XXIV MEMOIR. 



Kemarks on Rural Architecture. By A. J. Downing." 

 The most concise and comprehensive definition of Land- 

 scape Gardening that occurs in his works, is to be found 

 in the essay, " Hints on Landscape Gardening." " It is 

 an art," he says, " which selects from natural materials 

 that abound in any country its best sylvan features, and 

 by giving them a better opportunity than they could 

 otherwise obtain, brings about a higher beauty of de- 

 velopment and a more perfect expression than nature 

 herself offers." The preface of the book is quite with- 

 out pretence. "The love of country," says our author, 

 with a gravity that overtops his years, "is inseparably 

 connected with the love of home. Whatever, therefore, 

 leads man to assemble the comforts and elegancies of 

 life around his habitation, tends to increase local attach- 

 ments, and render domestic life more delightful ; thus, not 

 only augmenting his own enjoyment, but strengthening 

 his patriotism, and making him a better citizen. And 

 there is no employment or recreation which affords the 

 mind greater or more permanent satisfaction than that of 

 cultivating the earth and adorning our own property. 

 ' God Almighty first planted a garden ; and, indeed, it is 

 the parent of human pleasures/ says Lord Bacon. And 

 as the first man was shut out from the garden, in the cul- 

 tivation of which no alloy was mixed with his happiness, 

 the desire to return to it seems to be implanted by nature, 

 more or less strongly, in every heart." 



This book passed to instant popularity, and became a 

 classic, invaluable to the thousands in every part of the 

 country who were waiting for the master-word which 

 should tell them what to do to make their homes as beau- 

 tiful as they wished. Its fine scholarship in the literature 

 and history of rural art ; its singular dexterity in stating 



