HOME OF A. J. DOWNING. 



tlian many a place we know of, whose owner is possessed of far greater wealth. Many 

 of Mr. Downing's trees, both fruit and ornamental, were rare and costly specimens, 

 either imported from abroad or presents from his friends ; many of them were natives 

 of our American woods, of which he was justly proud. All were treated with the 

 most assiduous and scientific care, and were models of their kind. Mr. Downing has 

 shown in his garden and in his house how much beauty and comfort lie at the doors 

 of those whose means are not very extensive, but who are willing to bestow care, and 

 able to bestow taste upon their places, however small. 



We have no doubt that many a man who looks at the plan which accompanies this 

 sketch, will be inclined to wonder at the praises which have been bestowed upon the 

 garden. But when he comes to examine, step by step, the nice arrangement, the 

 artistic eye guiding the hand in the planting of every shrub and tree, the hundred 

 effects of light and shade, the charming landscape, now revealed between the thickets, 

 and now stretching before him with a foreground of lovely flowers and shrubs ; and 

 when he comes to learn that none of this is the effect of chance, but that in the owner's 

 mind there existed the capability of seeing beforehand the result of his labor, and that 

 he thus worked with certain knowledge of its final issue ; he will understand that no 

 common skill has been at work upon this haunt of beauty, and that in its complete- 

 ness of design and perfection of execution it is the successful competitor of far grander 

 and more ostentatious places. 



"VYe are glad to be able to show the friends, to whose immediate ear Mr. Downing 

 month after month so acceptably appealed, a view of the place in which he lived and 

 labored, which he loved as the spot where he was born, and where so many happy hours 

 had been passed, and which to every lover of the beautiful in nature, and to every friend 

 of those arts which surround our homes with refining beauty, will be a place around 

 which affectionate memories will gather, as long as affection and gratitude endure. 



THE WARWICK VASE. 



