MR. DOWNING AND THE HORTICULTURIST. 



nation only could give being to. The great question with him, was, how much of the 

 really beautiful can be made subservient to the public good ? how far can elegance and 

 utility be combined ? how much of the spirit of the amateur can be infused into the 

 mass of the rural population ? He has answered these questions by his deeds. 



IMr. Downing was an American, and all his thinking and acting tended toward 

 the welfare and elevation of his country. Very much of his deserved popularity is 

 owing to his ability to popularise whatever he wrote upon. Ho seized upon what was 

 most needed, and upon that alone, and with striking point and directness, presented it 

 in such form, that his conclusions were irresistible. 



His style of writing is unaffected and flowing, and his diction, though elegant and 

 ornate, is never verbose or tiresome. Such a style grew naturally out of his charac- 

 teristics of mind and habits of thought. His mind was furnished and cultivated, and 

 his impulsiveness bore his thoughts by the nearest way to the desired end. This 

 brings to notice that peculiar earnestness and sincerity which everywhere is visible in 

 his writings. Neither a philosopher or an enthusiast, he combined the excellencies of 

 both in his individuality. Above all others, he was the man best fitted to mould the 

 architectural and rural taste of the country to a correct model, to guide public senti- 

 ment to whatever is highest in Nature and purest in Art, and to aid in making America 

 what Heaven designed it should be, the garden of the whole earth. 



^Ir. Downing has closed his labors too early to have shown the full maturity of 

 his power. If his youth has been thus productive, what results might have crowned 

 a longer life I what beauty might have sprung from a riper experience and an enlarg- 

 ing capacity ! 



About two years since, Mr. Downing received an invitation to vi.sit Washington, 

 for the purpose of conferring with the President with reference to the laying out the 

 public grounds in the vicinity of the Capitol. For the last year and a half he has 

 been engaged in designing and perfecting his plans, and in accordance with them, a 

 park of some 160 acres is being constructed. It will afford the only example of 

 grounds to such extent, laid out by the rules of art, in this country, and will un- 

 doubtedly be a most perfect work of its kind. 



In his private character, Mr. Downing was upright, manly, and enthusiastic, and 

 he entered with zeal and energy into every subject which promised to elevate and re- 

 fine his fellow men. In his social relations he was a geiitleman in the best accepta- 

 tion of the term. Courteous, affable, and polite to the stranger ; generous, warm- 

 hearted, and confiding to his friends, he was universally respected and loved. 



The sad circumstances of his death make us less reconciled to his loss. Mr. Down- 

 ing, in company with his wife, and her mother, sister, and younger brother, together 

 with a lady friend, Mrs. Wadsworth, embarked on the Henry Clay, full of buoyancy 

 and joyous expectation, on their way to Newport. Scarce two hours have passed, 

 and that circle is broken. Some are sleeping beneath the wave, — others are weeping 

 on the shore this wreck of hope and happiness. Mr. Downing, his wife's mother, 

 Mrs. De Wint of Fishkill, and Mrs. "Wadsworth, were lost — the remaining members 

 of the party were saved, — ]Mrs. Downing almost miracuously. As Mr. Downing 



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