Out-Doors at Idlewild; or, The Shaping of a Home on the Banks of the Hudson, livre ebook

During the 1850s and '60s, by far the most prominent author in all of New York State was the writer, editor, and publisher Nathaniel Parker Willis (1806–1867). Nearly as prominent as Willis himself was his Hudson Valley estate, Idlewild, where literary elites gathered and about which Willis himself wrote and published extensively. In 1846, Willis founded the Home Journal, which would go on to become Town and Country. In Out-Doors at Idlewild, first published in 1855, Willis chronicled the creation of his estate at Cornwall-on-Hudson (near West Point), as well as life amid its countryside. The land afforded brilliant views of the river and the mountains to the East. Calvert Vaux, the famed architect of both landscapes and houses, designed the elaborate and ornate Gothic Revival home, which Willis named Idlewood (whereas he called the estate Idlewild), and into which the Willis family moved in July of 1853. Here, Willis wrote a series of papers for the Home Journal documenting life at the seventy-acre estate. These papers were gathered together in Out-Doors at Idlewild, a celebration of Willis's home and estate.
New Introduction
Edward Renehan
OUT-DOORS AT IDLEWILD
Preface
LETTER I. The Highland Terrace
LETTER II. Highland Terrace, Continued
LETTER III. Lessening the Brook—Pig-Prophecy—Nearing of the City with Spring—the City Eye, as felt in the Country—Telegraph Wires, Æolian
LETTER IV. Slight of Small Streams in the Landscape—Character of Idlewild Brook—Legend and Name of our Nearest Village
LETTER V. Reasons for Neighbors moving Off—Morals of Steamboat Landings—Class that is gradually taking Possession of the Hudson—Thought-property in a Residence—Horizon-clock of Idlewild—Society for the Eye, in a View
LETTER VI. Evergreen Independence of Seasons—Nature's Landscape Gardening—Weakness as to Reluctance in Planting Trees
LETTER VII. Earlier City Migration to the Country than usual—Peculiar Dignity-plant—Object of Country Farmers in taking City Boarders for the Summer—Suggestion as to City and Country Exchange of Hospitality
LETTER VIII. Ownership in Nature worth Realizing—Thumb-and-finger Nationality of Yankees—United Experience of Many, as expressed in a Common-minded Man's Better Knowledge—Lack of Expression and Variety in Gates—Pigtight Gates
LETTER IX. Private Performance of Thunder-storms—Nature's Sundays—Marriage of Two Brooks—Funnychild's Deserted Bed
LETTER X. Making a Shelf-road—Character shown in Wall-laying—By-the-Day and By-the-Job—English Literalness and Yankee "Gumption."
LETTER XI. Plank Foot-bridge over the Ravine—Its Hidden Location—Value of Oldman Friendships—Friend S.—His Visit to the Bridge—His Remembrance of Washington—Tobacco Juice on Trees to Prevent Horse-biting, &c., &c.
LETTER XII. Foliage and its Wonders—Caprice of Tree-living—Auto-verdure of Posts—Hemlock, the Homestead Emblem, &c., &c.
LETTER XIII. Noon Visitors to Scenery—The Bull-Frog at the Gate—Inconvenient Opening of a Spring—Frog Curiosity and Intelligence—Process of Animal Progression, &c., &c.
LETTER XIV. Canterbury Rowdies—Pianos and Porkers—Unwelcome Visitors—Penalty of Pounding—A Public Benefactor
LETTER XV. Trouble in Gate Designing—Letter from an Unknown Correspondent, on Gates—Invisible Society at Idlewild—Correction of Error as to Hemlocks—Handsome Irishman's Mistake in Felling Trees, &c.
LETTER XVI. Laurel-blossoming—The Imbedded Stone, and Jem's Neglect of his Countryman's honors—Sabbath stop to our Running Water, &c., &c.
LETTER XVII. Effect of clearing out Underbrush from a Wood—Praise Disclaimed—Horror of Bloomeri-ized Evergreens—Neglect of departed Great Men—Carrion Nuisance, &c., &c.
LETTER XVIII. Summer of Even Weather—Lightning-rods falling into Disuse—Filling of Country Boarding-houses—Luxury of Rural Remoteness—Viewless Peopling of a Spot—Wallace the Composer, and his Tribute to Alexander Smith, &c., &c.
LETTER XIX. Neglect of Personal Appearance in Country Seclusion—Unexploring Habits of City People—Dignity of Un-damage-able Dress—Thoughts on Cooper's Mansion being turned into a Boarding-house—Suggestion to Authors, as to turning their Influence to better Account—Letter from Cooperstown, &c., &c.
LETTER XX. Timely Seasons and Untimely Age in America—Wild Glen so near the Hudson—Finding of Water Lilies—Anchoring a Lily in a Brook—Name of Moodna, &c., &c.
LETTER XXI. Avalanche or Storm-King—Idlewild Ravaged by the Flood—Accidents to Persons and Destruction to Property—House Laid Open—Rareness of such Phenomena, &c., &c.
LETTER XXII. Gentleman towing a Cow—Daughter taken out in the Storm to see the Freshet—The Power of a Flood—Lofty Bridge Swept Away—Extent of Desolation, &c., &c.
LETTER XXIII. Young Lady killed by Lightning at our Neighbor's House—Another Paralyzed—Careless General Attention to such Fearful Events, &c., &c.
LETTER XXIV. Dilemma as to Placing Settees—Double Service o