Image of Bolton Priory in the Town of Pelham Published in an 1859 Treatise on Landscape Gardening

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In 1859, Henry Winthrop Sargent published the sixth edition of his book entitled "Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America; with a View to the Improvement of Country Residences Comprising Historical Notices and General Principles of the Art, Directions for Laying Out Grounds and Arranging Plantations, the Description and Cultivation of Hardy Trees, Decorative Accompaniments of the House and Grounds, the Formation of Pieces of Artificial Water, Flower Gardens, Etc. with Remarks on Rural Architecture by the Late A. J. Downing, Esq." Among the many topics addressed in the treatise was the Elizabethan Style "so common in England in the 17th century".

The treatise condemns the style as "a barbarous kind of architecture, wanting in purity of taste". Yet, it noted that "in some of its simpler forms (Fig. 52), it may be adopted for country residences here in picturesque situations with a quaint and happy effect". To prove its point in this regard, the book also references Bolton Priory in Pelham that still stands. The treatise stated:

"A highly unique residence in the old English style, is Pelham Priory, the seat of the Rev. Robert Bolton, near New Rochelle, N.Y., Fig. 53. The exterior is massive and picturesque, in the simplest taste of the Elizabethan age, and being built amidst a fine oak wood, of the dark rough stone of the neighborhood, it has at once the appearance of considerable antiquity. The interior is constructed and fitted up throughout in the same feeling, -- with harmonious wainscoting, quaint carving, massive chimney pieces, and old furniture and armor. Indeed, we doubt if there is, at the present moment any recent private residence, even in England, where the spirit of the antique is more entirely carried out, and where one may more easily fancy himself in one of those 'mansions builded curiously' of our ancestors in the time of 'good Queen Bess'."

The book contains a lovely engraving showing Bolton Priory only a few years after it was first built in 1838. That image appears immediately below.

Source: Sargent, William Henry, Landscape Gardening, Adapted to North America; with a View to the Improvement of Country Residences Comprising Historical Notices and General Principles of the Art, Directions for Laying Out Grounds and Arranging Plantations, the Description and Cultivation of Hardy Trees, Decorative Accompaniments of the House and Grounds, the Formation of Pieces of Artificial Water, Flower Gardens, Etc. with Remarks on Rural Architecture by the Late A. J. Downing, Esq., pp. 347-48 and Figure 53 Opp. p. 354 (6th ed., NY, NY: A.O. Moore & Co. 1859).


Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
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