An Old Parsonage

pleasures of the country, the gardening, and the shooting and fishing, walking in the woods and improving the property. Such leisure he had for many years longed to have. During the following winter he spent most of his time in New York, and was also in Washington on legal business for clients, but returned to Montgomery Place in the Spring of 1836 where he died on May twenty-third in the seventy-second year of his age.

From him his widow, Louise, daughter of Jean Pierre Valentin d'Avezac de Castera, inherited Montgomery Place. She was thei about fifty-five years old. With her lived the only surviving child of Edward Livingston, Coralie, who was born in 1806 and had married on April , 1833, Thomas Pennant Barton, son of Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton, the well-known physician and botanist of Philadelphia.

Mrs. Livingston took a real interest in her country estate where she spent a good part of every year. She did much to improve it and found it no burden for her natural administrative ability made it easy for her. She decorated the Mansion House and put in handsome wall papers and brocades of the day. In 1843 she had the well known architect, Alexander J. Davis, draw the plans and elevations for the north pavilion, the west porch, and the south wing of the house and these were completed in 1844 and remain unchanged. She build the conservatories which were designed by Mr. Catherwood, and had the formal garden made. Andrew Jackson Downing in his book, Landscape Gardening, published in 1852, gives the following brief account of the grounds and gardens: "Among the fine features of this estate are the wilderness, a richly wooded and highly picturesque valley, filled with the richest growth of trees, and threaded with dark, intricate, and mazy walks, along which are placed a variety of rustic seats. This valley is musical with the sound of waterfalls, of which there are several fine ones in the bold impetuous stream which finds its course through the lower part of the wilderness. Near the further end of the valley is a beautiful lake, half of which lies cool and dark under the shadow of tall trees, while the other half gleams in the open sunlight. In the part of the lawn, near the house, yet so surrounded by a dark setting of trees and shrubs as to form a rich picture by itself, is one of the most perfect flower gardens in the country, laid out in the arabesque manner, and glowing with masses of the gayest colors—each bed being composed wholly of a single hue. A large conservatory, an exotic garden, an arboretum, etc., are among the features of interest in this admirable residence. Including a drive through a fine bit of natural wood, south of the mansion, there are five miles of highly varied and picturesque private roads and walks, through the pleasure-grounds of Montgomery Place."

The outlines of the paths and flower beds of the garden may still be traced in the lawn, and the

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paths in the wilderness and drives in the South woods remain as they were.

Mrs. Livingston died at Montgomery Place ' on October 24th, 1860 in her seventy-ninth year, leaving Montgomery Place to he-c daughter, Mrs. Thomas Pennant Barton, then fifty-four years old.

Mr. and Mrs. Barton continued to make Montgomery Place their principal home, though they had also a house in New York being number 8 West 22nd Street. Mr. Barton after serving as Charge d'Affaires with his father-in-law, Edward Livingston, in France, and being obliged to request his passports, returned to America in January 1836, and in the spring of the same year joined his wife at Montgomery Place whither she had gone with her mother. Born in 1803 and educated much in France and widely travelled, he had led an active life and it was said he was the last of the gentlemen of the old school in New York who had killed his opponent in a duel. But now, though still a young man, he retired from a more active life and devoted his time to literature, of which he was fond, and to the development of the natural beauties of Montgomery Place. His wife shared these tastes with him and after Mrs. Livingston's death they continued the improvement of the property. In 1863 she had the east portico of the house built according to plans and drawings prepared by Alexander J. Davis, the architect, who also designed and built the balustrades and ornament around the terrace or veranda and around the top of the house. While

Mr. Barton kept his great collection of Shakespearian books and manuscripts in his city house he did much of his correspondence relating to it from Montgomery

Place. This celebrated collection is now preserved in the Boston

Public Library. Many of the Barton books and papers relating to botanical and horticultural subjects and some general literature are still here together with a large collection of books once owned by

Mrs. Montgomery and also Edward

Livingston's library.

It was while Mrs. Barton owned

Montgomery Place that the Century Plant came into flower there which attracted much attention and visitors from many parts of the country.

Mr. Barton died while driving near Montgomery Place on April fifth, 1869 and she died here on

May twenty-second, 1873. Having no children Mrs. Barton left Montgomery Place for their lives to her first cousins once removed on her mother's side, namely Carleton

Hunt and his sister Louise Livingston Hunt, and after their deaths to Maturin Livingston Delafield a near relative on her father's side. She was fond of the Misses

Hunt who had often stayed with her.

Mr. and Mrs. Carleton Hunt and his sisters, Louise and Julia Barton Hunt, made Montgomery Place their summer home. Mr. Hunt had married Elizabeth L. G. Cammack daughter of Robert C. Cammack of New Orleans on December twenty-fourth, 1860. She and 30