Appendix 419 



Bremcr upon her arrival, and she went with him to his house, 

 where she staid several weeks, and wrote there the introduc- 

 tion to the authorized American edition of her works. It 

 is well for us, perhaps, that as she has written a work upon 

 "The Homes of the United States," she should have taken 

 her first impression of them from that of Mr. Downing. 

 During all her travels in this country she constantly corre- 

 sponded with him and his wife, to whom she was very 

 tenderly attached. Her letters were full of cheerful humor 

 and shrewd observation. She went bravely about alone, 

 and was treated, almost without exception, with con- 

 sideration and courtesy. And after her journey was over, 

 and she was about to return home, she came to say 

 farewell where she had first greeted America, in Downing's 

 garden. 



In this year he finally resolved to devote himself entirely 

 to architecture and building, and, in order to benefit by the 

 largest variety of experience in elegant rural life, and to 

 secure the services of an accomplished and able architect, 

 thoroughly trained to the business he proposed, Mr. Downing 

 went to England in the summer of 1850, having arranged 

 with Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. for the publication of 

 "The Architecture of Country Houses; including Designs 

 for Cottages, Farm-houses, and Villas." 



Already in correspondence with the leading Englishmen 

 in his department, Mr. Downing was at once cordially 

 welcomed. He showed the admirable, and not the un- 

 friendly, cpaalities of his countrymen, and was directly 

 engaged in a series of visits to the most extensive and 

 remarkable of English country seats, where he was an 

 honored guest. The delight of the position was beyond 

 words to a man of his peculiar character and habits. He 

 saw on every hand the perfection of elegant rural life, which 

 was his ideal of life. He saw the boundless parks, the cul- 

 tivated landscape, the tropics imprisoned in glass; he s;i\\ 

 spacious Italian villas, more Italian than in Italy; every 

 various triumph of park, garden, and country house. But 

 with these, also, he met in the pleasantest way much fine 



