December, 1909 
growing more beautiful every year. For the hedges and 
flowers are vigorously a-root, and each year brings a newer 
rich growth that enhances the loveliness of the whole. 
Mr. Sewell’s property is quite considerable in extent, 
comprising as many as sixty acres. But he has wisely 
chosen to centralize his cultivation in and about his house, 
and much of the land is, as it has always been, wild land. 
The pond which has been created by an ancient dam, is 
literally surrounded with forest growth, great trees rising 
up from its very margins. And beyond are trees and woods, 
with rough old paths and roads running through them 
in the haphazard but still adequate way that old roads have 
always wandered 
through the quiet 
stretches of the 
land. It is ample, 
surely, for this 
woodland _ shelters 
many an _artist’s 
bower and gentle 
retreat that no cul- 
tivated grace could 
add to or make 
more ravishing than 
Nature herself has 
done. 
We sat under the 
hemlock tree, Mr. 
Sewell and I, and he 
told me of some of 
the ideas he had en- 
deavored to _ illus- 
trate in his house. 
‘“The basic idea,’’ he 
said, ‘“‘was to ex- 
press the taste of 
the fifteenth and 
sixteenth centuries, 
the period when the 
decorative arts were 
at their finest stage. 
Small workmanship 
and realism had de- 
stroyed the true 
spirit of these arts, 
which was to em- 
bellish the structure 
rather than to dis- 
play technical 
craftsmanship 
Having decided on 
the sixteenth century 
as a period, I nat- 
urally wanted to 
carry out the idea 
consistently so far as decorative handicraft went. ‘Thus, 
the carved woodwork is not intended to show proficiency 
in technical detail, for it does nothing of the kind, but to 
show how the medieval carvers applied ornament to archi- 
tectural structure, that is, carving at once appropriate and 
well-applied to the building. 
“The garden,” he continued—and we were just without 
it—‘‘shows the medieval formality and intimacy in relation 
to the home. ‘There is no Americo-Italian formalism here, 
but just that quiet and calm which seems to be inherent to 
the medieval garden. But inside,” he added, as an after- 
thought, “‘there is no medievalism above the first story. On 
the main floor we have a large hall, such as any medieval 
house would have, and our dining-room is a separate and 
distinct apartment; but in the bedrooms and arrangements 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
Cabinet designed and carved by R. V. V. Sewell 
487 
of the second story we are entirely modern, at least, as 
modern as we can be.” 
One enters the great hall directly from the main door- 
way. here is no intervening vestibule, for none appears 
to be needed. So we went into a great room that seemed 
to occupy the whole house, as indeed it does on the street 
side. It is lighted from the front with spacious windows 
of leaded glass, each frame having in the upper part a 
square of glass decorated in colors. ‘The wall at the left 
end is closed; at the right is an opening to a passage that 
leads directly into the new studio, which is furnished with 
an open timber roof whose beams are upheld on corbels, 
heads modeled by 
Mr. Sewell and cast 
in cement. Directly 
in face, in the hall, 
is a magnificently 
carved chimney- 
piece, designed and 
carved by Mr. 
Sewell, a sumptuous 
piece of work. On 
either side are arch- 
ways; to the left 
opening into the 
dining-room, to the 
right, closed doors 
to a coat closet, 
with the stairs be- 
yond. The walls are 
coated with cement, 
left in its natural 
beautiful gray, and 
the ceiling is beamed 
with wood-lining be- 
tween the closely set 
joists. 
Simply as an ar- 
chitectural arrange- 
ment this room 
would excite inter- 
est, so fine are its 
proportions, so good 
its color, so appro- 
priate the bare 
structure of the ceil- 
ing. But it has been 
greatly enriched 
with art works by 
Mr. Sewell and his 
accomplished wife. 
Around the upper 
walls are many of 
the original colored 
sketches of the 
great decorative frieze of the “Canterbury Pilgrims,” 
painted by Mr. Sewell for Mr. George J. Gould’s “Georgian 
Court” at Lakewood. These sketches are, of course, much 
smaller in size than the final painting, but are highly dec- 
orative and are here admirably utilized. Just below them, 
on the end wall, hang two portraits painted by Mrs. Sewell, 
and between them is a great cabinet carved by Mr. Sewell. 
Most of the furniture is his, also, including many handsome 
chairs, the great table in the center and other pieces. Other 
of his decorative paintings are used for the wall decorations, 
so that the general eftect of the room is one of splendid 
color and richness. There are few finer rooms than this 
anywhere. There is no overdone furnishing, as often hap- 
pens in costly homes. ‘There is none of the mixture of the 
studio as might be looked for in an artist’s home. 
