The Efforts Of The Proprietor To Plant Large Trees At
Ravenswood Have Been Eminently Successful, And Ought To Stimulate Others
To Add Such Valuable, Such Permanent Elements Of Beauty, To Their Country
Seats.
One plantation, by its luxuriance, pleased us more than any other,
that which shades both sides of the avenue.
Few of our places can boast of
possessing a more beautifully-wooded and gracefully-curved approach to the
house than Ravenswood. You see nothing of the dwelling until you emerge
from this neat plantation of evergreens. We once viewed it under its most
fascinating aspect; 'tis pretty in the bright, effulgent radiance of day,
but when the queen of night sends forth her soft rays, and allows them to
slumber silently on the rustling boughs of the green pines and firs, with
the dark, gravelled avenue, visible here and there at every curve, no
sounds heard except the distant murmur of the Chaudiere river, the
effect is striking.
THE WOODS OF SILLERY.
I know each lane, and every valley green,
Dingle, or bushy dell, of this wild wood;
And every bosky bourn from side to side,
My daily walks and ancient neighborhood.
- Comus, Shakespeare.
"You, doubtless, imagine you have now seen Sillery under every aspect;
there never was a greater mistake, dear reader. Have you ever viewed
its woods in all their autumnal glory, when September arrays them in
tints of unsurpassed loveliness? We hear you say, no. Let us then, our
pensive philosopher, our romantic blushing rose bud of sweet sixteen,
our blase-traveller, let us have a canter over Cap Rouge road
out by St. Louis gate, and returning by the St. Foy road, nine miles
and more, let us select a quiet afternoon, not far distant from the
Indian summer, when
The gentle wind a sweet and passionate wooer,
Kisses the blushing leaf, and stirs up life
Within the solemn woods of ash, deep crimsoned,
And Silver beech, and maple yellow-leaved,"
and then you can tell us whether the glowing description below is
overdrawn:
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