%\n goluninrj Slonumtnt. 



It will be vividly reraembered by the readers of this periodical, how sincerely 

 horticulturists mourned the death of Downing. We all felt as if a friend and 

 brother had left us ; even those who had not entirely appreciated the bright, par- 

 ticular star that rose on the heretofore 

 barren heath of our garden literature, 

 soon felt that a luminous planet had 

 set; its light, however, still shines, 

 and, while gardening is an elegant 

 pursuit among us, which it will 

 always be, all thinking and reading 

 men will refer to Downing as the 

 pioneer mind of America. 



Much has been said regarding him, 

 and much that is true continues to be 

 said, but there is one point that is left 

 us to say, in introducing to the pages of 

 his own journal the engraving of the 

 monument, which testifies the affection 

 of the many who contributed to its erec- 

 tion : Downing tanght tis hoic to live. 

 When he commenced his career of au- 

 thorship, the fine old domestic country 

 establishments which the American 

 Revolution had seen, had mostly fallen 

 into decay with the decadence of their 

 owners ; the large properties on 

 which so many wealthy planters and 

 farmers had lived in hospitable muni- 

 ficence and European grandeur, had 

 been divided by the abrogation of 

 the law of entail, and other causes. 

 From the commencement of this cen- 

 tury, one example after another of 

 the old style of living, which we may 

 characterize as " the four in hand," 

 the style of the "Republican court," 

 paled before the paternal divisions of 

 laud, particularly at the North. The 

 democratic feeling took posses- 

 sion of the country, happily for its 

 permanent prosperity. Country 

 s(i/le faded away; people looked 

 around them, in their country 

 houses, on mere farms ; to produce the necessaries of life, was the countryman's 

 ambition. To emheUish his home, and make it a desirable residence for his 

 family and his successors, seemed to be no part of his duty or pleasure. To say, 

 " a farmer," was equivalent to expressing awkwardness of manners, roughness of 

 speech and dress, and almost ignorance. The citizen went to the country to board 

 in the farmer's family, iu summer, or to dance at ]3allston or Saratoga; between 

 the two classes there was no fellow feeling, and, with a few stately exceptio 

 veral divisions of our country, there was, properly speaking, no elegant 



YoL. VI.— November, 1856. 



32 



