The rent, without furniture, would probably
have been one hundred pounds; furnished, it is one hundred and sixty
pounds. Rock Park, as the locality is called, is private property, and
is now nearly covered with residences for professional people, merchants,
and others of the upper middling class; the houses being mostly built, I
suppose, on speculation, and let to those who occupy them. It is the
quietest place imaginable, there being a police station at the entrance,
and the officer on duty allows no ragged or ill-looking person to pass.
There being a toll, it precludes all unnecessary passage of carriages;
and never were there more noiseless streets than those that give access
to these pretty residences. On either side there is thick shrubbery,
with glimpses through it of the ornamented portals, or into the trim
gardens with smooth-shaven lawns, of no large extent, but still affording
reasonable breathing-space. They are really an improvement on anything,
save what the very rich can enjoy, in America. The former occupants of
our house (Mrs. Campbell and family) having been fond of flowers, there
are many rare varieties in the garden, and we are told that there is
scarcely a month in the year when a flower will not be found there.
The house is respectably, though not very elegantly, furnished. It was a
dismal, rainy day yesterday, and we had a coal-fire in the sitting-room,
beside which I sat last evening as twilight came on, and thought, rather
sadly, how many times we have changed our home since we were married.
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