HILLTOP 



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CHAPTER IV. 



HILLTOP STONY CREST THE GABLES BUENA VISTA HILL- 

 CREST HOUSE STORM KING STONEHENGE SKY ROCK 

 BRIERCLIFF CROFTLEIGH HOUSE CLIFFMONT 

 BREEZEMONT LEDGES DRACHENFELS ISLAND 

 HOUSE CROSSWAYS RED TOWERS. 



THE first house with which I changed the sky-line of the rough- 

 Connecticut farm was Hilltop, two large stone chimneys 

 its main motif. Hilltop was built before the advent in numbers 

 in this country of the skilled Italian stone chimney mason, who, while 

 often moving slowly, rarely picks up the wrong stone. I finally 

 found a native boss mason willing to tackle the job. The chimneys, 

 built of selected lichen-covered stones, both within and without, grew 

 fast, and with them the house, of plain but strong design. Three 

 large rooms lined toward the south, with the two exterior chimneys 

 of field stone equidistant from each end. The stair hall was thrown 

 toward the north in a semi-ell, and kitchen in the same manner at 

 the other end, connected by a columned, palm-decorated one-story 

 corridor. On the second floor bedrooms were all on the south 

 and a well ventilated and lighted hall on the north. That roof of roofs 



HILLTOP. 



