XVI. 



A VISIT TO MONTGOMERY PLACE. 



October, 1847. 



THERE are few persons^ among yrhai mfty be called the travelling 

 class, who know the beauty of the finest American country- 

 seats. Many are ignoraul of the very, existence of those rural geras 

 that embroider the landscapes here and there, in the older and 

 wealthier parts of the country. Held in the retirement of private 

 life, they are rarely visited, except by those who enjoy, the friend- 

 ship of their possessors. The annual tourist ])j the railroad and 

 steamboat, who moves through wood and meadow and river and 

 hill, with the celerity of a rocket, and then fancies he' knows the 

 pouritry, is in a state of- total ignorance of their many attractions; 

 and those whose taste has not led them.to seek this spSoies.of plea- 

 sure, are equally unconscious of the landscape-gardening beauties 

 that are develpping themselves every day, with the advancing pros; 

 perity of the country. ,: 



It has been our good fortune to "know a great number of the 

 ^finest of the^ delightful residences, to revel in their beauties, and 

 occasionally to chronicle their charms. If we have not sooner 

 spoken at large of Montgomery Place, second as it is to no seat in 

 America, for its combination of attractions, it has bepii, rather that 

 we "were silent — like a devout gazer at the marvellolis beauty of 

 the ApoUo: — ^from excess of enjoyment, than from not deeply 

 feeling all its varied mysteries of pleasure-grounds and lawns, wood 

 and water. 



Montgomery Place is one, of the superb old seats belonging to 



