December, 1905 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



369 



At the Foot of the Lawn is a Huge Fountain, in which Gold Fish and Carp May Swim 



Notable American Homes 

 "YADDO" 



Its Gardens and its Grounds 



By Charles de K. Wentworth 



EFO' the wah " Saratoga was the fashion- 

 able watering place for New Yorkers and 

 held its own until Newport took the glory 

 from it. The curative properties of its many 

 springs were taken more seriously then, and 

 the presence of a large contingent from the 

 Southern States made the crowd of visitors more varied and 

 interesting than it became later, when the Civil War inter- 

 fered with the northward summer migrations from Virginia 

 and beyond. But of late Saratoga has come into favor again 

 and many are drawn to the town which has experienced 

 within half a century such ups and downs. Some, per- 

 haps, seek for an explanation of what it was that furnished 

 the attraction and brought together Canadians and South- 

 erners, New Yorkers and Kentuckians, every summer for 

 two generations. 



A first visit to " Yaddo " was somewhat in the nature of 

 an accident, since I found my way to it rather unexpectedly 

 on the occasion of a morning's walk. I well remember it 

 was hot — as this old battlefield of the British troops and 

 Colonial levies often can be — and I had no longer to solace 

 me the shade of the trees that grew in fine style down the 

 center of the avenue. There were woods on my right, young 

 woods, with taller trees peeping beyond them, trees that 

 tempted one to explore their shady bosquets; the more so 

 because a gateway stood invitingly open, whence I caught 

 a glimpse of a cool aisle of road with a bend that 

 asked one to find out whither it was going. I remember 

 the first note of interest I came upon was a charming little 

 lake with whispering grass at its shoal end and trees over- 

 hanging the bolder banks. The road skirts this lake, turns 

 into the forest, comes back to a second and larger lake, over 

 which hangs a round tower, built of boulders, with arched 



openings below its conical roof. That tower and the rough 

 stone coping of the road as it swept around the lower end of 

 the lake gave one pause. The turn brought one before an 

 arch of massive stones, which carried the driveway south- 

 ward and separated one of the four successive lakes from 

 another still farther down. 



Not far off I came across the owner of this domain, clad 

 in corduroys and golf trim, giving orders to a gardener near a 

 clump of rhododendrons. It was characteristic of the thought 

 and care that has gone to the making of this great estate that 

 its owner should, at midday, be thus engaged in a distinct and 

 quiet spot, intent upon personally directing a comparatively 

 small matter. At the very beginning of our talk he explained 

 to me that " Yaddo " — and, indeed, it was almost my first 

 thought — was not, as I had supposed, a local Indian name, 

 but was one given the place, under special circumstances, 

 when the present owners first came here and long be- 

 fore the present house was built. Taking it from childish 

 lips, it began to be used at first in sport, then adopted in 

 earnest. It is short and convenient for general use, 

 and is consecrated to its owners by memories which be- 

 long to them alone. 



The little lakes hidden away in the trees mean everything 

 in the pleasure we get from " Yaddo," not alone because of 

 their picturesqueness, but their practical value. They are 

 ice makers and pure water providers, and in winter are 

 skated upon with protection from the wind. 



Strolling along the driveway, which zigzags on easy 

 gradients up a rather steep incline, we came to wide slopes of 

 greensward and caught a glimpse of the mansion, its square 

 tower of rough-faced gray stone and broad stone terrace sug- 

 gesting Elizabethan architecture, which the extension in half- 

 timber does not belie, nor the octagonal smaller tower that 



