AN ISLAND HOME 



house. It is long and rambling and affords 

 every comfort and even luxury. The dining-room 

 and associated apartments stand a hundred feet 

 away from the main house, connected by a vine- 

 clad pergola and a garden. At the other end 

 of the group of buildings has been erected a 

 boat landing and all along the front is con- 

 structed a great sea wall, at some points twenty 

 feet high, forming a series of platforms on the 

 highest of which stands the main house. 



This sea wall makes one of the most notable 

 features of the place, with its massive pile of big 

 bowlders, some of which are many tons in weight. 

 The base of the sea wall is much wider than the 

 top, thus giving a sense of solidity. The topmost 

 edge, where cut coping would be generally placed, 

 is finished with water-worn bowlders of smaller 

 size and comparatively even surfaces, giving only 

 a slightly waving line. On the inside of this 

 first parapet wall is carried a hidden path about 

 two feet below the top of the wall and bounded 

 on the other side by the wall supporting the upper 

 terrace on which the house stands. 



Pockets of earth are contrived along the edge 

 of this path on both sides where vines can be 

 planted, particularly Virginia creeper, actinidia, 

 and the hybrid wichuriana roses. The object of 

 these climbers, especially on the outer wall, is 

 to modify its bleak aspect by occasional masses 

 of clinging foliage. The front of this sea wall 

 is usually wind and wave swept. An attempt 

 has been made still further to modify the bleak- 



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