Ifomrstir JMiui 



Sale of Mr. Downino's Residence. — The 

 last number of the Home Journal, has the fol- 

 lowiiug letter, dated " Highland Terrace," from 

 one of its editors, N. P. Willis, to his associ- 

 ate, G. P. Morris. It will be read with inter- 

 est by all Mr. D.'s friends: 



Dear Morris: I was not well enough to 

 drive over to the sale of Mr. Downing's house 

 and grounds, though I intended to have done 

 so, and to have written to you of an event so 

 full of melancholy interest. It brought to- 

 gether a large assemblage of persons of taste and 

 refinement, I am told — more like a gathering to 

 exchange regrets, however, as most of those 

 present were already provided with such a home 

 as was there to be disposed of. A leisurely 

 sale, giving time for the chance w-ant to arrive 

 which it was best titted to supply, would have 

 been better timed, perhaps. The property sold 

 for eighteen thousand dollars, considerably less 

 than the estimate commonly put upon it. It 

 was bought by Messrs. Ramsdell and Betts, 

 two liberal and wealthy gentlemen of the neigh- 

 borhood, who, I understand, propose to hold it 

 till they can dispose of it to better advantage 

 for the widow of their deceased friend. It is a 

 kind world we live in, after all; and sweet the 

 inheritance of good will which some men leave 

 behind them unaware ! 



Full of enlarged love of the beautiful as was 

 Downing's mind, he was by no means visionary. 

 It was, on the contrary, quite a passion w-ith 

 liim, for the last two or three years, to contrive 

 such economies and combinations, in architec- 

 ture and modes of living, as should bring taste 

 and refined comfort within reach of moderate 

 means. He thought the millionaire sufficiently 

 cared for. To embellish and dignify, at little 

 cost, the homes of The Many, was the more re 

 cent study from which we should have heard 

 most instructively had he lived. The various 

 simple substitutes he had invented for such or- 

 nament as is necessary to taste in building, yet 

 usually too e.\ pensive, are doubtless in the pos- 

 session of his able professional partner. Mr. 

 Vaux, and to him may well be referred those 

 interested to know more of them. Of two only 

 of his practical ideas — subjects of my own last 

 conversation with him — I will endeavor to give 

 some outline, hojiing that there are those whom 

 it will serve, though I succeed in recording but 

 a hint of what he intended to convej'. 



We were speaking of the new facility which 

 railroads afforded for living, tlie year round, in 

 the country, and of the difference of liospitality, 



the city or out of it — the latter being a re- 



of friends for a longer time and with the 



addition of a bed. To have a house larse 



enough for the friends one wishes to entertain 

 for three months of the year, is to have a house 

 which, for nine months of the year, is much too 

 large. Housewives complain of too many car- 

 pets and curtains, and (expense and trouble 

 quite aside) rooms dismantled and uninhabited 

 in the winter, are dismal to children and ser- 

 vants. A family should fill a house, as a man's 

 frame should fill his coat — the spare pocket or 

 spare bed not interfering with the general fit- 

 ness. 



Downing thought it was not sufficiently re- 

 membered how completely the country sum- 

 mer rendered most city luxuries superfluous. 

 In the smallest cottage there is room enough to 

 dine, and tlie remaining hospitality which the 

 city guest comes to the country to enjoy, is 

 dispensed upon portico and lawn, in grove and 

 and garden. Grass is the carpet, sunset the 

 curtains, starlight the frescoed ceiling, he will 

 most admire. With his luxuries thus out of 

 doors, his in-door comforts may be put into 

 very small compass. A room large enough for 

 a bed, a chair and a wash-stand, is, with its 

 open window, as good as the state-chamber of 

 a palace. A dozen such sleeping-rooms may 

 be built at very little expense, and added to the 

 house or grounds like a rear wing, or a bowl- 

 ing allej' — the whole structure closed in the 

 winter, and forming no apparent enlargement 

 of the general scale of the building. A dozen 

 friends might thus be entertained without in- 

 terfering with the usual accommodations of the 

 family, and the hospitality of "a cottage" 

 mife'ht thus be quite as bounteous and agreea- 

 ble as that of "a mansion." Downing, I be- 

 lieve, had some definite plan by w-hich this 

 slightly built addition to the house should be 

 (architecturally) disposed of, but I cannot dis- 

 tincly recall it. and perhaps the hint is enough. 



The other idea, which seemed to me very 

 apt and practicable, was the supplying, at 

 small expense, permanent city lodgings for the 

 occasional use of residents in the country. The 

 frequent errands to town, for shopping, for 

 pleasure, for business, or change of scene, re- 

 quire some better certainty of accommodation 

 than the risk of crowded hotels, as well as more 

 privacy and repose. It is inconvenient, also, 

 to carry wardrobe and baggage to and fro, 

 packing and unpacking, adding very materially 

 to the laboriousness of the visit. The known 

 home being in the country, this occasional city 

 resort might be in any convenient yet unosten- 

 tatious neighbourhood, and a large number 

 might be accommodated under one roof. Dow- 

 ning thought that a dozen or twenty families 

 might combine to take a house, install a house 

 keei)er in it, and furnish their separate lo 

 — a housekeeper being also a cook, who 



