272 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



July, 1 9 10 



imagine no surroundings where it would be more har- 

 monious. 



The main upright posts with their wide-reaching cross- 

 piece are twenty-one inches square and tipped with square 

 iron caps. The road gates are of solid wood, ten feet high, 

 bolted into solidity by rough-wrought iron and swung on 

 great iron hinges. Over the smaller door, of similar de- 

 sign, a simple grill harmoniously suggests Japan. The 

 wood is native chestnut, weathered a pleasant brown. 



Outside is placed the lantern stand, twelve feet high and 

 characteristically Japanese with its curved roof. 



The big lantern, a glowing, flesh color, bears an 

 inscription in Japan- 

 ese idiographs. "It 

 is Yama-no-uchi," 

 says the guide, "and 

 it means 'home in 

 the mountains.' " 



Yama-no-uchi, it 

 may be well to ex- 

 plain, is the country 

 home of Mr. Frank 

 Seaman, of New 

 York, and its fame 

 is threefold. It is 

 known as the best 

 adaptation of Jap- 

 anese architectural 

 principles in Amer- 

 ica, and as having 

 the best collection 

 of Japanese iris out- 

 side of Japan and 

 the most successful 

 trout preserve in 

 the Eastern States. 



Driving through 

 the great gate we 

 follow a very beau- 

 tiful winding road 

 through virgin tim- 

 ber. The ground is 

 carpeted with maid- 

 enhair fern through 

 which hundreds of 

 yellow cypripedium 

 (loveliest of native 

 orchids !) raise 

 their heads. Banks 

 of mountain laurel 

 and rhododendron 

 shine in more open 

 spaces through the 

 trees. It is all nat- 

 ural and beautiful. 

 If there is art it is 

 the art that conceals 

 art. No plant that 

 is not a native of 

 the valley is found, 

 tain brook tumbles 



Along one side of the road the moun- 

 between banks of fern. Following it 

 a path of great, flatly irregular boulders dips and turns, 

 leading to leafy mysteries below. 



Of a sudden the road approaches a curved Japanese 

 bridge, a small fac-simile of the famous one at Nikko, glow- 

 ing a wonderful crimson against the green. The Nikko 

 bridge is the only other that has just this shade of rich 

 color, for there is but one family in all Japan that makes 

 the lacquer and has been making it for four hundred years. 

 It is manufactured only for the Nikko bridge. The honor 

 is great. To have secured some of the lacquer for the 



Yama-no-uchi bridge was an achievement in diplomacy. 



Beyond the red lacquer bridge is a charming little Jap- 

 anese structure of rough stones, all in gently curving lines. 

 Behind is a stone wall and below a great overshot water- 

 wheel. In the watch-tower-like building is a dynamo that 

 generates electricity for the estate and a pump to distribute 

 water on the higher ground. From the bridge one gets a 

 glimpse of the little lake above the wall. It is partly sur- 

 rounded by drooping willows and from the high bank at 

 the upper end water comes tumbling over rocks, indicating 

 another lake above. 



To the left of the road is a great wall of rounded stones 



that curves vertical- 

 ly in a line that is 

 strong and yet gen- 

 tle. It is surmount- 

 ed by a large Jap- 

 anese building of 

 beauty and sim- 

 plicity, which fits its 

 environing hillside 

 with striking apt- 

 ness. There is no 

 sense of the incon- 

 gruous on finding 

 these unusual roof 

 lines in American 

 surroundings. The 

 combination is so 

 good in its balanc- 

 ing proportion and 

 intimacy of deco- 

 rative units that 

 you accept it in- 

 stantly. This build- 

 ing might, it seems, 

 be fitly the home of 

 a wealthy and com- 

 fort-loving artist. 

 We gaze at it en- 

 viously. It proves 

 to be the stable and 

 garage, and a very 

 practical one at 

 that. There is every 

 excellence of con- 

 struction and equip- 

 ment here and a 

 plainness that 

 makes for practical 

 beauty. Many 

 stables no larger or 

 more complete, of 

 no more adequate 

 construction and 

 much less attractive 

 have cost several 

 times as much. A 

 most important 

 phase of Mr. Seaman's achievement in the making of his 

 mountain home is the economy that has resulted from 

 his doing things in a simple, practical way and getting 

 beauty directly into them instead of plastering it on after- 

 wards. For instance, if he were building a woodshed, he 

 would build it of rough boards and ordinary shingles, but 

 It would be so placed that it made a pleasing part of the 

 landscape picture and the lines of the roof would bear their 

 artistic relation to the lines of the hill behind and of the 

 buildings adjoining. If there was a window, it would be as 

 plain and practical as any, but it would have a distinctive 

 and decorative quality in its plainness. 



The lake at Yama-no-uchi 



