MR. WILDER'S EULOGY. 



has adorned — in the lawns and pleasure grounds which he has laid out and appropriately 

 einbellislied — and in numberless buildings which stand as monuments to his architectural 

 skill. 



The fruits of his labor are also gathered in thousands of gardens and conservatories. 

 The numerous cottages and villas which have lately sprung ud in the towns and villnges 

 about our commercial cities, and throughout our happy, land, evince his genius; and it is 

 due to his worth to say that few have left a mark so deep and broad on the generation in 

 which they lived. 



In responding to the calls wliich have been made upon me to pronounce the eulogy of 

 our deceased friend, I shall attempt nothing more, and certainly can do nothing better, 

 than to articulate the language of his useful life, and to give free utterance to your own 

 convictions of his worth. 



Mr. Downing was born in Newburgh, N. Y., on the 31st day of October, A. D., 1815. 

 In his boyhood he manifested a fondness for botany, mineralogy, and other natural scien- 

 ces, which at the age of sixteen, when he left school, he was able to prosecute without the 

 aid of an instructor. At that period, his f\ither having died when he Avas but seven years 

 of age, his mother desired him to become a clerk in a dry goods store; but he, following 

 the native tendencies of his mind, preferred to remain with his elder brother in the rrur- 

 sery and garden, whose accuracy and practical skill in horticulture gave special promi- 

 nence to the same trails in the deceased, and with whom he might study the theory, and 

 perfect himself in the practice of his favorite art. 



In the formation of liis character, we also recognize with gratitude the agency of Baron 

 de Liderer, the Austrian Consul, whose summer residence was in his native place, a gen- 

 tleman of large endowments and attainments, of eminent purity of mind, and refinement 

 of manners, a mineralogist and botanist, who discoved in young Downing a mind of kin- 

 dred taste, who made him the frequent inmate of his family, as well as his own compan- 

 ion in numerous excursions for the scientific exploration of the surrounding country. 



But his sensibility to artistic beauty was cultivated and developed by the lamented Ra- 

 phael Hoyle, an English artist, residing in Newburgh, and who, like himself, went down 

 to an early grave, leaving behind him specimens in landscape painting, true to nature, and 

 of remarkable delicacy of coloring. His manners were much improved and adorned by 

 his familiar intercourse with his neighbor, Mr. Edward Armstrong, a gentlemen of re- 

 finement and wealth, at whose fine country seat on the Hudson he was introduced to the 

 Hon. Charles Augustus Murray, an Englishman whose book of Travels in America has 

 been admired on both sides of the Atlantic. There he also made the acquaintance of many 

 other distinguished men, who subsequently became his correspendents and personal friends. 



These associations had, no doubt, much influence in strengthening his refined and gene- 

 rous nature. He devoted all the time which he could reclaim from physical labor to read- 

 ing and study. In the bowers of his garden he held frequent converse with the muses, 

 who inspired him with the poetic fire which illumes his pages, and imparts peculiar vi- 

 vacity and energy to his stj'le. 



At the age of twenty-two, on the seventh of June, 1838, he married Miss Caroline 

 Elizabeth, daughter of J. P.DeWint, Esq., of Fishkill Landing, a lady of congenial spirit, 

 of refinement and intelligence, to whom the world is much indebted for his usefulness. In 

 grateful return for her valuable services, she now enjoys the commiseration and condolence 

 of his friends in America and transatlantic countries. But with all these aids, still Mr 

 ing was, in the strictest sense, self-taught ; a fact which deserves to be recor 

 ly to his praise, but as an encouragement to thousands of aspiring youth 



