ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to understand the idea of the cottage as it was articulated in late Georgian architectural writings and expressed in the forms and surface dressings of buildings designed to appear as a cottage. The idea of the cottage as the simple rural retreat was taken from Antiquity by an elite culture enthralled to that world, its literature, art and architecture. The architect-designed cottage was a speculation, in writing, drawing and building, on the simple dwelling of the Arcadian shepherd, a heroic, kingly figure, tied to the Roman aristocratic practice of rural retreat as a temporary escape from the pressures of city life. The forms and features of Tudor buildings became widespread in the design of cottages. However, in trading Arcadia for Old England the cottage lost its distinction as the simple rural retreat and became but one among many buildings designed in the Old English or Tudor style.
