Appendix 399 



lay out one garden well, in conformity with the character of 

 the surrounding landscape, in obedience to the truest taste, 

 and to make a man's home, and its grounds, and its accesso- 

 ries, as genuine works of art as any picture or statue that the 

 owner had brought over the sea, was, in his mind, the first 

 step toward the great result. 



At the various places upon the river, as he visited them 

 from time to time, he was received as a gentleman, a scholar, 

 and the most practical man of the party, would necessarily 

 be welcomed. He sketched, he measured; "in a walk he 

 plucks from an overhanging bough a single leaf, examines its 

 color, form and structure; inspects it with his microscope, 

 and, having recorded his observations, presents it to his 

 friend, and invites him to study it, as suggestive of some of 

 the first principles of rural architecture and economy." No 

 man enjoyed society more, and none ever lost less time. His 

 pleasure trips from point to point upon the river were the 

 excursions of the honey-bee into the flower. He returned 

 richly laden; and the young partner, feeling from childhood 

 the necessity of entire self-dependence, continued to live 

 much alone, to be reserved, but always affable and gentle. 

 These travels were usually brief, and strictly essential to his 

 education. He was wisely getting ready; it would be so 

 fatal to speak without authority, and authority came only 

 with much observation and many years. 



But, during these victorious incursions into the realms of 

 experience, the younger partner had himself been conquered. 

 Directly opposite the red cottage, upon the other side of the 

 river, at Fishkill Landing, lay, under blossoming locust trees, 

 the estate and old family mansion of John P. De Wint, Esq. 

 The place had the charms of a "moated grange," and was 

 quite the contrast of the elegant care and incessant cultiva- 

 tion that marked the grounds of the young man in Newburgh. 

 But the fine old place, indolently lying in luxuriant decay, 

 was the seat of boundless hospitality and social festivity. 

 The spacious piazzas, and the gently sloping lawn, which 

 made the foreground of one of the most exquisite glimpses of 

 the Hudson, rang all summer long with happy laughter. 



