October, 1 906 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



243 



A stone Japanese lantern beyond a large althea, and bed of cannas, elephant's ears 

 and castor-bean in the lawn quadrangle. Notice how the arrangement of 

 shrubbery to the right gives no intimation of the limits of the garden 



— first in a formal garden, and second, when each object 

 has its separate setting. This last is gained in a small 

 garden by isolating each piece through the grouping of the 

 shrubbery, just as in the gaining of an effect of distance. 

 The manner in which a marvelously graceful holy-water 

 font is revealed best after you have passed beneath the pro- 

 jecting wing of the house illustrates this. Turning, you see 

 it beautifully outlined against the hedge, where it was 

 hidden as you entered by the tree-hydrangea on your right. 

 Thus the garden has an atmosphere of surprise about it, 

 for we are ever discovering something new, or, what is 

 more desirable to the owner of a garden, seeing what is 

 familiar from a new point of view and in a new light. 



But truly there is no more happy placing of objects attrac- 

 tive in themselves than in the arrangement of two little 

 sphinxes at the entrance to the sunken garden — Madam du 

 Barry and Madam de Pompadour, copied from the 

 originals in the Louvre! Between them are three stone 

 steps — enough of a drop to give a changing view-point by 

 change of level. This little domain of the two French 

 ladies is just dainty and formal enough to be entirely in 

 keeping. 



The construction of the sunken garden was comparatively 

 simple. It is made on the natural level of the land, which is 



about three feet below that of the street. Thus what might 

 have been a disagreeable feature was used to most clever 

 advantage. Beneath the long central path a trench filled 

 with broken stones and covered with earth acts as well as a 

 direct drain to carry oft all superfluous water. (This idea 

 is valuable in the making of a tennis-court.) On two sides 

 it was necessary to throw banks of earth up to the street 

 level, and the whole was sodded all around and the hedge 

 planted. 



I he garden is laid out on the usual lines ol a formal 

 garden. The paths are of clean, white builders' gravel in 

 contrast to the dirt paths above. On the left of the entrance 

 lour small beds are devoted to certain varieties of Japanese 

 lilies which have been finding favor in this country the last 

 few years. These dainty flowers can be kept blooming from 

 June till frost, and although this is the first year of these 

 bulbs the Henryi and Leichtlinii make a good showing. It 

 is the owner's aim "to have something in blossom from the 

 time the snow goes away till it comes again." Thus in the 



A carved-wood shrine for the adorned figure of the Virgin, earned in medieval 

 processions. An appreciative traveler abroad is able to procure such things 

 for a fraction of what it would cost to duplicate them. On the right is the 

 circular hedge that screens ash-cans, etc. 



At the entrance to the sunken garden are two busts of Madam du Barry and 

 Madam de Pompadour. In the foreground is one of the four beds devoted 

 to Japanese lilies 



narrow beds that line the inner walks this idea is carried out. 

 Many varieties of iris, lilies, peonies, phlox, aquilegiae, 

 small rose-bushes, and a graceful confusion of other flower- 

 ing plants too numerous to mention, successively make of 

 this little place a garden the like of which for grace and 

 charm is rarely seen. 



The hedges of English privet are one of the chief char- 

 acteristics of the place, and deserve special attention. That 

 portion adjacent to the front entrance had attained its pres- 

 ent height and thickness of seven feet by four feet when it 

 was five years old. Success in growing these hedges might 

 be said to be directly proportionate to the amount of water 

 the bushes receive when they are young. A striking feature 

 of the hundred feet of hedge along the southern front of 

 the garden is a series of eighteen-inch brick piers, six feet 

 high, at intervals of twenty-five feet. These are topped with 

 stone, and on each is placed a classic vase of terra-cotta, 

 after originals in the Naples museum. These vases can 

 be procured at comparatively little cost and when filled with 

 a plant of the Yucca-like Dracama. form a very unusual and 

 artistic addition to the otherwise severe lines of the hedge. In 

 winter two Florentine lions, also terra-cotta. now at either 

 end of this hedge, take the place of the vases on the entrance 

 gate-posts. 



