CO UNTR V HOMES. 77 



network through which we see the Hudson, 



beautiful at all seasons, and the evergreens, 

 festooned with their wintry robes glittering in 

 the sunlight, are clothed in their gayest at- 

 tire. 



From New York to Poughkeepsie, and even 

 beyond, there is a constant succession of com- 

 fortable, elegant, and sometimes ostentatious 

 country houses, owned by New York citizens, 

 many of them, chiefly of the latter class, oc- 

 cupied merely as summer residences. The 

 comfortable and the elegant, which are by no 

 means separate or incompatible, mostly pre- 

 vail, and the good taste of their owners in- 

 clines them to live in them all the year round. 



There are many things that are ^^ English, 

 you know," and there is nothing more ridicu- 

 lous than American servile imitations of for- 

 eign customs when they are not adapted to 

 our country or to our circumstances. But 

 there is much that we can learn from England, 

 and the refusal to avail ourselves of English 

 example when it points out an improvement 

 in our society or condition is almost as absurd 

 as toadyism and preposterous imitations of 

 language and dress. The English country 

 gentleman has been an " institution," yes, he 



