AMERICAN ESTATES. AND GARDENS 



stables and a gate lodge are reached to the west, and other parts of the estate are approached 

 toward the east. Behind the fountain the drive is upheld by a marble wall, with a retaining 

 wall on the farther side, beyond which is the thick growth of forest trees. 



The great fountain is placed at the head of a long pool, and is surrounded with a pergola 

 of twisted marble columns, imported, like most of the marble work, from Italy. It forms 

 a magnificent climax to the house grounds, and is a structure of unusual beauty. Beyond the 

 drive is the court enclosed on three sides by the house. It has an outer balustrade, whose piers 

 support vases and statues and contains many fine bay trees of great size and age. 



At very few places in America will there be found such a combination of natural scenery 

 and primeval woodland with the most formal treatment of landscape effects imported from 

 France. As the visitor approaches the house from the north through the winding forest drive, 

 he is not prepared for the sudden transformation which meets his eye when he emerges from 

 the woods on to the terrace overlooking the long basin and the north front of the house. Here 

 everything is laid out with a geometrical nicety and upon the most formal lines. The avenues 

 of poplars lining the straight drives which approach the house from the east and west, and 

 the little formal gardens bordering the loggias at both ends of the house, are French in spirit and 

 in perfect harmony with the architecture of the mansion. In front of the house is a beautifully 

 graded sweep of lawn, and the view of the distant hills is not broken by the presence of 

 a single tree, while the natural forest at the north side of the house affords a splendid back- 

 ground of green, which sets out the white walls of the house to the best advantage. 



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