340 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
The music-room is oval, delicately colored and decorated 
That there is a carriage-house and stable, a large two- 
story building, with servants’ rooms in the upper floor, is 
It is more out of the ordinary that a 
rustic arbor, quite on the outer border of the property, should 
be used as an earth-yard by the gardeners, utility being 
quite to be expected. 
thus concealed within orna- 
mental form. 
From the greenhouses a 
wide path extends toward 
the farthest boundary. It is 
bordered with cannas on 
either side, and with iron 
trellises, to which trained 
fruit trees are applied. 
Quite at the end is the ten- 
nis-court. Then comes what 
at first sight seems vast 
fields of vegetable gardens, 
a group of squares, each 
with its enclosure of cannas 
or other high plants, a 
vegetable garden of quite 
entrancing beauty, very 
beautifully arranged so as 
to give a great deal of floral 
beauty while we may be sure 
the excellence of the vege- 
table products is not ne- 
glected. 
The visitor wanders 
through these fields of 
flowers and_ vegetables 
until he approaches a struc- 
ture that has all the out- 
ward visible signs of a con- 
servatory. A small door at 
one end suggests the 
September, 1909 
thought of entrance. And 
then he enters into a new 
world. This is no mere con- 
servatory, but a vast grotto, 
with cunningly contrived 
paths, with rocks above 
and below, with a stream at 
the bottom, with passages 
up and down, a veritable 
maze of loveliness, that, 
once entered upon, can not 
be left until every path has 
been trod, every crevice 
visited, every cavern ex- 
plored, the water itself 
crossed by its conveniently 
arranged _— stepping-stones, 
and the door gained on the 
oth er side. It is simple 
enough, of course, for there 
is but a single path that 
winds in and out, up and 
down, and has no branches 
or side openings. And 
everywhere, above and be- 
low, at the sides and hand- 
ing from the roof, is a plant 
growth of most amazing 
variety and of transcending 
loveliness. Verily it would 
seem as though every plant 
that loves a warm moist air 
was gathered here, and perhaps this is so, for all I know. But 
it is a wonderful place, arranged in a wonderful way, and 
filled, almost literally to the roof, with wonderful plants. 
Emerging thence one finds oneself immediately above a 
sunken garden that lies between the grotto and the house. 
The library is trimmed with Circassian walnut with walls of red damask 
