32 STATE POMOLOr.ICAL SOCIETY. 



rets and battlements of hammered granite. So distinf^uished an 

 arcliitect as the late Mr. Kichard Upjohn, who designed Trinity 

 Church, New York, was consulted in the making of its plans. Its 

 main front faces the river — which is some four or five hundred yards 

 distant — between which is a fine lawn. The house has a frontage 

 of ninety feet, the large hall running the entire length, and its main 

 portion extending to the roof. There are over thirty rooms in the 

 house, the library, parlor and dining-room occupying the east front, 

 being 14 feet high, and finished in plain solid wood. The library is 

 large and rare, and upon the walls of the hall and parlor are family 

 portraits of three or four generations, b}' distinguished painters, and 

 copies bv some of the best Italian artists of the more celebrated 

 paintings in the Florentine galleries, obtained by members of the 

 family when abroad. The cost of the house was $32,000. For 

 years it has been the seat of great hospitalit}' and good cheer. The 

 late Bishop Burgess writing of the life at Oaklands during the time 

 of Mr. Gardiner, Sr., says: "The judges of the courts on their 

 circuits did not fail to become his visitors. Every intelligent traveller 

 from abroad who came to the Kennebec was almost sure to bring 

 letters which threw open its doors. The clergy were ever honored 

 under his roof for the sake of Him b}- whom they were sent." Between 

 1822 and 1840, Oaklands was frequentl}^ visited by the late distin- 

 guished author, Hon. George Ticknor, who, in his memoirs, describes 

 the dailv life there as "like that which forms so grraceful a feature 

 in the countrj^ life of England." In 1874, when on his eastern tour, 

 President Grant and his suite were entertained at Oaklands, in right 

 ro3'al, though simple st3ie, by the subject of our notice who was then 

 its chief. By the will of Mr. Gardiner this place descends to his 

 Dephew, Robert Hallowell Gardiner of Boston, a 3'oung and brilliant 

 lawyer, who intends to keep up its former character, and who has 

 already become a life member of our Society. 



During the past summer Mr. Gardiner had not been very strong, 

 although his indomitable will and energ}' kept him active in spite of 

 slight bodily indispositions, even when these were long continued 

 and would to most persons have made them sick. He would not 

 "give up." "I must rallv from this indisposition, somehow," he 

 said to his nephew onlv a few hours before he died, making an at- 

 tempt to raise himself in bed — and this was characteristic of his 

 whole life. It was his happiness to be bus}^ to be active, to be do- 

 ing something for others. On Friday, Sept. 10th, he recorded his 



