HISTORICAL NOTICES. 
39 
Lowell, at Roxbury, possesses also many interesting gar- 
dening features.* 
Pine Bank, the Perkins estate, on the border of 
Jamaica lake, is one of the most beautiful residences 
near Boston. The natural surface of the ground is ex- 
ceedingly flowing and graceful, and it is varied by two or 
three singular little dimples , or hollows, which add to its 
effect. The perfect order of the grounds ; the beauty of 
the walks, sometimes skirting the smooth open lawn, en- 
riched with rare plants and shrubs, and then winding by 
the shadowy banks of the water ; the soft and quiet cha- 
racter of the lake itself, — its margin richly fringed with 
trees, which conceal here and there a pretty cottage, its 
firm clean beach of gravel, and its water of crystal purity ; 
all these features make this place a little gem of natural 
* We Americans are proverbially impatient of delay, and a few years in 
prospect appear an endless futurity. So much is this the feeling with many, 
that we verily believe there, are hundreds of our country places, which owe 
their bareness and destitution of foliage to the idea, so, common, that it requires 
“ an age” for forest trees to “ grow up.” 
The middle-aged man hesitates about the good of planting what he imagines 
he shall never see arriving at maturity, and even many who are younger, con- 
ceive that it requires more than an ordinary lifetime to rear a fine wood of 
planted trees. About two years since, we had the pleasure of visiting the seat 
of the late Mr. Lowell, whom we found in a green old age, still enjoying, with 
the enthusiasm of youth, the pleasures of Horticulture and a country life. For 
the encouragement of those who are ever complaining of the tardy pace with 
which the growth of trees advances, we will here record that we accompanied 
Mr. L. through a belt of fine woods (skirting part of his residence), nearly half 
a mile in length, consisting of almost all our finer hardy trees, many of them 
apparently full grown, the whole of which had been planted by him when he 
was thirty-two years old. At that time, a solitary elm or two were almost 
the only trees upon his estate. We can hardly conceive a more rational source 
of pride or enjoyment, than to be able thus to walk, in the decline of years, 
beneath the shadow of umbrageous woods and groves, planted by our own 
hands, and whose growth has become almost identified with our own pro- 
gress and existence. 
