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AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



November, 1906 



' Glenn Elsinore,' A New England Garden 



By Ella M. Boult 



N THE cozy little town of Pomfret, Conn., 

 there is an estate which combines two 

 methods of gardening in a remarkable 

 manner. It is the property of Mrs. Mary 

 Vinton Clarke, and lies over against "Pom- 

 fret Street," one of those characteristic tree- 

 bordered New England avenues. This connects the old 

 town, dating from the very first year of the 1 8th century to 

 the railroad station of modern times, two miles distant. 



This estate, consisting of some thirty acres, fell an easy 

 prey to the landscape artist's skill. Indeed, it was already 

 a garden, and needed only to be brought into subjection to 

 the architect's ambition. Located on the easterly slope of a 

 line of hills stretching north and south, the outlook is over 

 a thickly wooded valley. It faces a similar line of hills op- 

 posite, dotted with charming country places and the less pre- 

 tentious but always prosperous homes of the village. 



The entrance to "Glenn Elsinore" is very appropriately 

 from Hamlet Road, and is marked by no inhospitable gate- 

 way, but lies between vine-covered stone towers of simple 

 design. The driveway passes a fine bit of shrubbery massed 

 up at the rear of the house to screen the servants' quarters, 

 and reaches the door direct without the sheltering porte- 

 cochere that has become the expected feature, but which is 

 here modified into a small vestibule. 



In the Vestibule 



The Small Well and Vase on the Lawn 



From the door the drive makes a circle around a lily pool 

 with a center of palm and aquatic plants, which is hedged 

 about with rose-vines, encircled by various flowering plants, 

 largely coxcombs, and set in a plot of emerald lawn. 



The lawn which begins here sweeps to the road on the one 

 side, and far toward the valley on the other. At its foot, 

 for some distance, runs a deep ravine with the inevitable 

 brook in its depths.' This is one of the finest streams in this 

 water-threaded country, and adds inestimably to the beauty 

 of the place, to say nothing of its stock of trout. It lies with- 

 in a stone's throw of the house, and yet the cut is so pre- 

 cipitous and so flanked with trees that it can be seen from the 

 house only as a retreat that must be visited to be known. 



Where the brook enters the grounds from the street it 

 has been coaxed into forming a small pond, where an oc- 

 casional azalea, a few elder bushes, a magnificent chestnut, 

 and banks of fern have been left to form the sole ornamenta- 

 tion. The dam that forms the enlargement of the stream is 

 spanned by a foot bridge adorned with a miniature thatched 

 watch tower. 



For the remainder of the way at least the ravine is quite 

 unspoiled. Some of the hardy rhododendrons have been intro- 

 duced into it to supplement its own laurel, but it is only an 

 accident that this did not already grow here, as it does in 

 many a woods near at hand; a little clearing out has been 



