xxu 



sca|)e was yet untouckeii by the' scoK^ing July heafcs'; 

 and on tte seventh of June, 1838, — ^h,e being then in his 

 twenty-third year, — Downing was married to Caroline^ 

 eldest daughter of J. P. De Wint, Esq. At this time, 

 he dissolved the business connection- with jnis elder brother, 

 and~ contiaued the nursery by himseE There were othet 

 changes also. The btisy mother of his childhoo'd was busy 

 no longer. " She had now been for several years an invalid, 

 unable even to walk in the garden. She ctmtinued,to live 

 in the little red cottage which Downing afterwards re- 

 moved to make way for a green-house. Her sons were 

 men now, and her daughter a woman.. The necessity for 

 her ff?frn exertion was passed, and her hold upon Hie was 

 ^adiiaUy loosened, until she died.in 1839., 



Downing now considered hitaadf ready to begiti the 

 career for which he had so long been preparing ; and vary 

 properly his first work was his own .house, built in the gar- 

 d.en of his fether, and only a few rods from the cottage 



-in which he was born. .It was a simple housCj in. an Eliz- 

 abethan style, by which he designed to prove that a beau- 

 tifol, and durable, and conveident mansion, could be built 

 as cheaply as a poof and tasteless temple, which seemed, to 

 be/ at that time-- the highest American conception of a 

 fine residence. In this design he. entirely suece6d.ed. flis, 

 hoTjse, which did not, however, satisfy his maturer eye, 

 was externally very simple, but extremely elegant ; indeed, 

 its chief impression was that of elegance. Internally it 

 was spacious and .convenient, very gracefully proportioned 

 and finished, and. marked evejy where by the same spirit. 

 Wherever the eye fell, it detected that a wiSej: eye had 



\be0n before it.- AU the forius and colors, the Style oT the 

 furniture, the frames of the . mirrors and pictures, the pat- 

 terns of the carpets, were harmonious, and it was a' Wr 



