A VISIT TO MONTGOMERY PLACE. 199 



of the first cataract. Coming from the solemn depths of the wood, 

 he is astonished at the noise and volume of the stream, which here 

 rushes in wild foam and confusion over a rocky fall, forty feet in 

 depth. Ascending a flight of steps made in the precipitous banks 

 of the stream, we have another view, which is scarcely less spirited 

 and picturesque. 



This waterfall, beautiful at all seasons, would alone be considered 

 a sufficient attraction to give notoriety to a rural locality in most 

 country neighborhoods. But as if Nature had intended to lavish 

 her gifts here, she has, in the course of this valley, given two other 

 cataracts. These are all striking enough to be worthy of the pencil 

 of the artist, and they make this valley a feast of wonders to the 

 lovers of the picturesque. 



There is a secret charm which binds us to these haunts of the 

 water spirits. The spot is filled with the music of the falling water. 

 Its echoes pervade the air, and beget a kind of dreamy revery. The 

 memory of the world's toil gradually becomes fainter and fainter, 

 under the spell of the soothing monotone ; until at last one begins 

 to doubt the existence of towns and cities, full of busy fellow-beings, 

 and to fancy the true happiness of life lies in a more simple exist- 

 ence, where man, the dreamy silence of thick forests, the lulling 

 tones of babbling brooks, and the whole heart of nature, make one 

 sensation, mil of quiet harmony and joy. 



THE LAKE. 



That shadowy path, that steals away so enticingly from the 

 neighborhood of the cataract, leads to a spot of equal, though a dif- 

 ferent kind of loveliness. Leaving the border of the stream, and 

 following it past one or two distracting points, where other paths, 

 starting out at various angles, seem provokingly to tempt one away 

 from the neighborhood of the water, we suddenly behold, with a 

 feeling of delight, the lake.* 



Nothing can have a more charming effect than this natural 

 mirror in the bosom of the valley. It is a fine expansion of the 

 stream, which farther down forms the large cataract. Here 



* See Downing's " Landscape Gardening," p. 49. 



