MEMOIR. 



home that he looked upon the landscape which, as it 

 allured his youth, now satisfied his manhood. The moun- 

 tains, upon whose shoreward slope his wife was born under 

 the blossoming locusts on the very day on which he was 

 born in the Newburgh garden, smiled upon his success and 

 shared it. He owed them a debt he never disavowed. 

 Below his house flowed the river of which he so proudly 

 wrote in the preface to the "Fruit-Trees" "A man born 

 on the banks of one of the noblest and most fruitful rivers 

 in America, and whose best days have been spent in gardens 

 and orchards, may perhaps be pardoned for talking about 

 fruit-trees." Over the gleaming bay which the river's ex- 

 pansion at Newburgh forms, glided the dazzling summer 

 days ; or the black thunder-gusts swept suddenly out 

 from the bold highlands of West Point ; or the winter 

 landscape lay calm around the garden. From his windows 

 he saw all the changing glory of the year. New- York was 

 of easy access by the steamers that constantly passed to 

 and from Albany and the river towns, and the railroad 

 brought the city within three hours of his door. It 

 brought constant visitors also, from the city and beyond ; 

 and scattered up and down the banks of the Hudson were 

 the beautiful homes of friends, with whom he was con- 

 stantly in the exchange of the most unrestrained hospi- 

 tality. He added to his house the working-room commu- 

 nicating with the library by the mysterious door, and was 

 deeply engaged in the planning and building of country- 

 houses in every direction. Among these I may mention, as 

 among the last and finest, the summer residence of Daniel 

 Parish, Esq., at Newport, E. I. Mr. Downing knew that 

 Newport was the great social exchange of the country, that 

 men of wealth and taste yearly assembled there, and that 

 a fine house of his designing erected there would be of the 



