418 Landscape Gardening 



raising of trees for sale. His house was still the resort of the 

 most brilliant society; still -- as it always had been, and 

 was, until the end - - the seat of beautiful hospitality. He 

 was often enough perplexed in his affairs - - hurried by the 

 monthly recurring necessity of "the leader," and not quite 

 satisfied at any time until that literary task was accom- 

 plished. His business confined and interested him; his large 

 correspondence was promptly managed; but he was still san- 

 guine, under that Spanish reserve, and still spent profusely. 

 He had a thousand interests; a State agricultural school, 

 a national agricultural bureau at Washington, designing pri- 

 vate and public buildings, laying out large estates, pursuing 

 his own scientific and literary studies, and preparing a work 

 upon Rural Architecture. From his elegant home he was 

 scattering, in the Horticulturist, pearl-seed of precious sug- 

 gestion, which fell in all kinds of secluded and remote 

 regions, and bore, and are bearing, costly fruit. 



In 1849, Mr. John Wiley published "Hints to Young 

 Architects, by George Wightwick, Architect; with Addi- 

 tional Notes and Hints to Persons about Building in this 

 Country, by A. J. Downing." It was a work preparatory 

 to the original one he designed to publish, and full of most 

 valuable suggestions. For in every thing he was American. 

 His sharp sense of propriety as the primal element of beauty, 

 led him constantly to insist that the place, and circumstances, 

 and time, should always be carefully considered before any 

 step was taken. The satin shoe was a grace in the parlor, 

 but a deformity in the garden. The Parthenon was perfect 

 in a certain climate, under certain conditions, and for certain 

 purposes. But the Parthenon as a country mansion in the 

 midst of American woods and fields was unhandsome and 

 offensive. His aim in building a house was to adapt it to the 

 site, and to the means and character of the owner. 



It was in the autumn of 1849 that Frederika Bremer 

 came to America. She had been for several years in inti- 

 mate correspondence with Mr. Downing, and was closely 

 attracted to him by a profound sympathy with his view of 

 the dignity and influence of the home. He received Miss 



