THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



269 



as much advantage as they would have done in 

 a few days more. As it is from the wool of the 

 Saxon sheep that the finest cloths are manufac- 

 tured, it may gratify the curiosity of such of 

 your readers as are in the habit of calling on 

 you, to examine these specimens of extraordi- 

 nary wool. I send them, therefore, for that pur- 

 pose, with a sample of wool from the fine South- 

 down ram, which I imported in 1841, from Eng- 

 land. The weight of a fine Saxon fleece would 

 be, I presume, not more than three or four pounds, 



that of a good sized Southdown, eight or ten. 

 I was present at a sheep shearing at Althorp, 

 (Lord Spencer's,) in the spring of 1838, and I 

 think he had several Shear Hogs whose fleeces 

 were more than twelve pounds each in weight. 

 They were of the improved Leicester stock, I 

 think, and not very large. 



Very truly, dear sir, 



Your friend, 



A. Stevenson. 



October 22, 1844. 



ORNAMENTAL COUNTRY H O U S E . 



We extract from the Cultivator another cut j 

 of an ornamental country house. We wish we 

 could inspire a general taste for the beauties of 

 architectural design. A man may ride from 

 morning till night through the most refined and 

 wealthy portion of Virginia without seeing as 

 tasty a dwelling as the one represented in our 

 engraving, cheap and simple as it is. Yet no- 

 thing adds more to the beauty of a country 

 than an ornamented homestead ; it isn't only 

 that the eye is pleased, the heart is gratified by 

 this evidence of our devotion to the shrine of 

 our social affections. Patriotism too, that love 

 of country which by association inspires the 

 warmest feeling for all those who enjoy the 

 delights of that country in common with us, is 

 intimately connected with the beauty of the 



landscape. Why does the Swiss sigh for his bar- 

 ren hills, but that he remembers with delight the 

 beautiful prospect of mountain and of lake that 

 constituted the scene of his youthful joys ? The 

 poor son of Erin never forgets the verdant fields 

 of his native isle, and his heart warms instinc- 

 tively to all who have suffered and enjoyed in 

 common with him its oppressions and its beau- 

 ties. The Highlander reverts incontinently to 

 his lochs and his hills, and the exiled English- 

 man longs for the villas and gardens of the low- 

 lands. The American alone looks back upon 

 gloomy forests, disfigured rather than ornamented 

 with rude and shapeless dwellings. Except in 

 some few instances, where nature has placed 

 him amongst the loftiest and noblest of her 

 works, during the course of a long life he has 



