H FOREWORD 



famous, and under the last occupant it cer- 

 tainly lost none of its prestige for hospitality, 

 as well as a recognized literary and social cen- 

 ter. 



The mansion has been modernized in some 

 of its appointments, but as far as possible its 

 form and individuality preserved. It is a 

 venerable mansion, looks it and feels it, and yet 

 has all the conveniences of the modern home. 

 It arrests attention and is often photographed 

 as a beautiful specimen of later colonial times. 

 It was first occupied in 1790, is two storied, 

 four square in form, having a central chimney 

 from cellar to the apex roof, affording as such 

 houses do fireplaces in each of the square 

 rooms of both stories. What a household lux- 

 ury is a fine looking and working fireplace, a 

 boon in sickness, and when the wet and shivery 

 east storms prevail, these fireplaces do light up 

 a room and banish the weather and give extra 

 sociability to company or invest one's reading 

 and study with a more relishable zestl 



The front faqade bears a Grecian impress, 

 with its five splendid, well-formed Corinthian 

 pillars and a generous piazza,, giving it a most 

 dignified aspect. The house sets well back 

 from the street, on a gentle rise of ground, 

 •fronting the east, and, like the imperturbable 



