How to Choose a Site for a Country Scat 217 



one instance do we call to mind of settlers in districts of 

 country where there are masses and great woods of trees 

 that the druids would have worshipped for their grandeur 

 sweeping them all down mercilessly with their axes, and 

 then planting with the supremest satisfaction, a straight 

 line of paltry saplings before their doors! It is like ex- 

 changing a neighborhood of proud and benevolent yeo- 

 manry, honest and free as the soil they spring from, for a 

 file of sentinels or gens d'armes, that watch over one's out- 

 goings and incomings, like a chief of police! * 



Most happily for our country and its beautiful rural 

 scenery this spirit of destruction, under the rapid develop- 

 ment of taste that is taking place among us, is very fast 

 disappearing. "Woodman, spare that tree," is the choral 

 sentiment that should be instilled and taught at the agri- 

 cultural schools, and re-echoed by all the agricultural and 

 horticultural societies in the land. If we have neither old 

 castles nor old associations, \ve have at least, here and there, 

 old trees that can teach us lessons of antiquity not less 

 instructive and poetical than the ruins of a past age. 



Our first hint, therefore, to persons about choosing a 

 site for a country place is, in all possible cases, to look for a 

 situation where there is some natural wood. With this 

 for the warp - - strong, rich, and permanent - - you may 

 embroider upon it all the gold threads of fruit and floral 

 embellishment with an effect equally rapid and successful. 

 Everything done upon such a groundwork will tell at once; 

 and since there is no end to the delightful task of perfecting 

 a country place, so long as there are thirty thousand species 

 of plants known, and at least thirty millions of varied 

 combinations of landscape scenery possible, we think there 

 is little fear that the possessor of a country place will not 

 find sufficient interest for the employment of his time, 

 mind, and purse, if he really loves the subject, even though 

 he find himself in possession of a fee-simple of a pretty 

 number of acres of fine wood. 



* This fine passage reveals the nobility of the character of Andrew 

 Jackson Downing most clearly and graciously. -- F A. W. 



