14 
THE GARDEN M A G A Z I N E 
February, 1915 
street. It would cost more to build on the 
side hill; half of the house would never get 
a ray of sun and would face the unattractive 
noisy highway, having little privacy; it 
would be impossible to hide the bad features 
of the rear outlook without cutting off all 
the valley view as well; with such an ar- 
rangement a larger part of the grounds 
would necessarily be devoted to service 
uses than would be defensible and there 
would be much waste space — ground that 
would be used neither to make service easier 
or life more agreeable. 
“Two and a quarter acres is not very 
large. I set out to get for you the utmost 
use of every square foot, just as an architect 
does with a house. You must know many 
places — even small places — where there is 
an area behind the barn or between the 
house and the next lot that is neither garden 
nor usable lawn nor anything else but waste 
space. This is as bad in landscape archi- 
tecture as similar waste space in a house 
would be bad architecture. 
“Indeed the analogy between the two 
professions goes deeper than that. The 
functionsof the differentparts of the grounds 
answer fairly well to the functions of rooms 
of a house, though not exactly, of course. 
First, in both cases the wise man wants 
something between him and the public gaze 
on all four sides. In the house it is a wall; 
on an estate it may be a garden wall or some 
bushes. In both cases it shelters privacy 
within.” 
“Hear, hear!” came from the ribald 
Harrison. 
“At the same time,” I went on scorning 
the interruption, “this same wise man 
wants openings through which he can see 
if anything is worth the while outside. 
Otherwise, he so arranges his place that its 
interest within is sufficient and he is not 
tempted to look away, nor are the children 
tempted to run off their own place to play. 
In your case, the only thing worth seeing 
outside is the valley landscape which is 
made ugly by the mansard roof house and 
other neighboring buildings. On the 
grounds I found one spot, roughly a circle, 
perhaps seventy-five feet in diameter where 
the view is first class and from where I could 
entirely hide all the ugliness by planting 
tall trees in groups. Between these groups 
are ‘windows,’ marked ‘views’ on the 
plan. 
“It is a physiological fact that it rests 
the eye more to look into distance than at 
something near by. Consequently, I de- 
cided to put nothing in the foreground of 
these ‘windows’ to distract the attention, 
but rather to lead one’s vision over the 
natural, sloping meadow to the far country. 
I decided that this reposeful view should be 
commanded by the verandah, drawing- 
room, and bookroom, in which places rest 
will be oftentimes the first consideration. 
Other than this place, every feature of the 
grounds is designed to interest by looking 
into, not out of. Now let us return to the 
analogy of the house.” 
“Heavens, Meriam, can’t you turn him 
off?” 
“Hush, my dear; people pay money to 
hear him talk this way in lectures.” 
“The entrance turn, of the landscape com- 
partments, may be compared to the hall of 
a house; the service turn or court to the 
kitchen entry; the drying yard is kin to 
the laundry and the kitchen garden to the 
kitchen. I like to think of the tennis court 
as the billiard room of the grounds and the 
flower garden as the drawing-room. 
“One other feature deserves mention, 
mainly because it is as important in land- 
scape architecture as in architecture, but 
has received relatively less attention.- This 
is the need of convenient service access to 
all the several units of the grounds. Too 
often the apparatus of maintenance — carts, 
rollers, lawn mowers and the rest — must be 
carried through one compartment to an- 
other, up steps and down, because no direct 
access is given. When I came to look into 
the problem it occurred to me that the old 
lane would make an excellent service 
‘corridor’ so to speak. It has long been a 
charming grass covered path following the 
picturesque old wall. We can do no better 
for service purposes, and nothing which will 
catch more definitely the character of the 
meadow, than to keep untouched this old 
relic. That was what I decided to do. 
