110 Architecture in the United States. 



Leghorn is a comparatively small city, low in its situation, not very 

 clean, and in its best days marked, in every part, with the dull 

 common-place character of a business people. The scenery around 

 is not interesting ; and the traveller for pleasure, Avith Florence, Pisa, 

 and Lucca so near at hand, would think of Leghorn as an odious 

 place, were it not for the protestant cemetery. This is a spot just 

 without the city, of only a few acres in extent, its only ornaments au 

 iron raihng, cypresses, weeping willows, and marble tombs ; and yet 

 so strong is its redeeming character, that Leghorn never comes to my 

 mind except in bright and cheerful colors. 



I will now come nearer home. New Haven was going the way 

 of all our other towns, when, in 1798 or thereabout, she was fortu- 

 nate enough to have for a resident an English architect of tlie name 

 of Bamier. His name is now almost forgotten, but a time will come, 

 when it will rank well among those of her worthies. He erected a 

 house, still to be seen, on one side of the public square, which though 

 not a model of good taste, was yet sufficient to draw public attention 

 to the subject. New Haven has now taken a character through the 

 land, that draws to it crowds of visitors, a character above all pricoj 

 since it attaches its inhabitants to their homes, and makes them satis- 

 fied and contented. I have met its natives almost every where, and 

 as I have witnessed the glow of feeling, with which they talked of its 

 greens, its elms, and avenues, and its burying ground, I have wished 

 earnestly, that the cause of such feeling were universal in our land. 

 It is true there are other subjects that contribute to the reputation of 

 the place ; but when it is spoken of, it is always as the " beautiful 

 city," shewing at once, the idea first suggested by its name, and upper- 

 most in the estimate of its character. All this has been effected at the 

 most trifling expense. The elms have cost simply the labor of plant- 

 ing them ; the houses, if there is any difference, are cheaper than in 

 other cities ; the burying ground is but litde more expensive than 

 such places usually are, and might be made, with advantage, less ex- 

 pensive than it is. There is nothing in New Haven beyond the pow- 

 er of every town in our country. I would not however, propose it 

 as a model : — ^but the subject has already expanded itself more than 

 I intended it should. If the public think it sufficiently important, I 

 shall perhaps resume it in a future number of the Journal. 



