94 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



Mareh, 1907 



The Garden of Charles W. McAlpin, Esq. 



Morristown, New Jersery 



HILLSIDE, gently sloping, with long, 

 broad stretches almost level; a generously 

 wide field of ground, bordered on right and 

 left by pleasant growths of trees of forest 

 size, and long uprising; and a great belt of 

 foliage, dense and green at the summit, a 

 curtain of nature's own devising, shutting in 

 the open space below. This, in briefest outline, is the garden 

 of Mr. Charles D. McAlpin at Morristown, N. J., designed 

 by David W. Langton, landscape architect, of New York- 

 It Is an isolated garden, a garden for itself alone. That 

 is to say, it is neither related to the house nor immediately in 

 juxtaposition to it. A house there must be for every garden; 

 since there can be no garden unless there be some one to 

 enjoy it; and enjoyment in the countryside is difficult without 

 the house — as difficult, no doubt, as it would be without a 

 garden wherein one may be at peace with nature and oneself. 



But the McAlpin garden lies alone on its hillside, with the 

 house before and below it, and separated from it by a vast 

 wall of arbor vita?, whose great arch frames the central path 

 and forms an open- 

 ing and approach of 

 wonderful dignity 

 and charm. Thus 

 the garden is not un- 

 heralded. On the 

 contrary its bound- 

 ing wall of everlast- 

 ing green piques 

 one's curiosity as to 

 what may be beyond 

 it. The great arch, 

 moreover, lifts Its 

 head proudly and 

 may be seen from 

 afar; truly, it is a 

 mark of some signi- 

 ticance ; no mere 

 hint, but a true em- 

 blem of triumph. 



Though the slope 

 of the ground is 

 moderate, the level 

 of the lower garden 

 area is almost above 

 the roof of the 

 house, whose sum- 

 mit may just be dis- 

 cerned above the 

 dense enclosing 

 hedge. The arch- 

 way passed, one 

 stands within the 

 flower garden. It 

 is an immense rec- 

 tangle, hedge bor- 

 dered on right and 

 left with central 

 beds of grass and 

 flowers, cut by 

 straight paths. 



As a design it 

 could not be slm- 



A Great Wall of Arbor Vit^ Separates the Garden from the House, Which Is Reached 

 Through a Superb Living Archway 



pier; as a garden it could not be finer. The borders are faced 

 with the gayest bloomers, chiefly annuals, that run from end 

 to end, and are returned to the arch of entrance. The 

 grassed spaces in the center are so large that even though 

 much of their surfaces is taken for flower beds, the green 

 sward counts, and counts considerably, in the general effect. 

 The center of the whole has the Venetian wellhead one looks 

 for almost Instinctively In such places, with clusters of bay 

 trees in earthenware pots, standing sentinel-like around it on 

 the nearby grass. Rectangular borders of evergreens, placed 

 well within the grass, mark still more definitely, the impor- 

 tance of the center; while flower masses on each end and 

 on the outer side of the grass complete the planting here. A 

 wall fountain, truly Byzantine in design, forms the chief fea- 

 ture of one side of the garden — an interlaced slab let into a 

 backing of brick, with an open arch above for further em- 

 phasis. 



Looking straight ahead from the point of entrance — the 

 mammoth arch of arbor vltae — the ground rises; at first with 

 a sharp slope; then more gently; and all this upper area is 



crowned with a 

 group of pergolas, 

 pergolas built around 

 a second garden, one 

 at a higher level 

 than the first, over- 

 looking It, In, per- 

 haps, much the same 

 way that the Acro- 

 polis at Athens over- 

 looked the city at its 

 feet. The simile is, 

 perhaps, somewhat 

 far-fetched; yet the 

 effect of these per- 

 golas, bounding a 

 silent, open square, 

 actually above the 

 lower ground, actu- 

 ally overlooking the 

 nearby foreground 

 below it, actually 

 giving the eye a new 

 outlook over distant 

 hills and valleys be- 

 yond — the effect is 

 one of stimulating 

 interest. 



The pergolas gar- 

 den Is of agreeable 

 spaciousness. One 

 w a n d e rs through 

 long alleys, bordered 

 with great piers of 

 stone, vine clad, 

 with open roofs; or 

 pauses a moment at 

 the central openings, 

 marked with clusters 

 of plain white col- 

 umns; or lingers in 

 the tea houses 

 or observatories 



