New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-08-18

| with rough, low masonry, the entrance to
| the Webster place, and may pass at viii
! and saunter along the carriage path to the
| mansion door.
| The lawn. on either side, rises in knobs
| here and there, and, interspersed with
| spreading, isolated trees, is bare of fences,
| and resembles an English manor lot. The
| avenue, also, is Overhung with shade trees,
| among which are beech, tamarack, poplar,
| fir, cedar, maple, oak, in fact, almost every
| species known to the Northern woods The
| path is nicely rolled, and we are pleased to
observe that the approach is generally IN
wholesome order. The mansiOn-a long,
low, cIoss-roOfed, wooden pile-has been so.
often pictured that / need only speak of it
as owing it's attTactiveness to an appear
ance of having grown, foot after foot, by
alteration from some old building, and of
not having been made bran-new and at
once; to the long piazzas, where pOsies and
the Virginia creeper wander at will; to its
peaked gables; lastly, to the indefinite feel
ing one derives from it, that here has been
a sturdy presence of manhood in the past,
now gone forever, but leaving its potent in
dividuality stamped upon the less transitOry
inanimate objects which surrOundedit it. I'VE
are what suns and winds and waters make
u.s." but here nature is as Webster transform
ed it. The house grew with him; the trees, ex-
cept the " Peregrine white apple tree" and
the famous elm, were planted by his hand
and the rolling acres, the unbrOkeD lawn,
are the impress and reflection of the man
himself. The elm, under which Mr.. Web
ster used tOplace his chair, and was painted
sitting in the country farmers garb, differs
from any specimen Of New Eugland's royal
tree that | ever have seen. The trunk is of
the largest, but the limbs shoot out not far
above the ground, and, whether by art or
nature, are trained to cover a circle of 100
Il - 4I,1
tree casts a shadow beyond that of any
Windsor oak, and enhOuses you like a ban
van. The great limb has yielded to a recent
blast, and touches the ground, with leaves
still green upon it. As if a servitOr, smitten
in defense Of the mansion, had sunk his
wounded limb to earth, the tree still holds
its proudly, and wards off the tempests on
set with its unframed branches.
The present inmates Of the house are
Mrs. Fletcher Webster; her son Ashburton,
a young man of twenty-five years: her
daughter, Caroline, who is married to Mr.
James Geddeg Day, of New York, and with
her husband resides here on the family es-
tate. Mr.. Day is a lawyer, but at present
devOtes his time chiefly to the care OF. the
farm and grounds, and for keeping the lat
ter in order is said to possess the qualifica-
tiOns of a taste for art and landscape gar
dening. The interior of the house is kept
precisely as the dying statesman left it. /
CHANGED to visit 1t as a private guest, and
to such its inequalities are generously ex-
tended; but as it is daily visited and ex-
amined in a public way. and as the lives
and record of the few surviving members
of the family constantly form the topic,
not only of local gossip, but of much print
ed criticism, wherein the inevitable moral |
of genealogical decadence is none too deli |
cately drawn, l neither am inclined nor
bOunden to repeat much heaTsay. Rather |
let me in another letter speak to your read |
ers Of the varying impressions made upon
my own mind during a pleasant fitting |
visit to Marshfeld, where l was the reel |
pient Of nothing but courtesy, and, for one, |
saw nothing that could jar upon the feelings !
of the most reverent worshiper of a great |
mans fame. +. c. S.