March i6, 1892.] 



Garden and Forest. 



123 



The names of English seats have a dignified and unaffected 

 air, sometimes bordering on liarslmess, often resemlsh'ng the 

 titles of towns rather than houses. Thus we have Drentham, 

 the seat of the Duke of Sutherland ; Woburn, of tlie Did<e of 

 Bedford ; liovvood, of the 'Marquis of Lansdowne ; Welbeck 

 Abbey, the famous mansion of the Duke of Portland, cele- 

 brated for its underground rooms ; Penshurst, the home of Sir 

 Philip Sidney; Penrhyn, once the dwelling of a Cambrian 

 prince ; while Broadlands is associated with Lord Palmerston ; 

 Penshanger, with Lord Cowper, and in our own day Hughen- 

 den and Harwarden suggest Lord Beaconsfield and Mr. Glad- 

 stone of the ready axe. 



In our southern states names were always given to planta- 

 tions, and even to small estates, Jefferson's Monticello and 

 Madison's Montpelier being as well known as Mount Vernon ; 

 and the names when given are accepted, as they are not apt to 

 be in the north, where there is always a difficulty in making 

 one's homestead wear a name after it has been christened. In 

 spite of illuminated headings on the note-paper, places con- 

 tinue in popular parlance to be merely Smith's, Brown's or 

 Robinson's, of blessed memory. 



There are some good names of what Mr. Downing calls 

 "gentlemen's seats" in the neighborhood of Philadelphia — 

 Sfenton, the old Logan place ; Alverthbrpe, the home of the 

 late Joshua Francis Fisher ; Wakefield and Brookwood, of 

 other liranches of the Fisher family ; Belfield, the dwelling of 

 the Wistars ; Restalrig, the place of Mr. G. G. Logan ; Ays- 

 garth, of Mr. John Lambert. Barclay Hall was the name one 

 Quaker gentleman gave to his home, in memory of Barclay 

 of Ury, and Oxmead was chosen by another to designate his 

 broad and fertile fields near Burlington, New Jersey. Champ- 

 lost was so called in memory of a French town, where a former 

 owner narrowly escaped death, and Butler Place was the prop- 

 erty of Fanny Kemble's husband, and bears his family name. 



People are fortunate when they find an old name that really 

 belongs to the place they inhabit, as Dosoris does to Mr. Dana's 

 island, it being the country contraction of the old Dos uxoris 

 in the ancient deeds of the spot. Indian Hollow is another 

 good name that bears an old record in New England, as does 

 Hamlet Lodge, the residence of the late Dr. Alexander Vinton, 

 while Christopher's Camp was the appropriate name of a 

 Maryland farm-house ; but such titles are scarce. 



It has been suggested by Mr. Ruttenber in his Itidian Tribes 

 of Hudson's River, that many of the Algonquin syllables would 

 form melodious combinations of graceful significance in the 

 naming of places. Thifs we might have : Napeena, abound- 

 ing in birds ; Algansee, water of the plains ; Iosco, water of 

 light ; lenia, wanderer's rest ; Shominac, grape-land ; Tallula, 

 leaping waters ; Ossego, fair view ; Biscoda, beautiful plain ; 

 Minoma, good water ; Patosia, fair hill ; Oslo, fine view ; Tario, 

 beautiful rocks; Ackiana, good land; Acoma, rock water; 

 Coio, beautiful falls. The syllable io signifying beautiful in the 

 last five combinations. 



The characteristics of a spot should largely influence the se- 

 lection of its name, a soft and harmonious landscape calling 

 for melodious syllables to express it, while a wild and rocky 

 scene would find better expression in some rough guttural, 

 some ending in ougli or orth, which might convey severity or 

 sternness in the landscape. There is a bleak and dreary sound 

 in Cawdor, as of a spot haunted by ravens, while in Elsinore 

 and Tantallon we catch the echo of the sea resounding in its 

 hollow caves. Scotch names seem to harmonize with the 

 landscape. Loughrigg, Glencairn, Argyll, Lochiel, savor of 

 rocks and heather, while Stirling and Dumbarton, Crichtoun, 

 Lennel and Montgomerie, have a soft suggestion of sunny 

 stream and laughing brae in their smoother syllables, that lend 

 themselves readily to music, which, however, even their long- 

 est and apparently most unwieldly names do at the will of that 

 wonderful minstrel, who sings : 

 Hoot awa', lads, hoot awa'. 



Have ye heard how the Ridleys and Thirhvalls and a' 

 With Willimondswick, 

 And Hard riding Dick, 

 And Hughie of Hawdon, and Will o' the Wa' 

 Have set upon Albany Featherstonhaugh, 

 And taken his life at the Deadman's-shaw? 



What a lilt there is in the very sound of the border lairds' 

 dwellings ; the song gallops like a bevy of moss troopers over 

 the sod ; one hears the measured rise and fall, the clink of 

 hoofs, the jingle of bits, the rattle of reins, the rush of the lads 

 as they sweep on in their fury. 



