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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



February, 19 13 



In Fox Hill Farmhouse at Radnor, Pennsylvania, we find the suggestion of a blending of English and Norman architectural suggestions 



Fox Hill Farmhouse at Radnor § 



By Harold Donaldson Eberlein 

 Photographs by T. C. Turner 



N the dictum "le style, c'est rhomme" there 

 is not a little of sound, sober truth and 

 shrewd common sense. When it comes to 

 matters architectural, with equal or even 

 greater propriety and aptitude, we might 

 say "le style, c'est la maison." Nothing 

 could be more self-evident than the entire dependence of a 

 house on the style of its architecture for all its character, 

 good or bad, its very identity. Without style a house is 

 nothing, a mere aggregation of building material; with style 

 there is all the difference in the world, it at once becomes a 

 lively source of absorbing interest. Only in so far as we 

 accustom ourselves to an intelligent analysis of style, only 

 as we are able to discern and appreciate the architectural 

 subtleties of a building, can we derive full pleasure and 

 satisfaction from its contemplation. 



Fox Hill Farmhouse, designed by Wilson Eyre, of Phila- 

 delphia, is in several respects one of the most interesting 

 country houses erected within the past couple of years. In 

 the first place, one can detect the working of subtle influ- 

 ences in the design of the fabric in much the same way as 

 it is possible to trace strains of heredity or descry traits of 

 family character expanding in an individual, albeit much 

 modified by the impress of personal originality. In the 



second place, the building represents a style, though now 

 too little known and esteemed, bound to win more and 

 more favor every year. 



The influences alluded to are a curious compound of 

 French and English elements. The pitch of the roofs is 

 distinctly Norman, and there are also other points in both 

 the general massing and in the detail that smack of Nor- 

 man origin. At the same time there is much that is un- 

 deniably English and might be assigned to Elizabethan 

 exemplars. We should not be far wrong in characterizing 

 this singularly felicitous blending of English and Norman 

 feeling as Norman seen through modern English eyes and 

 interpreted by modern English domestic ideals, for the Eng- 

 lish prototype of Fox Hall Farmhouse is strongly typical 

 of both architectural strains. It is no disparagement to 

 the originality of the architect to say that the inspiration 

 came from a very delightful Sussex country house, one of 

 the best built since the British architectural revival; in fact, 

 it is usually the case that the most original man is the one 

 that knows most about the work of others and adapts their 

 successes, incorporating them in his own creations. In the 

 present instance, it is a truly laudable achievement to have 

 so faithfully perpetuated the spirit of the archetypal struc- 

 ture while making the new adaptation fit all the needs of 



