HISTORICAL NOTICES. 
29 
soft foreground of smooth lawn, the rich groups of trees 
shutting out all neighboring 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 appro- 
priate the whole scenery round, 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 Land- 
scape 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 neighborhood 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 judi- 