“Once the decision was made, the wall, 
not the street, became the controlling mo- 
tive of the design. I next worked out a 
house plan parallel with it, the drawing- 
room, bookroom, and verandah giving bn 
the view as pre-determined. The distance 
away from the wall to place the house re- 
quired careful consideration. As shown on 
the plan it is far enough away so that the 
trees by the wall will shade all the ground 
between them and house at the hottest times 
of summer, but will not keep the purifying 
rays from pouring in through the windows. 
On the lower and shady side of the house 
sufficient room is left for a comfortable 
entrance turn and wide planting space to 
hide the buildings next door. Last, the 
house is placed where it closely follows the 
topography of the grounds. This will en- 
sure that it will ‘tie in’ with the landscape 
— look as if it belonged there and had not 
been dropped by chance like so many of 
even our best designed houses. 
“By arranging so that, not only the 
house, but all the other features of the 
place follow the general slope closely, the 
construction cost will be reduced to a mini- 
mum and also, we chain to our own use the 
genius of the place.” 
“Te-he,” chortled Harrison, “Cut out 
that highbrow stuff and explain why it’s 
cheaper to follow the slope.” 
“Why, you see, moving large quantities 
of earth is one of the most expensive items 
of cost, especially where there is a long haul. 
Here that is reduced to a minimum. The 
dirt excavated from the cellar will just serve 
to bring the entrance turn up to the proper 
level; that which must be sliced off one end 
of the tennis court will be used on the other 
end, and so on. Only such grading is done 
as may be necessary to get reasonably level 
areas. 
“While the topography is closely fol- 
lowed, yet, paradoxical as it may sound, 
changes in grade are emphasized by steps 
and retaining walls where possible. They 
are picturesque and interesting in them- 
selves and often serve to delimit areas, a 
desirable thing to do, better than anything 
else. Walls are more expensive to build, 
in the first place, than banks; but they are 
much cheaper to keep in good condition. 
“Such a retaining wall carried six feet 
above the drive, separates the entrance turn 
from the house lawn, keeping the latter 
secluded. But to give the grounds as 
well as the house a formal entrance, an 
arched gateway is planned directly opposite 
the debouche of the drive, which will form 
an interesting feature from the sidewalk. 
From the lawn it will be approached by a 
flight of steps. 
“Except for this glimpse, almost nothing 
of the private apartments will be visible 
from the street, as a thick screen of trees 
will hide the entrance turn and front and 
the other side of the house will be cut off 
by the service quarters. 
“The service court is separated from the 
highway by a wall which will keep it un- 
objectionable. The garage opens on to this 
court, not on the street. The garage is 
placed as far as possible from all the living 
apartments of the estate, yet it is connected 
with the house by a covered passage, and 
cold rainy nights need have no terrors for 
you, Harrison. There is an added advan- 
tage in that the heating apparatus for the 
house can be placed under the garage, where 
it can be tended in the easiest and most 
economical way. 
“By this court there is direct connection 
with the kitchen garden. Only one entrance 
is needed for kitchen, garage and other 
service wagons. I am convinced that the 
least possible area of your grounds is de- 
voted solely to service purposes in this way. 
And economy of this sort on a place the 
size of yours is imperative. The conven- 
ience of service is extended by the fact that 
the service lane opens on to this court as 
well as the path through the kitchen garden 
leading to the tennis court and the compost 
yard. The latter is large enough for com- 
post, manure, screenings and gravel for the 
tennis court and drives and to collect the 
rubbish which it is impossible altogether 
to keep off a place. 
“The tennis court is a noisy feature, put 
as far away from the house as possible, 
yet directly connected by the terraces and 
pergola. Both sides of the pergola act as 
retaining walls — down to the flower garden, 
of which it will give pleasant, shaded out- 
looks, and up to the kitchen garden, which 
will thus be easier concealed, yet convenient. 
“The outlook from the dining-room across 
the sunny out-door dining terrace, up steps 
between big oil jars, under shady trees and 
through the sun-mottled pergola to the 
gleaming tennis overlook house on the far 
side of the court will be lengthened and 
enhanced by false perspective and other 
amusing tricks. This will be the view from 
the front door, which Meriam wanted. 
