62 SLanfcscape Hrcbttecture 



therefore that one is able to discover :n such a region 

 small places that fulfil the requirements of a high type 

 of landscape art. 



Mr. John Staples a few years ago bought an estate 

 in Newburgh where he had lived as a boy. It is strange 

 how people, when they come to prosper a little, instinc- 

 tively seek abiding places in the region where they 

 lived when they were children, or even in the houses 

 where they were born. Mr. Staples found on the place 

 at Newburgh, which he bought, everything that should 

 dignify an estate and render it worthy of admiration, 

 undulating lawns, fine shade trees, and a house beauti- 

 fully draped with vines. The estate is not pretentious ; 

 it is simply fine in a h : ghly satisfactory way. 



But Mr. Staples loves the woods and everything 

 connected with the woods, and consequently sought 

 the wooded territory that formed a considerable part 

 of his domain. He liked to wander through this little 

 wilderness and watch all sorts of wild effects and ani- 

 mated things, and to study what he could do with 

 them. A born woodsman, there were few objects of 

 interest his eyes missed. It was delightful to be out 

 in the woods and contrive things. Mr. Staples, though 

 a man of few words, liked to say that a man, a dog, and 

 a brook belonged together. So year by year, he played 

 with his brook which was at first hidden in a ravine 

 where spring freshets destroyed it. First he tapped 

 it and used its water, and made a pool; then, after 

 preparing a small lawn for it with shrubs and trees 

 where lately a rubbish heap existed, he led it along 



