Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/159

Rh catholic was he that he sought out and welcomed every one who could contribute anything to help on the work. The first books he got hold of—and there were no better within his reach to be borrowed or bought—were the old men, Repton, Price, and—Heaven save the mark!—Loudon! He believed in Loudon a long while—Loudon who had not the first word of any Gospel—and, worse than this, be came under the cruel claw of. It would be scandalous to name him, and, yet, for his evil deeds, he well deserves it. His epitaph is writ; 'tis Vanbrugh's:

But, then, he is not yet ready for his epitaph; he still eats, and drinks, and sleeps, and puts on clothes. This it is not civil to regret; but we may, with reason, regret that he still builds, still insists on shutting us up in donjons and fortresses, sets us at dinner in vaulted halls, and keeps us waiting at our front doors till the portcullis be raised. What discomfort he has caused, and will cause, till his mediæval spirit shall be at rest! What heaps of money he has wasted, and worse, what numbers he has disgusted with architecture! Yet, for a long time, Downing treated this person with great respect and consideration, acknowledged his indebtedness to him, put his designs into his books, and recommended him to his friends. The best that we can say for him in this matter is, that he did not continue long the victim of this infatuation.

But, as we have said, Downing's actual work need not trouble us: 'tis his influence that makes his name worthy to be remembered. He left no single work, no beautiful house, no permanently-valuable book; but there is no beautiful house built here in our day, there is no garden that woos the Summer, that does not owe something to his memory; his name must long be spoken by Americans with affectionate respect.

What Downing did for us, then, was to stimulate the public mind to a desire for a better material way of life. He made us want better houses—more convenient, better built, prettier, with bay windows, gardens, slips of lawn, and good fruit in plenty. He had that eloquence that he made a man or woman believe that everything beautiful lay just within reach. It seemed the most feasible thing in the world to build a house, and nothing was ever seen like the way the vines would run over it, the roses glow on the lawn, and the trees you only planted yesterday bear fruit to-morrow. Of course all sorts of people indulged in these bewitching experiments, and a great many failed from sheer greenness and stupidity. Also, a great many succeeded, and even the dull ones often laid, a foundation for clever ones to prosper on. The end was, that the first point in education was gained. The pupil was interested.