House and Garden 
OLD HOLLAND LAND OFFICE OFFNED BY HON. WH.LIAM H. SEWARD 
the Mississippi from the St. Lawrence system, is 
many times repaid with a wonderful scenic view of 
the lake, stretching its pale hlue-green surface away 
toward Canada, and the famous vineyards filling the 
intervening space of eight miles with their fragrance 
and purple hue. Great piles of golden and ruby- 
colored fruit lie among the orchard trees waiting to 
he shipped or stored for winter, and the grapes hang 
in heavy clusters melting on the vines. Once at the 
top of the hill, we are fifteen hundred feet above the 
level of the sea and seven hundred above the lake; 
the atmosphere is rare and pure and one eats and 
sleeps as mortals should. 
Of course, in any country as much depends on how 
one sees as on what is seen. A traveller once told me 
that he saw all there was to see of Venice in three 
days—and I believed him. For twelve years my 
summer sketching ground has been the same soft 
50 
green hillsides, the forests, the harmonious curves of 
the shore line where the waters of centuries have 
carved the earth along the lines of least resistance, 
and yet there is much that will be new to me another 
season. During all the years Americans have been 
traveling abroad, many places of interest and beauty 
in our own little country have been totally over¬ 
looked; it may be due to the fact that human nature 
always wants the flower that is just out of reach. 
The commonplace will be found interesting to some 
while the magnificent is tinmoving to others. 
Eighty years ago, great ships—great for those days 
—snubbed up at this quaint old port. The cheery 
inn welcomed the sailors then as it does the visitors 
to-day; cargoes were unloaded or shipped and the 
craft made sail for distant shores; those were thriv¬ 
ing times and the town was prosperous. To-day, 
only a few of the older inhabitants remain but those 
I 
