ABSTRACT
On the many hills that border this wooded district there are several cottages built in quite an imposing, typical style, despite their truly Lilliputian size. It is impossible to surmise how many barns, cart-sheds, cattle-sheds, farm-yards and gardens a pages (peasant freeholder) gradually acquires in about an acre and a half of land, and what innate preasure he unconsciously takes in this whimsical collection. The cottage usually consists of two stories with a flat roof, whose projecting edge gives shade to a very exposed verandah, like the tier of battlements which surmount a Florentine house-top. This symmetrical finish lends an appearance of grandeur and strength to the most fragile and poorest buildings. The enormous bunches of corn-cobs hanging down from each opening in the verandah to dry off in the air, form a festoon of colour that alternates between red and yellow amber, whose effect is incredibly pleasing.
