February, 19 13 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



49 



purposes 



well; besides that, 

 doesn't darken 

 rooms. If the 

 weather is fine, it is 

 The hallway f ar better to sit out 



under the open heaven than to have a roof overhead. If 

 it is too sunny for use at any time during the day, what is 

 pleasanter than to sit in the shade of a tree? What more 

 engaging place for tea than a terrace when the westering 

 sun behind us is casting long shadows over the lawn? If 

 one wishes to sit out and enjoy a glorious night, a piazza 

 roof only obscures a part of the effulgent sky. As to court- 

 ings, we all know that love is blind so piazza or terrace 

 answer equally well. If the night is not fine enough to sit 

 out without shelter above, older folk will be better indoors 

 and less liable to rheumatism. 



This is not an unqualified diatribe against piazzas in 

 general; it is merely a protest against the unreasonableness 

 of those that demand piazzas for every house regardless 

 of all other considerations. It is just as unreasonable to 

 insist that every house shall have a piazza as to insist that 

 every man shall wear pink pantaloons. Pink pantaloons 

 may suit some people; to others they will not be becoming. 

 Everybody can see the absurdity of proposing pink panta- 

 loons for all the adult male population, but when it comes 

 to piazzas they grow blindly inconsistent. There are cases, 

 and plenty of them, where piazzas are right and proper 

 and fitting — eminently so — cases where they are archi- 

 tecturally suitable and serve a useful purpose. There are, 

 too, cases not a few in which they are a positive boon to 

 their owners, and no one with a drop of the milk of human 

 kindness would deprive these people of a source of pleasure. 

 There are certain architectural styles with whose tradi- 

 tions piazzas accord and with houses built in these styles 

 one wishes to see piazzas. 

 There are, however, certain 

 other houses where they are 

 manifestly out of place and 

 yet it is not uncommon to 

 see them brutally attached to 

 those very structures. Fox 

 Hill Farmhouse belongs to 

 an architectural type that 

 makes no provision for pi- 

 azzas and it is matter for 

 commendation where, in 

 such an instance, piazzas are 

 left off despite the popular 

 prejudice in their favor. 

 This digression on piazzas, 

 if a trifle long, is surely not 

 misplaced nor unseasonable. 

 A word of protest against 

 lay inconsistency and a plea 

 for architectural propriety 



The fireplace in the living-room is one of the best features in this 



interesting house 



be nowhere 

 more fitly uttered 

 than in the descrip- 

 tion of a dwelling 

 that, like Fox Hill 

 Farmhouse, has u PP er hallway 



been true to tradition and teaches by its example a lesson. 

 Before the south front, flower borders bloom on a wide 

 stripe of privet-hedged grass terrace. From the house to the 

 steps to a lower level a walk of unusual construction crosses 

 the terrace. It is made of great irregular-shaped flags, laid 

 down unhewn as when they left the quarry. In the wide 

 spaces between the stones grow sundry low spreading plants 

 suited to rock gardens with a few of taller habit. The 

 taller plants are, perhaps, a bit in the way of those using 

 the walk and if perfection in this kind of path-making were 

 aimed at they might be replaced by lowly herbs that would 

 exhale sweet odors when trodden upon and bruised. The 

 steps nearby are ingeniously planted with rock plants in 

 spaces left in the treads. Beyond the grass terrace a bank 

 descends abruptly to a road shaded by lofty maples while 

 on the other side of the road, and still lower down, are the 

 tennis courts and vegetable garden. 



The south front, with its twin gables, its bow-window, its 

 oriel and the arches of the loggia, is less severe in character 

 than the north front which is the first to be seen by the 

 approaching visitor. The difference of aspect is quite con- 

 sonant with the purposes of the building; the north front, 

 exposed to the view of all comers, maintains a proper reserve 

 of demeanor, while the south, overlooking as it does the 

 more intimate side of family life, irradiates a pleasant 

 geniality. From the south the verity of proportion observ- 

 able in the mass is not less satisfying than when seen from 

 the north or east. The color of the stone and the texture 

 of the walls are particularly good. 



On entering through the 

 low stone porch on the 

 north, the feature that most 

 impresses one is the wide gal- 

 lery running the length of 

 the main part of the building 

 through the north side of the 

 house. At its western end 

 is the stairway and the same 

 gallery arrangement is re- 

 peated upstairs so that the 

 bedrooms, which open from 

 it, avoid a northern exposure 

 and Winter's piercing blasts 

 and look toward the south 

 instead. The gallery is con- 

 tinued around the western 

 side of the east wing so that 

 the bedrooms in that part of 

 the house have an eastern 

 exposure. In a country house 



