404 Landscape Gardening 



European honors soon began to seek the young gardener 

 upon the Hudson. He had been for some time in corre- 

 spondence with Loudon, and the other eminent men of the 

 profession. He was now elected corresponding member of 

 the Royal Botanic Society of London, of the Horticultural 

 Societies of Berlin, the Low Countries, etc. Queen Anne 

 of Denmark sent him "a magnificent ring," in acknowl- 

 edgment of her pleasure in his works. But, as the years 

 slowly passed, a sweeter praise saluted him than the Queen's 

 ring, namely, the gradual improvement of the national rural 

 taste, and the universal testimony that it was due to Down- 

 ing. It was found as easy to live in a handsome house as in 

 one that shocked all sense of propriety and beauty. The 

 capabilities of the landscape began to develop themselves to 

 the man who looked at it from his windows, with Downing' s 

 books in his hand. Mr. Wilder says that a gentleman "who 

 is eminently qualified to form an enlightened judgment," 

 declared that much of the improvement that has taken place 

 in this country during the last twelve years, in rural archi- 

 tecture and in ornamental gardening and planting, may be 

 ascribed to him. Another gentleman, "speaking of subur- 

 ban cottages in the West," says: "I asked the origin of so 

 much taste, and w r as told it might principally be traced to 

 'Downing's Cottage Residences' and the 'Horticulturist.' 

 He was naturally elected an honorary member of most of 

 the Horticultural Societies in the country; and as his interest 

 in rural life was universal, embracing no less the soil and 

 cultivation, than the plant, and flower, and fruit, with the 

 residence of the cultivator, he received the same honor from 

 the Agricultural Associations. 



Meanwhile his studies were unremitting; and in 1845 

 Wiley & Putnam published in New York and London "The 

 Fruits and Fruit Trees of America," a volume of six hundred 

 pages. The duodecimo edition had only lineal drawings. 

 The large octavo was illustrated with finely colored plates, 

 executed in Paris, from drawings made in this country from 

 the original fruits. It is a masterly resume of the results 

 of American experience in the history, character, and growth 



