Colonial Garden-making 21 



I do not doubt that this Van Cortlandt garden 

 was laid out when the house was built ; much of it 

 must be two centuries old. It has been extended, not 

 altered; and the grass-covered bank supporting the 

 upper garden was replaced by a brick terrace wall 

 about sixty years ago. Its present form dates to the 

 days when New York was a province. The upper 

 garden is laid out in formal flower beds ; the lower 

 border is rich in old vines and shrubs, and all the 

 beloved old-time hardy plants. There is in the 

 manor-house an ancient portrait of the child Pierre 

 Van Cortlandt, painted about the year 1732. He 

 stands by a table bearing a vase filled with old gar- 

 den flowers — Tulip, Convolvulus, Harebell, Rose, 

 Peony, Narcissus, and Flowering Almond ; and it 

 is the pleasure of the present mistress of the manor, 

 to see that the garden still holds all the great-grand- 

 father's flowers. 



There is a vine-embowered old door in the wall 

 under the piazza (see opposite page 20) which opens 

 into the kitchen and fruit garden ; a wall-door so 

 quaint and old-timey that I always remind me of 

 Shakespeare's lines in Measure for Measure : — 



" He hath a garden circummured with brick, 

 Whose western side is with a Vineyard back'd ; 

 And to that Vineyard is a planched gate 

 That makes his opening with this bigger key : 

 The other doth command a little door 

 Which from the Vineyard to the garden leads." 



The long path is a beautiful feature of this gar- 

 den (it is shown in the picture of the garden oppo- 



