First to Mt. Clare, one of the old Carroll places, where we 
found many interesting relics, much old furniture and the 
remains of an old garden, and then through the beautiful Green 
Spring Valley, so charming in its autumn dress, to the selected 
gardens on our list, Mrs. Cotton's, Mrs. Hillen's, Mrs. Joseph 
Jenkins' and Mrs. Bouton's. Here on the edge of the city has 
been created a garden of entrancing beauty, of exquisite pro- 
portion, of mystery and surprise, so that if a faun with hoofs and 
slanty eyes had come suddenly from a thicket, one would not 
have wondered — or it might have been a Puck or a Lob — or even 
a common fairy! This is largely a wild or naturalistic garden, 
and lovely as it was, it must be lovelier still in spring when the 
Dogwoods and Crabs are in bloom. Much of it is made around 
and in, a quarry of warm-tinted stone, — as Mrs. Crowninshield 
said "this stone is so much softer than mine," — and we knew 
just what she meant. In this garden the same Wild Flower 
Fantasy we had seen the night before had been given a few weeks 
ago. Mrs. Bouton is greatly interested in the preservation of 
our native plants. 
"Hampton" has been so often described in architectural mag- 
azines because of its beauty and perfection of architectural 
design, that it seems unnecessary to write of it in detail. Both 
mansion and garden were planned by L 'Enfant and the property 
— a grant from King James. — has the distinction of being one of 
the few estates in America to hold the entail. Several members 
of the Bidgely family were there to receive us, and gave us the 
freedom of the place so that we might wander undisturbed 
through house and grounds. 
In closing this report of the Autumn Meeting with its 
auxiliary day, I quote from a recent number of the Independent, 
a verse (slightly changed) from Songs and Sonnets by L. P. 
Smith, which says 
"By some large and holy charm 
In my inkpot, safe from harm 
Lie compressed in magic space 
Ocean floods of Commonplace. 
Ah, preserve the holy spell, 
Keep that inkpot covered -well ! ' ' 
The description of these three delightful days is quite 
inadequate, but what might have been your fate had the "ink- 
pot" been further uncovered! 
Editors. 
The Nothing humanizes or adorns the female mind more surely 
Victorian than a taste for Ornamental Gardening. It compels the reason to 
Flower act, the judgment to observe. It is favorable to meditations of 
Garden the most serious kind and exercises the fancy in harmless and 
elegant occupation and braces the system with its healthful ten- 
dency. 
Louisa Johnson, New York, 1857. 
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