PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

THE favourable manner in which the first edition of this work has been received, is highly gratifying to the author; and the strong interest existing, at the present moment, on the subject of rural improvement gives us every reason to hope that during the next twenty years, our advance towards a national taste in Landscape Gardening and Architecture, will be as rapid as it has hitherto been in the increase of population and general prosperity. Those, who have reflected how much the happy condition of a nation depends on the nature of its "country homes," will be able to appreciate the moral and social value of such a progress in taste.

In the present edition, a large part of the first portion of the work has been re-written,-some modification of the principles of the art have been introduced,-considerable new matter has been added, the whole has been revised, and newly and more copiously illustrated, from examples now existing in this country,-and the work is now offered in a much more complete form, than it was heretofore possible to present it.

Highland Gardens, Newburgh, N. Y., Aug. 1844.

A. J. D.

PREFACE.

A TASTE for rural improvements of every description is advancing silently, but with great rapidity in this country. While yet in the far west the pioneer constructs his rude hut of logs for a dwelling, and sweeps away with his axe the lofty forest trees that encumber the ground, in the older portions of the Union, bordering the Atlantic, we are surrounded by all the luxuries and refinements that belong to an old and long cultivated country. Within the last ten years, especially, the evidences of the growing wealth and prosperity of our citizens have become apparent in the great increase of elegant cottage and villa residences on the banks of our noble rivers, along our rich valleys, and wherever nature seems to invite us by her rich and varied charms.

In all the expenditure of means in these improvements, amounting in the aggregate to an immense sum, professional talent is seldom employed in Architecture or Landscape Gardening, but almost every man fancies himself an amateur, and endeavours to plan and arrange his own residence. With but little practical knowledge, and few correct principles for his guidance, it is not surprising that we witness much incongruity and great waste of time and money. Even those who are familiar with foreign works on the subject in question labour under many obstacles in practice, which grow out of the difference in our soil and climate, or our social and political position.

These views have so often presented themselves to me of