494 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



sands of gardens and conservatories. The numer- 

 ous cottages and villas which have lately sprung 

 up in the towns and villages about our commercial 

 cities, and throughout our happy land, evince his 

 genius ; and it is due to his worth to say that few 

 have left a mark so deep and broad on the genera- 

 tion in which they lived. 



In responding to the calls which have been made 

 upon me to pronounce the eulogy of our deceased 

 friend, I shall attempt nothing more, and certain- 

 ly can do nothing better, than to articulate the 

 language of his useful life, and to give free utter- 

 ance to your own convictions of his worth. 



Mr. Downing was born in Newburgh, N. Y., on 

 the 31st day of October, A. D., 1815. In his boy- 

 hood he manifested a fondness for botany, miner- 

 alogy, and other natural sciences, which at the 

 age of sixteen, when he left school, he was able to 

 prosecute without the aid of an instructor. At 

 that period, his father having died when he was 

 but seven years of age, his mother desired him to 

 become a clerk in a dry goods store ; but he, fol- 

 lowing the native tendencies of his mind, preferred 

 to remain with his eldest brother in the nursery 

 and garden, whose accuracy and practical skill in 

 horticulture gave special prominence to the same 

 traits in the deceased, and with whom he might 

 study the theory, and perfect himself in the prac- 

 tice of his favorite art. 



In the formation of his character, we also recog- 

 nize with gratitude the agency of Baron de Liderer, 

 the Austrian Consul, whose summer residence 

 was in his native place, a gentleman of large en- 

 dowments and attainments, of eminent purity of 

 mind, and refinement of manners, a mineralogist 

 and botanist, who discovered in young Downing a 

 mind of kindred taste, who made him the frequent 

 inmate of his family, as well as his own companion 

 in numerous excursions for the scientitic explora- 

 tion of the surrounding country. 



But his sensibility to artistic beauty was culti- 

 vated and developed by the lamented Raphael 

 lloyle, an English artist, residing in Newburgh, 

 and who, like himself, went down to an early 

 grave, leaving behind him specimens in landscape 

 painting, true to nature, and of remarkable delica- 

 cy of coloring. His manners were much improved 

 and adorned by his familiar intercourse with his 

 neighbor, Mr. Edward Armstrong, a gentleman of 

 refinement and wealth, at whose country seat on 

 the Hudson he was introduced to the Hon. Charles 

 Augustus Murray, an Englishman, whoso book of 

 travels in America has been admired on both sides 

 of the Atlantic. There he also made the acquaint- 

 ance of many other distinguished men, who sub- 

 sequently became his correspondents and personal 

 friends. 



These associations had, no doubt, much influence 

 in strengthening his refined and generous nature. 

 Ho devoted all the time which he could reclaim 

 from physical labor to reading and study. In the 

 bowers of his garden he held frequent converse 

 with the muses, who inspired him with the poetic 

 fire which illumes his pages, and imparts peculiar 

 vivacity and energy to his style. 



At the age of twenty-two, on the seventh of 

 June, 1838, he married Miss Caroline Elizabeth, 

 daughter of J. P. DeWint, Esq., of Fishkill Land- 

 ing, a lady of congenial spirits, of refinement and 

 intelligence, to whom the world is much indebted 

 for his usefulness. In grateful return for her val- 



uable services, she now enjoys the commisseration 

 and condolence of his friends in America and trans- 

 atlantic countries. But with all these aids, still 

 Mr. Downing was, in the strictest sense, self-taught; 

 a fact which deserves to be recorded, not only to 

 his praise, but as an encouragement to thousands 

 of aspiring youth. If he was never a pupil in the 

 studio of an artist ; if he studied natural science 

 in the laboratory of nature more than in the school 

 of scientific chemists ; if he enjoyed not the ad- 

 vantages of a liberal and professional education, 

 valuable and desirable as these means of improve- 

 ment certainly are ; yet he was at all times and 

 everywhere a learner ; and the lessons of wisdom 

 which he received, he promptly reduced to prac- 

 tice; a circumstance which made him eminently 

 practical and national, a man of his own age and 

 country. 



I will illustrate his habits of observation and 

 study. In a walk he plucks from an overhanging 

 bough a single leaf, examines its color, form and 

 structure ; inspects it with his microscope, and 

 having recorded his observations, presents it to his 

 friend, and invites him to study it, as suggestive 

 of some of the first principles of Rural Architec- 

 ture and Economy. 



Does he visit a beautiful country seat, he 

 sketches a view of it, and of the grounds about it ; 

 notes whatever is true to nature, accurate in taste, 

 or excellent in design ; and from his copy a plate 

 is engraved, and in the next number of his Horti- 

 culturist the whole scene, with his valauble com- 

 ments, is given to the lovers of the landscape and 

 the garden. 



He returns from the forest. A short extract 

 from his journal will explain the object of his tour, 

 and afford a fair specimen of the beauty and forces 

 of his style : — 



"Nature plants some trees, like the fir and the 

 pine, in the fissures of the rock, and on the edge 

 of the precipice ; she twist their boughs, and 

 gnarls their stems, by storms and tempest — there- 

 by adding to their picturesque power in sublime 

 and grand scenery. But she more often developes 

 the beautiful in a tree of any kind, in a genial soil 

 and clime, where it stands quite alone, stretching 

 its boughs upward freely to the sky, and outward 

 to the breeze, and even downward to the earth, 

 almost touching her in her graceful sweep, till 

 only a glimpse of the fine trunk is to be seen at 

 its spreading base, and the whole top is one great 

 globe of floating and waving luxuriance, giving us 

 as perfect an idea of symmetry and proportion as 

 can be found short of the Grecian Apollo." "One 

 would no more wish to touch it with the pruning 

 knife, the axe or the saw, (unless to remove a 

 decayed branch), than to give a nicer curve to 

 the rainbow, or to add freshness to the dew-drops." ' 



This description, for beauty, power of diction, 

 and for fulness of nature, not only harmonizes 

 with the pictures, but even rivals the finest touches 

 of the pencils of Claude, Poussin, Salvator Rosa, 

 or any other great master of landscape. 



He makes the tour of New England, and stops 

 at New Haven, the city of elms. He walks out 

 from the Tontine upon the green, admires those 

 grateful shades, their majestic form, their grace- 

 fully waving boughs, and they revive in his mind 

 the history of the elm, its varied use for fuel, tim- 

 ber and shade. He arrives at Hartford. The 

 first object of his attention is the "Charter Oak." 



