EU8TI0 FANCIES, AND TIIEIR REALIZATION! 



place, and buiUlinj? a house — a cottage. Not a larpe one, however, but a smaller 

 jmrt of an entire design, unique, and quaint ; for by those terms can I best express 

 that wliich suits may taste and humor. And such a spot as I have for my cottajje I 

 It combines wood and water, grass and rocks, cultivated field and forest, oaks, 

 hickories, ashes, birdies, cedars — plenty of cedars — (somebody keeps cutting one 

 here and there, thinking I don't sec it, but I know every tree on the ]>lace), with 

 an undulating surface, and fields with golden grain and sparkling water, (-nliven 

 the distant view. No stream whose banks aj)pear ever the same, like an immov- 

 able statue, but one that retires inllie morning, and comes again in the afternoon 

 — a tide-water stream in a meadow, large enough for a ferriage and a sailing 

 party. 



On the west side of the Palisade Mountains, and not in sight of the Iludson, 

 are ray grounds — one and one-half miles from a landing, or a thirty minutes' walk. 

 Will it please you see ray plan for a cottage ? It stands in the midst of some 

 cedar-trees, enveloped in shade. But then I must thin away the cedars, and culti- 

 vate some more refined, for I do not see any mention of the red cedar, and presume 

 you terra it a common tree. 



Will it please you look at a sketch of my cottage. Here it is. 



These pencil sketches are tedious to make, particularly to one who dresses boards 

 the daytime, and uses the pencil in the evening. I send a ruder sketch from 



