17.  So much for the character of the two cottages, as they assimilate with the countries in which they are found.  Let us now see how they assimilate with the character of the people by whom they are built.  England is a country of perpetually increasing prosperity and active enterprise; but, for that very reason, nothing is allowed to remain till it gets old.  Large old trees are cut down for timber; old houses are pulled down for the materials; and old furniture is laughed at and neglected.  Everything is perpetually altered and renewed by the activity of invention and improvement.  The cottage, consequently, has no dilapidated look about it; it is never suffered to get old; it is used as long as it is comfortable, and then taken down and rebuilt; for it was originally raised in a style incapable of resisting the ravages of time.  But, in France, there prevail two opposite feelings, both in the extreme; that of the old pedigreed population, which preserves unlimitedly; and that of the modern revolutionists, which destroys unmercifully.  Every object has partly the appearance of having been preserved with infinite care from an indefinite age, and partly exhibits the evidence of recent ill-treatment and disfiguration.  Primeval forests rear their vast trunks over those of many younger generations growing up beside them; the chateau or the palace, showing, by its style of architecture, its venerable age, bears the marks of the cannon-ball, and, from neglect, is withering into desolation.  Little is renewed:  there is little spirit of improvement; and the customs which prevailed centuries ago are still taught by the patriarchs of the families to their grandchildren.  The French cottage, therefore, is just such as we should have expected from the disposition of its inhabitants; its massive windows, its broken ornaments, its whole air and appearance, all tell the same tale of venerable age, respected and preserved, till at last its dilapidation wears an appearance of neglect.

18.  Again, the Englishman will sacrifice everything to comfort, and will not only take great pains to secure it, but he has generally also the power of doing so:  for the English peasant is, on the average, wealthier than the French.  The French peasant has no idea of comfort, and therefore makes no effort to secure it.  The difference in the character of their inhabitants is, as we have seen, written on the fronts of their respective cottages.  The Englishman is, also, fond of display; but the ornaments, exterior and interior, with which he adorns his dwelling, however small it may be, are either to show the extent of his possessions, or to contribute to some personal profit or gratification:  they never seem designed for the sake of ornament alone.  Thus, his wife’s love of display is shown by the rows of useless crockery in her cupboard; and his own by the rose tree at the front door, from which he may obtain an early bud to stick in the buttonhole of his best blue coat on