MEMOIR. XVil 



, v iain;siasts. Downing always kept in the hall of his 

 . a cabinet ; containing mineralogical specimens col- 

 lected^ iii those excursions. At the house of the Baron, 

 also, and in th&t of his wealthy neighbor, Edward Arm- 

 strong, Downing discovered how subtly cultivation refines 

 men as wsll ao plants, and there first met that polished 

 society whose elegance and grace could not fail to charm 

 him as essential to tb.e aicst satisfactory intercourse, while 

 it presented the most entry contrast to the associations of 

 his childhood. It is not difficult to fancy the lonely child, 

 playing unheeded in the garden, and the dark, shy boy, of 

 the Montgomery Academy, meating with a thrill of satisfac- 

 tion, as if he had been waiting for them, the fine gentle- 

 men and ladies at the Consul General' o, and the wealthy 

 neighbor's, Mr. Armstrong, at whose country-seat he was in- 

 troduced to Mr. Charles Augustus Murray > when, for the first 

 time, he saw one of the class that he never ceased to honor 

 for their virtues and graces the English gentleman. At 

 this time, also, the figure of Kaphael Hoyle, an English / 

 landscape painter, flits across his history. Congenial in 

 taste and feeling, and with varying knowledge, the two 

 young men rambled together over the country near New- 

 burgh, and while Hoyle caught upon canvas the colors 

 and forms of the flowers, and the outline of the landscape, 

 Downing instructed him in their history and habits, until 

 they wandered from the actual scene into discussions dear 

 to both, of art, and life, and beauty ; or the artist piqued 

 the imagination of his friend with stories of English 

 parks, and of Italian vineyards, and of cloud-capped Alps, 

 embracing every zone and season, as they rose, while 

 the untravelled youth looked across the river to the Fish- 

 Mil hills, and imagined Switzerland. This soon ended. 

 Raphael Hoyle died. The living book of travel and 



