AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



September, 1908 



The Hall of "Mount Vernon" 



zation, in our own day, comes into its own as the truly ideal 

 spot on which all that is best in the modern home could have 

 its best environment and yield the utmost pleasure from its 

 lovely surface. 



Land so copiously equipped for agreeable living places 

 needed no artificial stimulation for its development. Actually 

 but one thing was needed, and that was an 

 ample sufficiency of good roads. Much 

 costly work of this description was done in 

 the lifetime of the elder Mr. Phillips, and 

 that fine work, has been abundantly supple- 

 mented and increased by the present man- 

 agement. Quite wonderful these roads are 

 too, for they vie in width with the State 

 highways, they have been made in a thor- 

 oughly sound and workmanlike manner, 

 they are kept in a state of perfect repair, 

 and they cover so much land and are so re- 

 lated to each other in bringing every part 

 of the estate into close intercommunication 

 that they seem to have no end. Certain it 

 is that one may drive for miles on these 

 magnificent thoroughfares. 



The making of the roadbed, however, 

 was but the beginning. Every road is 

 hedged with privet on both sides, so that, 

 seen from any point of elevation, the prop- 

 erty seems interlaced with rich wreaths of 

 green that line every field and bind whole 

 areas around about with pleasant garlands. 

 It is a happy conceit, a notable feature in 

 Mr. Phillips' plan, to reproduce, so far as 

 may be, the salient features of English rural 

 life and English park effects in his great 

 property. 



Very properly indeed may we look to 

 England for models in precisely the kind 

 of estate development that is being worked 

 out of "Stoke Pogis." No more notable 

 landscape work has been done anywhere 

 than by the English, and English private 

 parks and gardens are to-day the model and 



the admiration of the world. 

 The work at "Stoke Pogis" 

 is being done in a thor- 

 o u g h 1 y consistent way. 

 Elaborate gardening, as it 

 is generally understood, is 

 omitted altogether or re- 

 stricted to the flower gar- 

 dens of the various houses. 

 With seven hundred acres 

 at command one must, in- 

 deed, exercise a certain sort 

 of moderation with what 

 one attempts. Costly for- 

 mal gardening has no place 

 in work of this description. 

 The park is a larger under- 

 taking than the garden. It 

 covers more area, it needs 

 broader effects, it is simpler 

 in every way. It is the 

 English park lands that 

 have served as the model 

 for "Stoke Pogis"; but you 

 may be sure that on its beau- 

 tifully graded soil many a 

 fine garden has and can be 

 planted, and many a special 

 feature of natural adornment arranged that will add to the 

 total of natural beauty characteristic of this place. 



I have dealt at some length on what may be termed the 

 basis principles of "Stoke Pogis," because they are at once 

 the most elemental and the most important. It is quite as 

 necessary to begin right in estate development as in any other 



Chimneys and Porch of " Gulphmont " 



