Historical Sketches r,"> 



this was the finest seat in America, but there are now many 

 rivals to this claim. 



The Manor of Livingston, lately the seat of Mrs. Alary 

 Livingston (but now of Jacob Le Roy, Esq.), is seven 

 miles east of the city of Hudson. The mansion stands in 

 the midst of a fine park, rising gradually from the level of 

 a rich inland country, and commanding prospects for sixty 

 miles around. The park is, perhaps, the most remarkable 

 in America, for the noble simplicity of its character, and 

 the perfect order in which it is kept. The turf is, every- 

 where, short and velvet-like, the gravel-roads scrupulously 

 firm and smooth, and near the house are the largest and 

 most superb evergreens. The mansion is one of the chastest 

 specimens of the Grecian style, and there is an air of great 

 dignity about the whole demesne. 



Blithewood, formerly the seat of R. Donaldson, Esq., 

 (now John Bard, Esq.), near Barrytown, on the Hudson, 

 is one of the most charming villa residences in the Union. 

 The natural scenery here, is nowhere surpassed in its en- 

 chanting union of softness and dignity - - the river being 

 four miles wide, its placid bosom broken only by islands 

 and gleaming sails, and the horizon grandly closing in with 

 the tall blue summits of the distant Kaatskills. The smil- 

 ing, gently varied lawn is studded with groups and masses 

 of fine forest and ornamental trees, beneath which are 

 walks leading in easy curves to rustic seats, and summer 

 houses placed in secluded spots, or to openings affording 

 most lovely prospects. In various situations near the house 

 and upon the lawn, sculptured vases of Maltese stone arc- 

 also disposed in such a manner as to give a refined and 

 classic air to the grounds. 



As a pendant to this graceful landscape, there is within 

 the grounds scenery of an opposite character, equally wild 

 and picturesque -- a fine, bold stream, fringed with woody 

 banks, and dashing over several rocky cascades, thirty or 

 forty feet in height, and falling altogether a hundred IVrt 

 in a distance of half a mile. There are also, within the 

 grounds, a pretty gardener's lodge, in the rural cottage 



