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History of Early American Landscape Design

Alexander Garden

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Alexander Garden

History

Texts

"I have met wt very Little new in the Botanic way unless Your acquaintance Bartram, who is what he is & whose acquaintance alone makes amends for other disappointments in that way.... One Day he Dragged me out of town & Entertain'd me so agreably with some Elevated Botanicall thoughts, on oaks, Firns, Rocks & c that I forgot I was hungry till we Landed in his house about four Miles from Town....

"His garden is a perfect portraiture of himself, here you meet wt a row of rare plants almost covered over wt weeds, here with a Beautiful Shrub, even Luxuriant Amongst Briars, and in another corner an Elegant & Lofty tree lost in common thicket — on our way from town to his house he carried me to severall rocks & Dens where he shewed me some of his rare plants, which he had brought from the Mountains &c. In a word he disdains to have a garden less than Pensylvania [sic] & Every den is an Arbour, Every run of water, a Canal, & every small level Spot a Parterre, where he nurses up some of his Idol Flowers & cultivates his darling productions. He had many plants whose names he did not know, most or all of which I had seen & knew them — On the other hand he had several I had not seen & some I never heard of."

Images


References

Notes

  1. Cadwallader Colden, The Letters and Papers of Cadwallader Colden, Collections of the New-York Historical Society (1920), view on Zotero.

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History of Early American Landscape Design contributors, "Alexander Garden," History of Early American Landscape Design, , https://heald.nga.gov/mediawiki/index.php?title=Alexander_Garden&oldid=10605 (accessed March 29, 2024).

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