508 Rural Architecture. 
■who afterwards became renowned as the wife of Aaron Burr. At 
that time it was called the Little Hermitage, and many of her 
letters to Burr were dated here. It was while residing here that 
she first became acquainted with Burr, who was then stationed at 
Ramapo, not far distant. Davis, in his life of Burr, says, ' The 
house of Mrs. Prevost was the resort of the most accomplished 
oflficers in the American army when they were in the vicinity of 
it.' Col. Monroe, in a letter to Mrs. Prevost, says that the lady 
of Col. C had promised him to make a visit to the Little Her- 
mitage; and the house is frequently alluded to by other persons 
whose letters have been preserved in the Burr correspondence. 
But the house possesses sufficient interest from its beautiful sit- 
uation in one of the loveliest and most fertile spots in New Jersey, 
to entitle it to notice, apart from all historical associations. It is 
situated near Paramus, on the bank of the Hohokus river, about 
thirty miles from New York. It is surrounded by the loveliest 
scenery that can be formed by a combination of rivers, forests, and 
cultivated plains. On the east is flanked by a noble grove of 
oaks, on the north by the primitive forest, on the west by the 
river on which are erected within view, a grist mill, two paper 
mills, and a cotton manufactory; on the south are the plains of 
Paramus and the valley of the Saddle river. Only a very small 
part of the original building, which was a substantial first class 
country house, now remains. The present owner of Waldwic Cot- 
tage, for whom it was designed and rebuilt, and to whom we are 
indebted for his refined taste and liberality, in giving free scope 
to our designs in the construction of his cottage, is Elijah Rosen- 
crantz, Esq. None but an architect can fully appreciate the value 
of this acknowledgment, for there is no other profession whose 
members are so liable to annoyance and disappointment from the 
interference of their employers. Patients confidently put their 
lives into the hands of their physicians; clients trust their property 
to the management of their lawyers; parents confide the education 
of their children to teachers, and all trustingly resign the welfare 
of their souls into the keeping of their pastors; but when it comes 
to the construction of a house, the most difficult and complicate 
of all arts, the one which requires the most various learning and 
the clearest intellect, combined with natural talents for the business 
— then everybody feels competent to the task of giving advice, 
of making suggestions and altering the designs of the professional 
architect. As no one can have a greater interest in the cost and 
construction of a house than the man who is to pay for it and live 
in it, it is but right that it should conform to his tastes and means. 
But whoever employs an architect should first be satisfied of his 
capacity and honesty, and then having instructed him as to the 
kind of house desired, he should be left to execute the plans of 
