Appendix 101 



and tasteless temple, which seemed to be, at that time, the 

 highest American conception of a fine residence. In this 

 design he entirely succeeded. His house, which did not, 

 however, satisfy his malurer eye, was externally very simple, 

 but extremely elegant; indeed, its chief impression was that 

 of elegance. Internally it was spacious and convenient, very 

 gracefully proportioned and finished, and marked every 

 where by the same spirit. Wherever the eye fell, it detected 

 that a wiser eye had been before it. All the forms and colors, 

 the style of the furniture, the frames of the mirrors and pic- 

 tures, the patterns of the carpets, were harmonious, and it 

 was a harmony as easily achieved by taste as discord by 

 vulgarity. There was no painful conformity, no rigid monot- 

 ony, there was nothing finical nor foppish in this elegance 



- it was the necessary result of knowledge and skill. While 

 the house was building, he lived with his wife at her father's. 

 He personally superintended the work, which went briskly 

 forward. From the foot of the Fishkill hills beyond the river, 

 other eyes superintended it, also, scanning, with a telescope, 

 the Newburgh garden and growing house; and, possibly, 

 from some rude telegraph, as a white cloth upon a tree, or a 

 blot of black paint upon a smooth board, Hero knew whether 

 at evening to expect her Leander. 



The house was at length finished. A graceful and beauti- 

 ful building stood in the garden, higher and handsomer than 

 the little red cottage - - a very pregnant symbol to any poet 

 who should chance that way and hear the history of the 

 architect. 



Once fairly established in his house, it became the seat of 

 the most gracious hospitality, and was a beautiful illustra- 

 tion of that "rural home" upon whose influence Downing 

 counted so largely for the education and intelligent patrio- 

 tism of his countrymen. His personal exertions were unre- 

 mitting. He had been for some time projecting a work 

 upon his favorite art of Landscape Gardening, and presently 

 began to throw it into form. His time for literary labor was 

 necessarily limited by his superintendence of the nursery. 

 But the book was at length completed, and in the year IS 11, 



