, what was more peculiarly Kentuckian, elk and
buffalo. This taste, once so conspicuous, has never become extinct,
and certainly the landscape is receptive enough to all such stately
purposes. At "Spring Hill" and elsewhere, to-day, one may stroll
through woods that have kept a touch of their native wildness. There
was the English love of lawns, too, with a low matted green turf
and wide-spreading shade-trees above--elm and maple, locust and
poplar--the English fondness for a home half hidden with evergreens
and creepers and shrubbery, to be approached by a leafy avenue, a
secluded gate-way, and a gravelled drive; for highways hardly admit to
the heart of rural life in Kentucky, and way-side homes, to be dusted
and gazed at by every passer-by, would little accord with the spirit
of the people. This feeling of family seclusion and completeness also
portrayed itself very tenderly in the custom of family graveyards,
which were in time to be replaced by the democratic cemetery; and no
one has ever lingered around those quiet spots of aged and drooping
cedars, fast-fading violets, and perennial myrtle, without being made
to feel that they grew out of the better heart and fostered the finer
senses.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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