THE AMERICAX-SCA N DIN AVI A N RE VIE J V 
3 41 
her day. No pains had been spared on her education, but most atten¬ 
tion had been given to cultivating her beautiful voice, with which she 
was wont to charm the musical circles of the aristocracy. 
Tradition tells that “her husband worshipped her.” This is doubt¬ 
less true; at all events many carefully drawn sketches bear witness to 
his affection for his adored Lisa. Their interests met in mutual ideals 
of art and literature, in the romantic passion for liberty characteristic 
of that day, in admiration of French genius and Swiss habit of thought. 
On a journey made in 1790 during the “beautiful days” of the Revolu¬ 
tion, these two enjoyed together all the charms of nature and art. 
Calmette sought to fasten his impressions on paper with pen and brush 
in order to embody them in the new summer home he meant to build 
near the cliff whose real discoverer he was. For as early as 1784 Cal¬ 
mette had secured a holding there, and the grounds seemed better than 
any others suited to a park which should satisfy the passion of the day 
for romantic gardens in which the moods of nature and art would meet, 
^o sooner was Calmette home again before he began to carry out his 
plans. The landscape, combining as it did the natural beauties of 
Switzerland, Norway, Italy, and Holland, seemed to fulfill all qualifi¬ 
cations. Soon the axe could be seen gleaming through the tangled 
shrubbery at the edge of the blue-black lake. Here an open glade was 
revealed; there, with feeling for harmony of color and line, choice 
flowers and bushes were planted. Many a stony stretch and thorny 
thicket was transformed into smiling meadows and grassy lawns. The 
Liseluxd Castle 
