A VISIT TO MONTGOMERY PLACE. 



157 



Fig. 26. Rustic Seat. 



any thing like positive certaint}- as to their 

 destination. Though we have threaded 

 them several seasons, yet our late visit to 

 Montgomer}- Place found us giving oar- ! 

 selves up to the pleasing perplexity of 

 choosing one at random, and trusting to a 

 lucky guess to bring us out of the wood at ; 

 the desired point, j 



Not long after leaving the rustic pavilion, 

 on descending by one of the paths that di- 

 verges to the left, we reach a charming lit- 

 tle covered resting place, in the form of a 

 rustic porch. The roof is prettily thatched 

 with thick green moss. Nestling under a 

 dark canopy of evergreens in the shelter of 

 a rock)- fern-covered bank, an hour or two 

 may be whiled away within it, almost uncon- 

 scious of the passage of time. 



THE CATARACT. 



But the stranger who enters the depths 

 of this dusky wood by this route, is not long 

 inclined to remain here. His imagination 

 is excited b)' the not very distant sound of 

 waterfalls. 



"Above, below, aerial murmurs swell, 

 From hanging wood, brown heath and bushy dell; 

 A thousand pushing rills that shun the liffht, 

 Stealing like music on the ear of night.** 



He takes another path, passes by an airj' 

 looking rustic bridge, and plunging for a 

 moment into the thicket, emerges again in 

 full view of the first cataract. Coming 

 from the solemn depths of the wood, he is 

 astonished at the noise and volume of the 

 stream, which here rushes in wild foam and 

 confusion over a rocky fall, forty feet in 

 depth. Ascending a flight of steps made 

 in the precipitous banks of the stream, we 

 have another view, which is scarcely less 

 spirited and picturesque. 



This waterfall, beautiful at all seasons, 

 would alone be considered a sufficient at- 

 traction to give notoriety to a rural locali- 

 ty in most country neighborhoods. But as 

 if nature had intended to lavish her gifts 

 here, she has, in the course of this valley, 

 given two other cataracts. These are all 

 striking enough to be worthy of the pencil 

 of the artist, and they make this valley a 

 feast of wonders to the lovers of the pic- 

 turesque. 



There is a secret charm which binds us 

 to these haunts of the water spirits. The 

 spot is filled with the music of the falling 

 water. Its echoes pervade the air, and be- 

 get a kind of dreamy revery. The memo- 

 ry of the world's toil gradually becomes 

 fainter and fainter, under the spell of the 

 soothing monotone ; until at last one begins 

 to doubt the existence of towns and cities, 

 full of busy fellow beings, and to fancy the 

 true happiness of life lies in a more simple 

 existence, where man, the dreamy silence of 

 thick forests, the lulling tones of babbling 

 brooks, and the whole heart of nature, 

 make one sensation, full of quiet harmony 

 and joy. 



THE LAKE. 



That shadoAv}- path, that steals away so 

 enticingly from the neighborhood of the 

 cataract, leads to a spot of equal, though a 

 difierent kind of loveliness. Leavinsr the 



