122 HOW TO MAKE A COUNTRY PLACE 



of an apple orchard; blossoming tree, half-grown fruit, matured 

 apple crop, and snow-laden boughs. Mantel face and hearth were 

 onyx with shelf supported by ormolu or mosaic gold brackets and 

 lower half of the broad window opening on veranda, next to a side 

 door screened with translucent leaded glass. 



Hillcrest Hall towered four stories, and required a plot of land 

 more than one hundred by two hundred and twenty-five feet to com- 

 pass its angles and curves. There were at least two hundred win- 

 dows. It represented both joy and worry in large measure, and I 

 grayed a bit during its building. 



Fireproof Den. 



Adjoining the library was a fireproof den of iron, brick, and 

 cement, with two air-spaced metal doors, iron shuttered and barred 

 windows, and a wide fireplace. Under this den was a large stone 

 walled room, its sides lined with asbestos covered metal shelves, 

 making an ideal filing room with fireplace ventilation. 



On the second floor were the usual half dozen bathrooms, tiled 

 to the ceiling, and masters' bedrooms, both with and without bal- 

 conies, dressing rooms with mirror doors, and everywhere a super- 

 abundance of large closets. 



The billiard room windows on the third floor overlooked thirty 

 miles of Sound and country. Wall decorations were pictures of hunt- 

 ing, yachting, fencing, and other sports. 



Pistol Gallery. 



Here was a Japanese room with lanterned, divaned and draped 

 cosy corner, and leading therefrom a well ventilated pistol gallery, 

 where bullets harmlessly impinged against the massive stone chimney 

 breast. In the centre of this long corridor-like room stood a rowing 

 machine. 



A large linen and a cedar closet, the former having two full 

 sized doors, completed this story. 



On the fourth floor were housed the personal attendants of 

 guests, distinct from house servants' quarters in the kitchen ell. 



Gym. in the Open. 



Over the arched and gargoyled porte cochere, screened by 

 window boxes filled in summer with flowering plants and in winter 

 with evergreens pruned in curves, is an outdoor canvas-floored gym- 

 nasium, equipped with trapeze, punching bags and other parapher- 

 nalia to be used for that few moments' morning exercise in the open 

 that fills the lungs, develops the muscles, straightens the form, and 



