A CENTURY-AND-A-HALF-OLD AMERICAN GARDEN 



LILIAN C. STREETER 



Extant Example of an Old Colonial Garden Preserved for To-day, Whence 

 Comes the Tradition of a Lost Larkspur, and Whence Seven Generations of 

 Brides Have Taken Slips from an Ancient Damask Rose to Newer Gardens 



[Editor's Note : Under the sympathetic care of the New Hampshire Society of Colonial Dames, 

 to whom this rare example of a fine old garden now belongs, it is maintained as nearly ets may be on its 

 original lines, and such restoration as may be needed or desirable is promised. This account of it, 

 the first that has ever been published, has been prepared by Mrs. Streeter, Chairman of the organisa- 

 tion's Garden Committee, especially for the Garden Magazine.] 



FROM THE STAIRWAY 



This living garden picture varies 

 with the seasons 



OTH ING is known posi- 

 tively of the actual be- 

 ginnings of this garden 

 — whose brain con- 

 ceived it nor whose hands ex- 

 ecuted the plan; but there is no 

 doubt it was laid out when the 

 house was built, for. in " colony 

 times" in Portsmouth town, the 

 garden was as much a part of 

 the home as the house, and as 

 naturally taken for granted. 

 And the beautiful colonial house 

 was built in 1763 by Captain John 

 Moffatt, being probably the first 

 of this type in the state — it is three storied — according to Mr. 

 R. Clipston Sturgis, the eminent architect, who further says of 

 it, "an unusually complete example, for it has a well de- 

 signed exterior with good detail, a good setting on the street 

 overlooking the harbor, and a well-laid-out garden terraced 

 up from the house and filled with flowers, shrubs and fruit 

 trees — an exceeding pleasant spot." From the heirs of 

 Alexander Ladd, who was a direct descendant of Captain 

 Moffatt, the property came into the possession of the New 

 Hamphsire Society of Colonial Dames in 1912. 



Though situated on busy, noisy Market Street and sur- 

 rounded on all sides by shops, warehouses and dilapidated 

 tenements.it was, when built, in the choicest residence section 

 of the city, with other fine houses and gardens all about it; 

 and the situation is even now beautiful, facing as it does the 

 noble river Piscataqua, and looking across to the rocky 

 wooded Maine shore opposite. Even the old gambrel-roofed 

 sail-loft in the immediate foreground across the street, and 

 the rotting wharves below have a certain picturesqueness 

 that redeems them. Charming as the house is we must 

 forego any description of it here, however, for it is only the 

 old garden, the very heart of the home, that this article can 

 consider. 



THE view, approaching from the street, shows how ab- 

 solutely the dwelling, with its office at one side and 

 panelled fences, guards the lovely privacy of the garden from 

 the outside world, in front. At either side and across the 

 rear boundary upon High Street it is as effectively guarded 

 by trees and shrubbery that preserve it inviolate. Although 



we must speculate about its earlier years, we have since 1819 — 

 just a hundred years ago — definite knowledge of the gar- 

 den; for in that year Captain John Mofratt's great-grand- 

 daughter, Maria Tufton Haven, who had married Alexander 

 Ladd in 1807, came to live in the Moffatt house. And from 

 that time we know that it has been loved sincerely and 

 tended carefully, for a love of gardens and gardening is an 

 inherent trait in the Ladd family. 



In Alexander Hamilton Ladd, the son of Mary Haven and 

 Alexander Ladd, who fell heir to the estate in 1862, this family 

 love of nature and growing things was developed to an un- 

 usual degree; and there is no doubt in my mind that it is to his 

 skill, care, and ardent enthusiasm that we owe most of the 

 beauty of the garden as it is to-day. He devoted almost his 

 entire time to it during the long summer days, and added to 

 the original plot all the land north of the old office extending 

 to the western boundary, laying out the lawn there and the 

 curved path to the grape arbor, and installing the bee hives; 

 for he was a scientific apiarist as well as gardener, and loved 

 and studied his bees almost as if they were human. He 

 planted many fruit trees too, and rare shrubs, and the magni- 

 ficent old wistaria on the western wall of the house; and it 

 was his genius that achieved the old grass steps leading to 

 the upper level of the garden — a most Unusual and difficult 

 feature. 



TRUE TO THE GRACIOUS TRADITIONS OF COLONIAL DAYS 



A prim dooryard lies invitingly opposite the mansion, protected only by 

 palings, but complete seclusion for the grounds begins promptly with the 

 panelled fence at one side and the office, wall, and fence at the other 



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