HISTORICAL NOTICES. 39 



Lowell, at Roxbury, possesses also many interesting gar- 

 dening features.* 



Pine Bank,, the Perkins estate, on the border of 

 Jamaica lake, is one of the most beautiful residences 

 near Boston. The natural surface of the ground is ex- 

 ceedingly flowing and graceful, and it is varied by two or 

 three singular little dimples, or hollows, which add to its 

 effect. The perfect order of the grounds ; the beauty of 

 the walks, sometimes skirting the smooth open lawn, en- 

 riched with rare plants and shrubs, and then winding by 

 the shadowy banks of the water ; the soft and quiet cha- 

 racter of the lake itself, its margin richly fringed with 

 trees, which conceal here and there a pretty cottage, its 

 firm clean beach of gravel, and its water of crystal purity ; 

 all these features make this place a little gem of natural 



* We Americans are proverbially impatient of delay, and a few years in 

 prospect appear an endless futurity. So much is this the feeling with many, 

 that we verily believe there are hundreds of our country places, which owe 

 their bareness and destitution of foliage to the idea, so common, that it requires 

 " an age" for forest trees to " grow up." 



The middle-aged man hesitates about the good of planting what he imagines 

 he shall never see arriving at maturity, and even many who are younger, con- 

 ceive that it requires more than an ordinary lifetime to rear a fine wood of 

 planted trees. About two years since, we had the pleasure of visiting the seat 

 of the late Mr. Lowell, whom we found in a green old age, still enjoying, with 

 the enthusiasm of youth, the pleasures of Horticulture and a country life. For 

 the encouragement of those who are ever complaining of the tardy pace with 

 which the growth of trees advances, we will here record that we accompanied 

 Mr. L. through a belt of fine woods (skirting part of his residence), nearly half 

 a mile in length, consisting of almost all our finer hardy trees, many of them 

 apparently full grown, the whole of which had been planted by him when he 

 was thirty-two years old. At that time, a solitary elm or two were almost 

 the (nly trees upon his estate. We can hardly conceive a more rational source 

 of pride or enjoyment, than to be able thus to walk, in the decline of years, 

 beneath the shadow of umbrageous woods and groves, planted by our own 

 hands, and whose growth has become almost identified with our own pro- 

 gress and existence. 



