THE 



JOURNAL OF RURAL ART AND RURAL TASTE. 



Vol. III. 



JULY, 1848. 



No. 1. 



One of the most striking proofs of the pro- 

 gress of refineraent, in the United States, 

 is the rapid increase of taste for ornamental 

 gardening and rural embellishment in all 

 the older portions of the northern and mid- 

 dle states. 



It cannot be denied, that the tasteful im- 

 provement of a country residence is both 

 one of the most agreeable and the most 

 natural recreations that can occupy a culti- 

 vated mind. With all the interest, and, to 

 many, all the excitement of the more se- 

 ductive amusements of society, it has the 

 incalculable advantage of fostering only 

 the purest feelings, and, (unlike many 

 other occupations of business men,) re- 

 fining, instead of hardening the heart. 



The great German poet, Goethe, says — 



" Happy the man who hath escaped the town. 

 Him did an angel bless when he was born." 

 This apostrophe was addressed to the de- 

 votee of country life as a member of a 

 class, in the old world, where men, for the 

 most part, are confined to certain walks of 

 life by the limits of caste, to a degree 

 totally unknown in this country. 



With us, country life is a leading ob- 

 ject of nearly all men's desires. The 

 wealthiest merchant looks upon his country 

 seat as the best ultimatum of his laborious 

 Vol. III. 1 



days in the counting-house. The most inde- 

 fatigable statesman dates, in his retirement, 

 from his "Ashland," or his "Lindenwold." 

 Webster has his " Marshfield," where his 

 scientific agriculture is no less admirable 

 than his profound eloquence in the Senate. 

 Taylor's well ordered plantation is not less 

 significant of the man, than the battle of 

 Buena Vista. Washington Irving's cottage, 

 on the Hudson, is even more poetical than 

 any chapter of his Sketch Book ; and Cole, 

 the greatest of our landscape painters, had 

 his rural home under the very shadow of 

 the Catskills. 



This is well. In the United States, na- 

 ture, and domestic life, are better than 

 society, and the manners of towns. Hence 

 all sensible men gladly escape, earlier or 

 later, and partially or wholly, from the tur- 

 moil of the cities. Hence, the dignity and 

 value of country life is every day augment- 

 ing. And hence the enjoyment of land- 

 scape or ornamental gardening — which, 

 when in pure taste, m>ay properly be called 

 a more refined ki?id of nature, — is every day 

 becoming more and more widely diffused. 



Those who are not as conversant as our- 

 selves with the statistics of horticulture 

 and rural architecture, have no just idea of 

 the rapid multiplication of pretty cottages 



