gin. Aquatic
herbs, too, may form a part of its ornaments, and a boat-house, if such
a thing be necessary, should, under the shade of a hanging tree of some
kind, be a conspicuous object in the picture. An overhanging rock, if
such a thing be native there, may be an object of great attraction to
its features, and its outlet may steal away and be hid in a dense mass
of tangled vines and brushwood. The predominating, _natural_ features of
the place should be _cultivated_, not rooted out, and metamorphosed into
something foreign and unfamiliar. It should, in short, be _nature_ with
her _hair combed_ out straight, flowing, and graceful, instead of
pinched, puffed, and curling--a thing of luxuriance and beauty under the
hand of a master.

The great difficulty with many Americans in getting up a new place of
any considerable extent is, that they seem to think whatever is common,
or natural in the features of the spot must be so changed as to show,
above all others, their own ingenuity and love of expense in fashioning
it to their peculiar tastes. Rocks must be sunk, or blasted, trees
felled, and bushes grubbed, crooked water-courses straightened--the
place gibbeted and put into stocks; in fact, that their own boasted
handiwork may rise superior to the wisdom of Him who fashioned it in his
own good pleasure; forgetting that a thousand points of natural beauty
upon the earth on which they breathe are

"When unadorned, adorned the most;"

and our eye has been frequently shocked at finding the choicest gems of
nature sacrificed to a wanton display of expense in perverting, to the
indulgence of a mistaken fancy, that, which, with an eye to truth and
propriety, and at a trifling expense, might have become a spot of
abiding interest and contentment.

DESIGN VI.

A SOUTHERN OR PLANTATION HOUSE.--The proprietor of a plantation in the
South, or South-west, requires altogether a different kind of residence
from the farmer of the Northern, or Middle States. He resides in the
midst of his own principality, surrounded by a retinue of dependents and
laborers, who dwell distant and apart from his own immediate family,
although composing a community requiring his daily care and
superintendence for a great share of his time. A portion of them are
the attaches of his household, yet so disconnected in their domestic
relations, as to require a separate accommodation, and yet be in
immediate contiguity with it, and of course, an ar