37° 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



December, 1905 



advances a little before the facade, nor the carved wood 

 portions of the front. The tower represents the center of 

 this original house in more than one respect. It provides for 

 two great central halls on main and upper story, and above 

 that rooms with superb outlook. In the old country this 

 would represent the original tower of stone into which family 

 and movables were bundled when a raid was coming. The 

 extensions north and south would represent the additions 

 made after the coming of more settled times. In the adapted 

 form its two broad, high-ceiled halls make a meeting place 

 on each floor. That above is a lounging-room with tables, 



A Glimpse of the Facade and the Terrace. The Outer Wall is Tapestried with Vines ; 



Flower Beds Flank the Walk 



books, easy chairs, loggia to the west, broad outlook to the 

 east. That below is an assembly room for arrivals and 

 departures, for games before the great fireplace, for pageants 

 on Twelfth Night or Christmas. Into it open the wide 

 doors of drawing-rooms and dining-room, and there descends 

 the great double stairway. To the west is the little conserva- 

 tory and fountain, to the east the tall, wide window doors 

 that lead to the terrace. In nothing does " Yaddo " bear 

 the marks of a home all the year round more clearly than in 

 its orientation, for the dense pine woods to the west and 

 north diminish the force of the icy winds, while the terrace 



turned to the east gets all the morning sun, with the added 

 protection of the house at one's back. Here the outer wall 

 is tapestried with Virginia creeper and other vines, and the 

 flower boxes at the foot of the wall glow with seasonable 

 blossoms. As one turns from the house and allows the gaze 

 to sweep across the vast plain in which Saratoga Lake is lost 

 among the undulations of the ground, the sharpest accent 

 is given by a giant pine tree leaning at an angle with the 

 slope on which it stands, the last of a mighty forest that 

 grew here when the settlers pushed eastward from the Hud- 

 son and westward from New England. Fortunately this tree 



was spared by the farmer 

 whose land Mr. Trask bought. 

 It is characteristic of many up- 

 country farmers that they show 

 a certain hatred of trees in- 

 herited from the earlier settlers 

 who had to do battle against 

 the overwhelming forest. One 

 hears them apologizing for not 

 cutting down the most beautiful 

 oaks and pines on the plea of 

 overwork or laziness ! As luck 

 would have it this pine escaped, 

 either because it seemed too 

 heavy a job to undertake when 

 plenty of smaller trees could be 

 managed or because its owners 

 really felt its lonely majesty 

 and beauty. Now it gives a 

 character to the landscape not 

 easily defined. 



Mr. Trask and his poet wife 

 have the roots of their existence 

 deep in this fair and smiling es- 

 tate as the great pine pushes its 

 roots down into the whilom 

 pasture, now a stately rose 

 garden. The farmhouse fell, 

 to make room for a country 

 seat, and that house in turn dis- 

 appeared in the flames. Then 

 it was that the present structure 

 rose. Meantime other acres 

 were acquired to the north 

 across the highway, to the west 

 beyond the pine forest toward 

 the race track; to the south- 

 ward, too, and lower down into 

 the plain to the eastward, so 

 that in the course of time 

 " Yaddo " has become an estate 

 of seven hundred acres or more, 

 with its pasture lands and 

 arable fields, its mighty barns 

 and model dairy, its woods and 

 coppices. It has become a 

 favorite drive for Saratoga, the 

 well kept drives in all but the 

 close neighborhood of the mansion being always open to the 

 public. 



" Yaddo " mansion does not keep its formal gardens in 

 close proximity, but hides them behind screens of trees and 

 hedges. Looking from the terrace one perceives a fountain 

 far below, on the lower lawn, but only a bit of the rose garden 

 offers itself invitingly. So, beckoned onward by the leaning 

 tower of the pine tree aforesaid, one strolls, unprepared and 

 drawn as by invisible threads of expectation not yet come to 

 conscious curiosity, down the natural slope of the lawn; or, 

 if it is hot sunlight, one edges over to a pleached alley that 



