July, 
1909 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
271 
The Garden Gate 
By Ralph de Martin 
@e4 HY not? How else is a garden to be sepa- 
rated off from the other land, save by a 
fence or enclosure, and how entered if there 
be no gate by which it may be. entered? 
Imaginary boundaries have a certain well- 
defined impracticability in actual life—if 
this be the way in which the idea may be 
expressed—and a garden fence and, above all, a garden gate 
fills a real purpose that nothing else has done or ever will do. 
I love a garden gate because it is an impressive symbol that 
all within it is mine, even if I but rent the place; while with- 
out it must stay many persons and animals, some of which, I 
am frank to say, I do not like. 
But I am sure that if one were to collect garden gates the 
largest estate would not be able to hold them, much less 
stand them up erect as they should be to fulfil their natural 
purposes. On the whole, a good thing; for why should my 
garden gate be like my neighbor’s any more than my chairs, 
curtains, carpets and ornaments? So, first of all, we have 
the vastest individuality in the garden gate, a plentiful va- 
riety, a never-ending dissimilarity, a constant change and 
variety. Not all of those one sees in an afternoon’s walk will 
be of equal beauty and interest; but one may say the same 
of the people one passes, so why acquire more uniform good- 
ness in the gates that people make or which shut out their 
grounds, or lead the 
way into them, ac- 
cording as one does 
not know or does 
know the _ people 
whose gates one 
passes. 
Of one thing I 
am very sure, and 
that is that the most 
agreeable people 
live within the most 
agreeable gates. I 
know, of course, 
that very delightful 
people often live in 
the most singular 
wlaces, DP he-ve is 
Philadelphia, for 
example, or Brook- 
lyn —dear me— 
jammed to their ut- 
most limits with the 
most charming and 
delightful _ people, 
fenced within de- 
lightful gates, no 
doubt, but still liv- 
ing in very strange 
places. I know this, 
but still I feel very 
sure that a delight- 
ful gate is a true 
index to the delight- 
ful characteristics of 
the houses behind 
them. How else 
could they be de- 
lightful—the gates, 
A great arch built across the roadway 
I mean? At all events, if not a scientific test, it is, to me, a 
very good one, so good that I take it along on all my rambles, 
and invariably apply it at all times. I will confess that I 
regard its value as a test as most successful when I never 
see nor know the people to whom [ apply it. 
But I must not run along too fast, for sometimes quite 
forbidden gateways hem in and enclose the most charming 
places, which house the most charming people. There is a 
picture among my photographs of a stately country mansion 
enclosed within a frowning solid wall. The wall does not, 
of course, frown, for it is marked off with simple piers and 
relieved with tasteful panels. But I use the figure of speech 
as an available one; for the wall is severe and solid, with 
only one or two gateways, barred with gates of upright iron. 
It happened that when this photograph was taken and when 
I visited this house there were no vines upon the wall, no 
decorations or beautyments of any kind. And, if my rule of 
delightful gates for delightful places were a universal one, 
then I certainly should not have included this example in my 
illustrations. 
I refer to it to show how deceitful appearances may some- 
times be, and how reckless it may be to adopt cast-iron rules 
and apply them to every possible circumstance. This wall 
and gate are exactly the kind of wall and gate that are needed 
here, just the very structures I would get my most delightful 
friend to provide 
for his most delight- 
ful abiding place. 
This house, as it 
happens, is built 
close to the north 
shore of Massachu- 
setts Bay. The high- 
way runs so close to 
the boundary of the 
property that there 
is not room for so 
much as a sidewalk 
between the road 
and the wall. It is 
a narrow bit of 
land the house 
stands on, and it 
was manifestly ap- 
parent that a definite 
boundary between 
the home grounds 
within and the high- 
road without was 
urgently needed. 
And so it was built. 
Not a plain, ugly un- 
sightly wall, but one 
solid enough, it is 
true, and the gate- 
ways left open for 
passing glimpses of 
the remarkably in- 
teresting grounds 
within—as much as 
could be permitted, 
no more, no _ less. 
There are other 
fine gates shown. 
