196 LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 



pale blue bosorn. On the opposite shores, more than a mile distant 

 is seen a rich mingling of woods and corn-fields. But the crowning 

 glory of the landscape is the background of mountains. The Kaat- 

 skills, as seen from this part of the Hudson, are, it seems to us, more 

 beautiful than any mountain scenery in the middle States. It is not 

 merely that their outline is bold, and that the summit of Roundtop, 

 rising three thousand feet above the surrounding country, gives an 

 air of more grandeur than is usually seen, even in the Highlands ; 

 but it is the color which renders the Kaatskills so captivating a 

 feature in the landscape here. Never harsh or cold, like some of our 

 finest hills, Nature seems to delight in casting a veil of the softest 

 azure over these mountains immortalized by the historian of Rip 

 Van Winkle. Morning and noon, the shade only varies from softer 

 to deeper blue. But the hour of sunset is the magical time for the 

 fantasies of the color-genii of these mountains. Seen at this period, 

 from the terrace of the pavilion of Montgomery Place, the eye is 

 rilled with wonder at the various dyes that bathe the receding hills 

 the most distant of which are twenty or thirty miles away. Azure, 

 purple, violet, pale grayish-lilac, and the dim hazy hue of the most 

 distant cloud-rift, are all seen distinct, yet blending magically into 

 each other in these receding hills. It is a spectacle of rare beauty, 

 and he who loves tones of color, soft and dreamy as one of the 

 mystical airs of a German maestro, should see the sunset fade into 

 twilight from the seats on this part of the Hudson. 



THE MORNING WALK. 



Leaving the terrace on the western front, the steps of the visitor, 

 exploring Montgomery Place, are naturally directed towards the 

 river bank. A path on the left of the broad lawn leads one to the 

 fanciful rustic-gabled seat, among a growth of locusts at the bottom 

 of the slope. Here commences a long walk, which is the favorite 

 morning ramble of guests. Deeply shaded, winding along the 

 thickly wooded bank, with the refreshing sound of the tide- waves 

 gently dashing against the rocky shores below, or expending them- 

 selves on the beach of gravel, it curves along the bank for a great 

 distance. Sometimes overhanging cliffs, crested with pines, frown 

 darkly over it ; sometimes thick tufts of fern and mossy-carpeted 



