34 
LANDSCAPE GARDENING. 
finest of these seats, the eye beholds only the soft foreground 
of smooth lawn, the rich groups of trees shutting out all 
neighbouring tracts, the lake-like expanse of water, and, 
closing the distance, a fine range of wooded mountain. 
A residence here of but a hundred acres, so fortunately are 
these disposed by nature, seems to appropriate the whole 
scenery around, and to be a thousand in extent. 
At the present time, our handsome villa residences are 
becoming every day more numerous, and it would require 
much more space than our present limits, to enumerate all 
the tasteful rural country places within our knowledge, 
many of which have been newly laid out, or greatly im- 
proved within a few years. But we consider it so im- 
portant and instructive to the novice in the art of Landscape 
Gardening to examine, personally, country seats of a highly 
tasteful character, that we shall venture to refer the reader 
to a few of those which have now, a reputation among us as 
elegant country residences, 
Hyde Park , on the Hudson, formerly the seat of the late 
Dr, Hosack, now of W. Langdon, Esq., has been justly 
celebrated as one of the finest specimens of the modern 
style of Landscape Gardening in America. Nature has, 
indeed, done much for this place, as the grounds are finely 
varied, beautifully watered by a lively stream, and the views 
are inexpressibly striking from the neighbourhood of the 
house itself, including, as they do, the noble Hudson for 
sixty miles in its course, through rich valleys and bold 
mountains. (See Fig. 1.) But the efforts of art are not 
unworthy so rare a locality ; and while the native woods, 
and beautifully undulating surface, are preserved in their 
original state, the pleasure-grounds, roads, walks, drives, and 
new plantations, have been laid out in such a judicious 
