HOMES NEAR TO NATURE. 



3i7 



A VIEW OF THE DUCK POND. 



a swamp, a meadow, a brook, a ledge 

 and some bits of forest. The brook 

 and the swamp have been changed into 

 a beautiful lake, the banks into a 

 graceful Italian garden ; the ledge has 

 become a picturesque site for the house, 

 and the meadow is beautiful in its 

 primitive, unaltered condition. The 

 famous naturalist knows how to im- 

 prove and how to let alone. 



He is not bound down by time-hon- 

 ored customs. In good taste and for 

 convenience the road to the house plot 

 has been made straight. He has 

 demonstrated that a straight path can 

 be beautiful, and that it is not neces- 



sary to go a mile to gain a half. The 

 makers and keepers of country roads 

 may well go and study his lessons. He 

 teaches too what it would seem that 

 every one should know, yet few seem- 

 ingly do know that bushes, just or- 

 dinary bushes (not those trimmed and 

 cut and carved), may be beautiful. 



Yet he has formalism, the most for- 

 mal of formalism, but placed where it 

 is needed and where it becomes beau- 

 tiful by contrast. 



The Indian Camp is well located by 

 the lake, and is the central college 

 from which have come thousands of 

 accessory camps in all parts of America 



THE ITALIAN GARDEN AS VIEWED FROM THE NORTH. 



