HISTORICAL NOTICES 37 



more especially the oaks, are such trees as we see in the 

 pictures of Claude, or our own Durand ; richly developed, 

 their trunks and branches grand and majestic, their heads 

 full of breadth and grandeur of outline. 

 These oaks, distributed over a nearly level surface, with 

 the trees disposed either singly or in the finest groups, as 

 if most tastefully planted centuries ago, are solely the work 

 of nature ; and yet so entirely is the whole like the 

 grandest planted park, that it is difficult to believe that 

 all is not the work of some master of art, and intended for 

 the accompaniment of a magnificent residence. Some of 

 the trees are five or six hundred years old. 



In Connecticut, Monte Video, the seat of Daniel Wads- 

 worth, Esq., near Hartford, is worthy of commendation, as 

 it evinces a good deal of beauty in its grounds, and is one 

 of the most tasteful in the state. The residence of James 

 Hillhouse, Esq., near New-Haven, is a pleasing specimen 

 of the simplest kind of Landscape Gardening, where grace- 

 ful forms of trees, and a gently sloping surface of grass, 

 are the principal features. The villa of Mr. Whitney 

 near New-Haven, is one of the most tastefully managed in 

 the state. In Maine, the most remarkable seat, as respects, 

 landscape gardening and architecture, is that of Mr. Gar- 

 diner, of Gardiner. 



The environs of Boston are more highly cultivated than 

 Jiose of any other city in North America. There are here 

 whole rural neighborhoods of pretty cottages and villas, ad- 

 mirably cultivated, and, in many cases, tastefully laid out 

 and planted. The character of even the finest of these 

 places is, perhaps, somewhat suburban, as compared with 

 those of the Hudson river, but we regard them as furnish- 



