HISTORICAL NOTICES. 29 



soft foreground of smooth lawn, the rich groups of trees 

 shutting out all neighboring tracts, the lake-like expanse 

 of water, and, closing the distance, a fine range of wooded 

 mountain. A residence here of but a hundred acres, so 

 fortunately are these disposed by nature, seems to appro- 

 priate the whole scenery round, and to be a thousand in 

 extent. 



At the present time, our handsome villa residences are 

 becoming every day more numerous, and it would require 

 much more space than our present limits, to enumerate 

 all the tasteful rural country places within our knowledge, 

 many of which have been newly laid out, or greatly im- 

 proved within a few years. But we consider it so im- 

 portant and instructive to the novice in the art of Land- 

 scape Gardening to examine, personally, country seats of 

 a highly tasteful character, that we shall venture to refer 

 the reader to a few of those which have now a reputation 

 among us as elegant country residences. 



Hyde Park, on the Hudson, formerly the seat of the late 

 Dr. Hosack, now of W. Langdon, Esq., has been justly 

 celebrated as one of the finest specimens of the modern 

 style of Landscape Gardening in America. Nature has, 

 indeed, done much for this place, as the grounds are finely 

 varied, beautifully watered by a lively stream, and the 

 views are inexpressibly striking from the neighborhood of 

 the house itself, including, as they do, the noble Hudson 

 for sixty miles in its course, through rich valleys and bold 

 mountains. (See Fig. 1.) But the efforts of art are not 

 unworthy so rare a locality ; and while the native woods, 

 and beautifully undulating surface, are preserved in their 

 original state, the pleasure-grounds, roads, walks, drives 

 and new plantations, have been laid out in such a judi- 



