HISTORICAL NOTICES. 
31 
ingston, Wm. Hamilton Esq., Theodore Lyman Esq., and 
Judge Peters. 
Woodlands , the seat of the Hamilton family, near Phila- 
delphia, was, so long ago as 1805, highly celebrated for its 
gardening beauties. The refined taste and the wealth of its 
accomplished owner, were freely lavished in its improvement 
and embellishment ; and at a time when the introduction of 
rare exotics was attended with a vast deal of risk and trouble, 
the extensive green-houses and orangeries of this seat, con- 
tained all the richest treasures of the exotic flora, and 
among other excellent gardeners employed, was the distin- 
guished botanist Pursh, whose enthusiastic taste in his favorite, 
science was promoted and aided by Mr. Hamilton. The 
extensive pleasure grounds were judiciously planted singly 
and in groups, with a great variety of the finest species of 
trees. The attention of the visitor to this place is now arrest- 
ed by two very large specimens of that curious tree, the 
Japanese Ginko, ( Salishuria ) 60 or 70 feet high, perhaps 
the finest in Europe or America, by the noble magnolias, 
and the rich park-like appearance of some of the plantations 
of the finest native and foreign oaks. From the recent 
unhealthiness of this portion of the Schuylkill, Woodlands 
has fallen into decay, but there can be no question that it 
was, for a long time, the most tasteful and beautiful residence 
in America. 
The seat of the late Judge Peters, about five miles from 
Philadelphia, was, 30 years ago, a noted specimen of the 
ancient school of landscape gardening. Its proprietor 
had a most extended reputation as a scientific agricul- 
turist, and his place was also no less remarkable for the 
design and culture of its pleasure-grounds, than for the 
excellence of its farm. Long and stately avenues, with 
