Architecture, either practically considered or viewed as an art of taste, is a subject so important and comprehensive in itself, that volumes would be requisite to do it justice. Buildings of every description, from the humble cottage to the lofty temple, are objects of such constant recurrence in every habitable part of the globe, and are so strikingly indicative of the intelligence, character, and taste of the inhabitants, that they possess in themselves a great peculiar interest for the mind.
Andrew Jackson Downing, Henry Winthrop Sargent (1859). “A treatise on the theory and practice of landscape gardening, adapted to North America: with a view to the improvement of country residences”, p.318