The Scotch habit of naming a man froni his acres has a dis- 

 tinct advantage by doing away with the monotony of Grahams 

 and Gordons, Campbells and Mclntyres, that would otherwise 

 overwhelm the land of clans. But who thinks of Lochiel as 



an estate? yet such it is, and its owner's name is Cameron, 

 while James Hepburn's patronymic is forgotten in the better- 

 known Castle of Bothwell. 



Dunira, the seat of Sir David Dundas, we hear of in the 

 poem of the Ettrick Shepherd, 



Bonny Kilmeny ga'od up the glen, 

 But 'twasna to meet Duneira's men ; 



while the castle of the Duke of Buccleuch becomes the back- 

 ground of the Lay of the Last Minstrel, where it is commem- 

 orated in that splendid martial opening, 



Nine and twenty knights of fame 

 Hang their shields in Branksome Hall. 



Tantallon, the stronghold of the Douglas, Artornish, where 

 were the " rugged halls " of the Lord of the Isles, live in Scott's 

 stirring verse with Roslin and Rokeby, Marwood Chase and 

 Norham Castle, beside Netherby, Mingarry and Snovvdoun. 



Firbeck is a good descriptive English name for a place, and 

 so are Birkenbog and Netherlaw, which last belong to Sir 

 Robert Abercrombie. Ouiddenham and Skutterskelfe, Gway- 

 nenog and Shillinglee are instances of indifference to euphony 

 that we should hardly venture upon in this country. 



Holnicate, Hennerton, Ravensdale, Tregothnan, Hackwood 

 Park and Forglen House are all the homes of nobles or gen- 

 tlefolk in England, and many others might be adduced for 

 copy or example, though some combination with the old Saxon 

 titles of holdings seems the most easily adapted to our needs. 



Thorncroft is a good name for hedge-encircled grounds, 

 Maplehurst for an enclosure with fine Maples, Birchwold for 

 a house in the woods, Beechtoft for a hill crowned with these 

 trees, Darhut for a lodge in the Adirondacks. Windycot 

 sounds well for a sea-shore cottage, and Kineforth for a farm. 

 One merry gentleman calls his hunting-lodge on top of a 

 breezy hill Hitititi, which seems like Polynesian, but is pro- 

 nounced with an English iota. Sorrowsikes is the gloomy 

 title of the Tennant Place in Wensleydale, England ; while 

 Smyth's Folly is a commemorative term not bestowed bv the 

 owner himself. 



A substantial volume might be filled with names already 

 appropriated, but the most interesting field for research is in 

 the Indian survivals, which I should be glad to receive from 

 any one who could furnish them, and with them, if possible, 

 their signification. 



Hinsham, Mass. M. C. Robbins. 



Notes of a Summer Journey in Europe. — IX. 



T HAD been advised to visit the famous Muskau Park, the 

 ^ masterwork of Prince Hermann von Puckler. Accord- 

 ingly I went, and was not disappointed. As it was only four 

 or five miles off the main railroad, between Berlin and that 

 part of Silesia mentioned in the last number of these notes, it 

 was an easy matter to stop over at Weisswasser, on the way 

 back to Berlin, and take the short spur railroad to the little vil- 

 lage, or town, of Muskau. It is seldom visited by strangers, 

 although only three or four hours' ride from Berlin. The re- 

 gion all around is a most unpromising one for the creation of 

 what has been called the best park in Germany. It is for the 

 most part a sandy plain, which furnishes poor material for 

 vegetable growth, or else the land is so low and flat that marsh- 

 hay is the only harvest. Other large stretches are covered 

 with a growth of Scotch Pine. The park, therefore, seems 

 like an oasis in the midst of a comparative desert. The greater 

 part of the site of the park itself was originally covered by 

 swampy meadows or sandy plains, with no trees except a few 

 old Oaks on some rising ground at a little distance from the 

 River Neisse, which flows through the estate, while a few Lin- 

 dens were growing near the village. 



Prince Piickler carefully studied the peculiarities of each part 

 of the ground before planting, and so laid it out as to obtain 

 the best possible natural effects. It is designed in large, simple, 

 but beautiful lines, appearing as if planted by nature in her best 

 moods, and giving the feeling that any other arrangement 

 would be out of place. Prince Piickler made nature his life- 

 long study, and his whole style of landscape-design rests upon 

 a clear understanding of it. He was regarded as eccentric, a 

 character -which has been attributed to many a genius, partic- 

 ularly to students of Nature. Goethe is recorded as having said, 

 on leaving the Prince after a visit at Muskau, " Nature is the 

 most grateful, if the most unfathomable, study, for she makes 

 the man happy who will be so." 



In his early travels in England, France and other countries 

 Prince Puckler, no doubt, saw and noted much which was 

 afterward of service when planting his estate. 



