MEMOIR. XXI 



rity, and authority came only with much observation and 

 many years. 



But, during these victorious incursions into the realms 

 of experience, the younger partner had himself been con- 

 quered. Directly opposite the red cottage, upon the 

 other side of the river, at Fishkill Landing, lay, under 

 blossoming locust trees, the estate and old family mansion 

 of John P. De Wint, Esq. The place had the charms of a 

 " moated grange," and was quite the contrast of the ele- 

 gant care and incessant cultivation that marked the grounds 

 of the young man in Newburgh. But the fine old place, 

 indolently lying in luxuriant decay, was the seat of bound- 

 less hospitality and social festivity. The spacious piazzas, 

 and the gently sloping lawn, which made the foreground of 

 one of the most exquisite glimpses of the Hudson, rang all 

 summer long with happy laughter. Under those blossom- 

 ing locust trees were walks that led to the shore, and the 

 moon hanging over Cro' Nest recalled to all loiterers along 

 the bank the loveliest legends of the river. In winter the 

 revel shifted from the lawn to the frozen river. One such 

 gay household is sufficient nucleus for endless enjoyment. 

 From the neighboring West Point, only ten miles distant 

 came gallant young officers, boating in summer, and skat- 

 ing in winter, to serenade under the locusts, or join thf 

 dance upon the lawn. Whatever was young and gay wag 

 drawn into the merry maelstrom, and the dark-haired boy 

 from Newburgh, now grown, somehow, to be a gentleman 

 of quiet and polished manners, found himself, even when in 

 the grasp of the scientific coils of Parmentier, Kepton, Price, 

 Loudon, Lindley, and the rest, or busy with knife, clay, 

 and grafts, dreaming of the grange beyond the river, and 

 of the Marianna he had found there. 



Summer lay warm upon the hills and river ; the land- 



