Temple. Richard was fond of saying, that this child of his invention, consisted
of nothing more nor less, than what should form the ground work of every
clergyman's discourse; viz. a firstly, and a lastly. He had commenced his
labours in the first year of their residence, by erecting a tall, gaunt edifice
of wood, with its gable towards the highway. In this shelter, for it was little
more, the family resided three years. By the end of that period, Richard had
completed his design. He had availed himself, in this heavy undertaking, of the
experience of a certain wandering, eastern mechanic, who, by exhibiting a few
soiled plates of English architecture, and talking learnedly of friezes,
entablatures, and particularly of the composite order, had obtained a very undue
influence over Richard's taste, in every thing that pertained to that branch of
the fine arts. Not that Mr. Jones did not affect to consider Hiram Doolittle a
perfect empyric in his profession; being in the constant habit of listening to
his treatises on architecture, with a kind of indulgent smile, yet, either from
an inability to oppose them by any thing plausible from his own stores of
learning, or from secret admiration, Richard generally submitted to the
arguments of his co-adjutor. Together, they had not only erected a dwelling for
Marmaduke, but they had given a fashion to the architecture of the whole county.
The composite order, Mr. Doolittle would contend, was an order composed of many
others, and was intended to be the most useful of all, for it admitted into its
construction such alterations, as convenience or circumstances might require. To
this proposition, Richard usually assented; and when rival geniuses, who
monopolise not only all the reputation, but most of the money of a
neighbourhood, are of a mind, it is not uncommon to see them lead the fashion,
even in graver matters. In the present instance, as we have already hinted, the
castle, as Judge Temple's dwelling was termed in common parlance, came to be the
model, in some one or other of its numerous excellencies, for every aspiring
edifice within twenty miles of it.
    The house itself, or the lastly, was of stone; large, square, and far from
uncomfortable. These were four requisites, on which Marmaduke had insisted with
a little more than his ordinary pertinacity. But every thing else was peaceably
assigned to Richard and his associate. These worthies found the material a
little too solid for the tools of their workmen, which, in general