Feb 



ruary, 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



47 



its own particular circum- 

 stances. 



Fox Hill Farmhouse is 

 most agreeably situated 

 about a mile and a half west 

 of Brvn Mawr in the rolling 

 country of Radnor Town- 

 ship, a part of the old Welsh 

 Barony that Penn's survey- 

 ors set off for the early Cam- 

 brian settlers. From the 

 road, a quarter of a mile to 

 the northward, the drive de- 

 scends a slope and then 

 climbs up again to the knoll 

 on which the house stands, 

 winding through an old apple 

 orchard on the way. At the 

 eastern end of the house is 

 a stone-walled garth or 

 courtyard for the kitchen 

 and offices, while the drive, 

 circling around a venerable 

 apple tree, lands the visitor 

 before a low, hooded stone 

 porch in the middle of the 

 north front. 



The walls are built of 

 quarry-faced rubble, of nat- 

 ive gray stone, with wide 

 mortar joints, while the sills 

 and coigns about the win- 

 dows and also the cornices, 



both under the eaves and in the peaks of the gables, are of 

 red brick. The cornice work is entirely of headers, while 

 in the coigning about the windows occasional stretchers, 

 projecting into the stonework, give pleasing relief of line 

 and variety of color, the red of the brick contrasting sharply 

 with the warm grays and yellows of the stone. To the 

 right of the porch a great triple window, with heavy brick 

 mullions, floods gallery and staircase with light. The head 

 of each lancet ends in an obtuse pointed arch so character- 

 istic of Tudor and also of late Norman buildings. This 

 window's height is quite proportionate to its great breadth; 

 it extends from a little above the level of the other first 

 floor windows all the way to the eaves. 



It is gratifying to the eye to see the broad, unbroken wall 

 spaces on the north front of Fox Hill Farmhouse. There 

 are enough windows, and of sufficient dimensions, to admit 

 all the light that could be desired and yet they are so placed 

 that the beauty of the masonry has a chance to show to 

 advantage. We too often make the mistake of piercing 



our walls needlessly with a 

 multitude of small windows 

 that are not of much account 

 in themselves — not nearly as 

 useful for either light or ven- 

 tilation as fewer and larger 

 ones — and serve only to 

 break up lines, make the 

 house look "fussy" and are 

 generally detrimental from 

 an architectural point of 

 view. Immediately above 

 the porch a range of five 

 small, square casement win- 

 dows, sepa-rated by brick 

 mullions, lights the long gal- 

 lery on the second floor. 



At the east and west ends 

 of the north front, wings 

 project beyond the main 

 part of the house. From 

 ground to gable peak, the 

 north end of the east wing 

 presents a perfectly blank 

 wall save for the generous 

 outstanding brick chimney 

 stack for the servants'-hall. 

 This bold, severe touch is 

 particularly striking. In the 

 west wing is the library 

 which, by the advantage of 



its position, has windows on 

 Entrance pathway ^ fouf si(ks> 



To prepare the site for the house, part of a hillside, 

 sloping toward the west, was cut away and the earth re- 

 moved thence made into a terrace before the north and 

 south fronts. Viewed from a distance — it is impossible to 

 get any adequate notion at close quarters owing to the 

 lay of the land — the building shows a well-balanced, har- 

 monious mass that seems to have sprung very naturally 

 from the hill on which it stands, its many-gabled roof lines 

 melting into the verdure of the tall trees that form a back- 

 ground. 



Fox Hill Farmhouse is one of those sensibly planned 

 structures that sits down comfortably on its foundations 

 instead of teetering on French heels, so to speak, as so 

 many houses seem to do, perched half-way to the skies on 

 foundation walls run to a ridiculous height above ground 

 level because of some foolish fancy on the part of architect 

 or client. To look at these buildings, remarkably suggest- 

 ive of a Shanghai rooster, one might suppose we had in- 

 herited this mode of construction from lake-dwelling fore- 



The flag-stone garden pathway 



The low, hooded porch on the north front 



