"The estate is large, and is laid out with much taste, and still retains all the venerable live oaks which have given to it the appropriate name of Oak Lawn.  A large and tasteful mansion occupies the highest elevation, while in front, the ground descending to the bayou is studded with various specimens of trees and statuary.  A large cistern enclosed with brick and cement, and encased with lattice-work fringed with the multi flora rose to shield it from the sun, receiving the water from the eves in winder, and being shut off in summers, leaves the reservoir at the lowest temperature possible in this climate.  But I find that even here ice is regularly brought by the steamboats from New Orleans, a distance of nearly 300 miles by the route taken.  A brick dairy-room ensconced beneath the dense foliage several drooping oaks, and as perfectly barricaded against the admission of heat as possible, was filled with numerous vessels of Ayrshire milk, cream, and butter; and a large ornamental and vegetable garden closely adjoining furnishes all that is necessary to gratify the taste ad senses."