190 Landscape Gardening 



with their grand and beautiful views, and the admirable 

 manner in which these natural charms are heightened by 

 art, place them far before any other residences in the United 

 States in picturesque beauty. In a strictly horticultural 

 sense, they are, perhaps, as much inferior to the best 

 places about Boston as they are superior to them in the 

 beauty of landscape gardening and picturesque effect. 



Among these places, those which enjoy the highest repu- 

 tation, are Montgomery Place, the seat of Mrs. Edward 

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

 and Hyde Park, the seat of W. Langdon, Esq. The first 

 is remarkable for its extent, for the wonderful variety of 

 scenery - - wood, water, and gardenesque - - which it em- 

 braces, and for the excellent general keeping of the grounds. 

 The second is a fine illustration of great natural beauty, - 

 a mingling of the graceful and grand in scenery, - - admir- 

 ably treated and heightened by art. Hyde Park is almost 

 too well kno\vn to need more than a passing notice. It is a 

 noble site, greatly enhanced in interest lately, by the erec- 

 tion of a fine ne\v mansion. 



The student or amateur in landscape gardening, \vho 

 wishes to examine t\vo places as remarkable for breadth 

 and dignity of effect as any in America, will not fail to go to 

 the Livingston Manor, seven miles east of Hudson, and to 

 Rensselaenvyck, a few miles from Albany, on the eastern 

 shore. The former has the best kept and most extensive 

 lawn in the Union; and the latter, with five or six miles of 

 gravelled walks and drives, within its own boundaries, ex- 

 hibits some of the cleverest illustrations of practical skill in 

 laying out grounds that we remember to have seen. 



If no person, about to improve a country residence, would 

 expend a dollar until he had visited and carefully studied, 

 at least twenty places of the character of these which we 

 have thus pointed out, we think the number of specimens of 

 bad taste, or total want of taste, would be astonishingly 

 diminished, ^'e could point to half a dozen examples 

 within our o\vn knowledge, where ten days spent by their 

 proprietors in examining what had already been done in 



