Academic literature on the topic 'Royal Highland Emigrants'

Abstract Calvert Vaux made the decision to leave his native England and to emigrate to the United States the day that he met Andrew Jackson Downing, a man whom many in America regarded as the supreme authority on matters of cultivated living. The encounter took place in London late in the summer of 1850, near the end of the European tour that Downing had been making since July of that year. “I was in a settled position and surrounded by friends,” said Vaux, “but I liked him so much, his foresight and observation were so apparent in the conversations we had and above all his style was so calculated to win confidence, that without a fear I relinquished all and accompanied him.”1 After supplying references to Downing, Vaux made arrangements for his departure. In the meantime, Downing took off on a hasty trip to Paris. Perhaps he went armed with advice from Vaux on what to see. Five years before, the young architect’s keen interest in the nascent urban park movement had led him to travel to the Continent to see royal parks and public gardens there. 2 In early September, after Downing had returned to England, he andVaux sailed together from Liverpool to NewYork. Within three we, ks of having met Downing,Vaux was hard at work with him in Newburgh at the office that Downing had created in his home, the Tudor villa that many knew as Highland Garden. Initially,Vaux, who was one of a number of professionally trained English architects to emigrate to the United States before the Civil War, had agreed to accept the post of assistant; by the end of the year Downing had made him his partner.3 This whirlwind sequence of events bears out a friend’s appraisal of Downing as a man who possessed “an almost intuitive perception of character” and in whom were combined the qualities of “keen perception, great energy, decision, and boldness:”