American Scenery, Vol. 2 (of 2): or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic natureWillis, Nathaniel Parker
General
American Scenery, Vol. 2 (of 2): or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic nature
Willis, Nathaniel Parker
United States -- Description and travel
The pen of the poet and the pencil of the artist have so frequently
united to record the grandeur and sublimity of the Hudson, and with such
graphic fidelity, that little of interest remains unsaid or unsketched.
But when every point of its bold and beautiful scenery might be made the
subject of a picture, and every incident of its past history the theme
of a poem, it requires no great research to discover new and prominent
objects of attraction. Perhaps there is no portion of this beautiful
river which partakes more of the picturesque, or combines more of the
wild and wonderful, than the vicinity of the present View; and when time
shall touch the history of the present with the wand of tradition, and
past events shall live in the memory of the future as legends, romance
will never revel in a more bewitching region. Fiction shall then fling
its imaginative veil over the things we have seen—covering, but not
concealing them—and, in the plenitude of poetic genius, people the
drama of futurity with a thousand exquisite creations, clothed in the
venerated garb of antiquity.
UNDERCLIFF, the mansion of GENERAL GEORGE P. MORRIS, which forms the
principal object in the engraving, is situated upon an elevated plateau,
rising from the eastern shore of the river; and the selection of such a
commanding and beautiful position at once decides the taste of its
intellectual proprietor. In the rear of the villa, cultivation has
placed her fruit and forest trees with a profuse hand, and fertilized
the fields with a variety of vegetable products. The extent of the
grounds is abruptly terminated by the base of a rocky mountain, that
rises nearly perpendicular to its summit, and affords in winter a secure
shelter from the bleak blasts of the north. In front, a circle of
greensward is refreshed by a fountain in the centre, gushing from a
Grecian vase, and encircled by ornamental shrubbery; from thence a
gravelled walk winds down a gentle declivity to a second plateau, and
again descends to the entrance of the carriage road, which leads upwards
along the left slope of the hill, through a noble forest, the growth of
many years, until suddenly emerging from its sombre shades, the visitor
beholds the mansion before him in the bright blaze of day. A few
openings in the wood afford an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the
water, sparkling with reflected light; and the immediate transition from
shadow to sunshine is peculiarly pleasing.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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