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HOME OF A. J. DOWNING. 



thouirb inoxpoiisivo in its construction, is agreeable in color and proportion. Tlie vails 

 are divided into panels, and the wood-work is stained; some fine architectural prints 

 adorn the western end ; and tlio whole air of the place is that of taste and refinement. 

 Let us first, in order to see clearly what Mr. Downing has done for this place, find 

 out what was its condition when he first became its master. The ground is in shape 

 nearly a. parallelogram, and together with two other lots east and southeast of the 

 present garden, constituted the original property as it was left at the death of his 

 father. All the land that Mr. Downing owned at the time he died, was the lot 

 represented in the plan, containing a little over four acres, all which was under culti- 

 vation. The whole place is surrounded by a hedge ; on three sides this is of English 

 thorn, and on the south it is of arbor vitre.* The house in which 'Mr. Downing was 

 born, now thirty-seven years ago, stood where the green-house is at present ; and the 

 wistaria vine which is trained on a trellis over the path, formerly climbed up the front 

 of the little dwelling. East of the cottage, and, I think, connected with it, stood the 

 old green-house, having in one end an officQ where the business of the place was con- 

 ducted ; and that portion of the ground immediately about the house was cultivated 

 as an ornamental garden. The tall balsam fir near the gate is one of the few trees 

 planted at the time we speak of, and still remaining in its original place. This tree 

 is a specimen of remarkable beauty ; rising fiill seventy feet without a curve and 

 without a single dead branch, it was always a pleasant memorial with Mr. Downing 

 of his early days. That portion of the original garden which was not laid out in 

 ornamental beds was jilanted as a nursery, and constituted three-fourths of the whole 

 lot. It continued in this way till within fifteen years, when ^Ir. Downing and his 

 elder brother CnARi.ES, who since their father's death had carried on the business 

 together, separated, and the place came into the hands of its late owner, lie now 

 commenced his alterations ; and shortly after his marriage, which took place about 

 this time, began to build his house. He lived for the first year after his marriage at 

 his father-iu-law's, Mr. J. P. De Windt, in Fishkill Landing, and crossed the river 



every day to superintend the erection of 

 his new dwelling. He continued a nur- 

 seryman till about six years ago, when 

 he abandoned the business altogether, 

 altered his grounds to nearly their pres- 

 ent shape, and commenced the practice 

 of landscape gardening and rural archi- 

 tecture. 



The arrangement of the grounds is 

 simple. Entering at the gate, the vis- 

 itor follows the carriage-road, and when 

 opposite the green-house, takes the path 

 VIEW FROM THE LAWN. which tums castward and skirts the vine- 



* The hedge of arbor vita; which conceals the green-house yard, was the flrst of the sort planted In this part of the 

 country. It forms a handsome, lofty, and imperrions screen. 



