the glories of the Hudson may almost be said to have culminated. In the deep valley flows the river between high and wooded banks. To the south it suddenly broadens to a width of two miles, forming a beautiful lake with picturesque shores. Here is the grandest and most impressive view of the Catskill Mountains. In the distance rise various mountain-chains, including the Highlands at West Point, sixty miles away. At the east is a long, meadowlike valley forming the base of Blue Hill, a mountain of eight or nine hundred feet elevation, and about two miles distant, beyond which is the Taghanic Range, partly in Connecticut and partly in Massachusetts. At the north the river reappears, divided by Mount Merino; on the east bank lies the city of Hudson; on the west, Athens. A glimpse of the river is seen near Albany, and beyond lie the more southern mountains of Vermont. A variety of hillforms and small bodies of water give striking variety to the great panorama.

The house is built in the Persian style, so far as our climate and requirements permit. The walls, two and a half feet thick, are constructed of some rough stones, which are beautiful in color and quarried on the place. The cutwork is partly of light brown-stone and partly of blue-stone. The upper part

of the principal tower is constructed of red, yellow, and black bricks, arranged in characteristic patterns. These bricks are introduced elsewhere in the main structure, in order to produce a pleasing variety of color, as also an effect like mosaic-work. The main doorway, of light brown-stone, has a border of mosaic tiles. The cornices, which are very bold, are richly painted in colors and gold, the designs being conformable to the style of the house. The roofs are covered with green, red, and black slates, arranged in appropriate and elaborate patterns, relieved by a few gilt slates.

The main feature of the interior is a large central court or hall, cruciform, which opens into various rooms. The picture-gallery, with a ceiling eighteen feet high, permits the introduction of four lofty windows to the north, giving an even and admirable light. The partitions throughout the house are of solid masonry, and, as the house is fixed on the firm rock, strength and durability are gained seldom to be found in our domestic architecture.

Mr. Church designed the house himself in all its details, consulting with Mr. Vaux, the eminent architect. The building is certainly very unique, and is wholly an individual structure, departing distinctly from precedents in America.

Among the many beautiful homes in and about Hartford, Connecticut, "Armsmear," the villa of Samuel Colt, the world-renowned inventor, is one of the most interesting. It is situated about half a mile from the city, upon the shore of the mild and lovely Connecticut-a river which in its quiet windings through sunny valleys offers striking contrasts to the region of the Hudson. The site of the Colt property was originally a low meadow overflowed by the river at high water, and comparatively worthless. Samuel Colt conceived and executed the wondrous dike, two miles long, seventy feet broad at base, and as wide on the top as the streets of Hartford, bounded by a green ribbon of willows, which reclaimed a full square mile of territory. And he not only erected a gigantic armory thereon, and a Swiss village for his employees and others, but he perfected the home shown in our illustration.

The mansion itself, unique and costly as it is, carries out no decided principles of architecture: like the mind of its originator and builder, it is bold and unusual in its combinations. It is spoken of as an Italian villa, and the im

pression is deepened that such is the truth by the Uffizi dogs-marble guardians of its portals-which burst upon the view through an archway of foliage into the grounds from the street. But the lofty, solid tower, and substantial, home-like aspect are distinctively English, and the capacious dome in the rear,

quaint pinnacles, minaret effects, profusion of balconies, and light, lavish ornamentation everywhere, indicate a severe touch of the Oriental. It is constructed of stone, and, however contradictory in its architectural features, is massive, majestic, and refined.

The most charming room is the conservatory. This is inclosed with the finest and heaviest of plate-glass, the panels, six feet high, set in foliated arches of

iron, painted red, yellow, and royal purple. Above exquisite chandeliers, themselves hanging baskets of fragrant flowers, a central dome is capped with a golden apple. Both parlor and library open into the conservatory, and from nearly all the rooms in the upper story one may look down into its flowery depths.

The picture-gallery is a stately apartment, used also as a reception- and ballroom. The portrait of the founder of Armsmear-a singularly handsome man -is one of the most prominent objects of contemplation. He was born in 1814. When a boy of fifteen he sailed away before the mast for India, and in his enforced solitude of shipboard cut out with his penknife the model of a revolver. He returned to work, to think, to be baffled, disappointed, and abused, but to still pursue this one central idea of his brain until he achieved a fortune of over five millions, and became the invited and honored guest of kings and emperors. In 1835 he took out the first patent for revolving firearms. In 1837, during the Florida war, his revolvers were first successfully used. During the Mexican war a demand sprang up, and he commenced their manufacture at Hartford. They have since been adopted as cavalry arms by most civilized nations. The genius of the great inventor has been recognized throughout the world. In this room are the cases containing the superb presents he received from foreign potentates: the gold snuffbox from the Sultan of Turkey, date 1850, which bears as many diamonds on its top as there are days in the year, set in silver on a pale-blue ground; the jeweled snuffbox from the present Emperor of Russia; a ring in dark-blue enamel bearing the imperial cipher in diamonds of the Grand Duke Alexander of Russia; another, more glittering and gorgeous, from the Czar Nicholas; and one, a "stone of fire," from Charles Albert, King of Sardinia. Gifts in gold and silver from the two kings of Siam should also be mentioned, Turkish orders of nobility, two or three dozen medals of honor from kings and queens, royal institutes, societies, etc., together with curiosities gathered from every quarter of the known world. The following is a copy of a letter from the successor of Haroun-al-Raschid to Colonel Colt, dated April 10, 1861:

"Sultan Abdul-Medjid, son of Sultan Mahmoud Khan, may his victories be perpetuated !

"The object of this present noble and royal sign, of this illustrious and brilliant world-subduing imperial monogram, is as follows: