LAYING OUT OF GROUNDS 



spaces ; but while I write, there occur to me in- 

 stances of beautiful opportunities neglected, 

 one of which, at least, I will record. The 

 thriving little city of Norwich, in eastern Con- 

 necticut, is situated at the confluence of two 

 rivers, which form the Thames. Along either 

 shore of the Yantic and the Shetucket, the 

 houses of the town are picturesquely strewed 

 in patches of white and gray; but between the 

 rivers and the lines of houses, the land rises 

 into a great promontory of hill — toward the 

 east, forming a Salvator-Rosa cliff, shaggy 

 with brush-wood and cedars— toward the south 

 and west, a steep declivity on which the swiftly 

 slanting sward-land is spotted with out-crop- 

 ping ledges ; to the north a gradual slope falls 

 easily away tcr the great plains, where lie the 

 bulk of the suburban residences. Within 

 twenty or thirty years the whole upper surface 

 of this central hillock might have been secured 

 for the merest bagatelle, and would have made 

 one of the proudest public promenades im- 

 aginable, accessible to all walkers from the 

 south and east, and to all equipages from the 

 north, and offering a level plateau for drives 

 that would have commanded the most en- 

 chanting of views; but the occasion has gone 

 by; inferior houses hold their uneasy footing 



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