December, 1912 
The shutters at ‘The Hedges’ 
add a special charm of their own 
because of their refreshing sim- 
plicity. They are of the plainest 
batten type without the least sug- 
gestion of ornament, save the little 
heart shaped openings near the top, 
while the bolts and sockets are of 
heavy oak whose natural color 
stands out boldly against the white 
of the rest of the woodwork. With 
such shutters, of course, it is need- 
less to say that the windows are not 
made of French plate glass, but of 
panes of proper size and in suf- 
ficient number to prove their Eng- 
lish ancestry so that you feel you 
are really looking at a window and 
not merely at a glazed hole in the 
wall. 
In the treatment of the hedges on 
the place a due balance has been 
kept between formality and _ in- 
formality. The hedgerow at the 
lower end of the grounds, as men- 
tioned before, has been allowed to 
run wild and be a law unto itself; the hedges enclosing the 
gardens and near the house, where a note of formality is 
needed to bridge the gap between man’s building and Dame 
Nature’s handiwork, are square-cropped and trim. 
Another refreshing bit of informality is to be found in 
the wild garden in an out of the way corner that it would 
have been foolish to mow and make into a lawn. Here 
Violets and Poppies, Asters and Tiger Lilies and all the host 
of wildings, of hue intense or tender, run rampant in their 
successive seasons and are a real delight to all that love a 
touch of coloring and form wantoning in native freedom. 
Passing from the wild garden, along a grass walk back of 
bh 
LLL ELE EAE AG sd Sit he fi ee 
In the treatment of the hedges on the 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
The shutters add a special charm of their own because 
of their refreshing simplicity 
place a due balance has been kept between formality and informality 
415 
a tall hedge, we come between 
wide borders where Peonies and 
Rose bushes fill no little space while 
plants of humbler habit cluster 
round their feet. Back of the Roses 
and Peonies masses of Hollyhocks, 
Foxgloves and Larkspurs lift their 
scores of spear-like shafts of gorge- 
ous color skyward. 
At the upper end of this gaily 
bordered path an arched opening 
through the hedge admits to the en- 
closure at the foot of the terrace 
leading up to the pillared brick- 
paved porch under the overhang. At 
the end farthest from the house is a 
rectangular Lily-pool with a thick 
bank of Rose bushes back of it. 
Along the hedge on one side is a 
border full of hardy plants, among 
them two or three kinds of Meadow 
Rue brought in from the wild and 
tamed for its filmy grace. Garden- 
ing at ““The Hedges” is thoroughly 
consistent with the spirit of the 
house. The house was patterned 
after an old Pennsylvania barn and its occupants therefore 
determined that it was fitting to have in the garden only 
such flowers as would grow without effort in the dooryard 
of an old Pennsylvania farmhouse and they have stuck to 
their resolution despite the manifold allurements of all 
manner of seductive exotics. How wise they have been a 
glance at the garden will prove. 
In the middle of this privet pleasaunce is a sun dial set on 
a pedestal rising from the center of an old, worn mill-stone 
that came from Gulf Mills nearby and doubtless once 
helped to grind corn for Washington’s army when it spent 
(Continued on page 444) 
“ [oS riehras 
