House & Garden 
THE GARDENS OF “AVONWOOD COURT,” 
AT HAVER FORD, PENNSYLVANIA. 
Designed by Percy Ash, Architect. 
Planted by John S. Cope , Landscape Gardener. 
A S the ways of plants and flowers are 
peculiar and varying, forever eluding the 
laws which man in his self-conceit has made 
for them, so the forms or aspects of gardens, 
where plants, flowers and fruits abide, may 
he ruleiess, multiform, infinitely varied. T he 
hidden garden which steals upon the eye of 
one strolling in solitude, the terraced hillside 
disclosing itself range by range as one 
mounts its steeps, the water garden in some 
reeking hillside nook, winding wood-paths 
disclosing marble nymphs and sunny vales, 
or the stately expanse of an open and monu¬ 
mental design stretching along the facade of 
a mansion : by these means and many more, a 
country gentleman may contrive his surround¬ 
ings to best 
meet his own 
pleasure. Sites 
are number¬ 
less, tastes are 
manifold, and 
the two, unit- 
ingin a garden, 
produce that 
which is as 
individual as 
man and, like 
Nature her- 
se If, absolutely 
refuses to be 
c 1 a s s i fi e d . 
Whether he 
will look upon 
a silent forest 
or enjoy be¬ 
loved flowers 
from his study 
window; 
whether he 
will have a 
garden so for¬ 
ward in the 
public gaze 
that his visitor shall have seen it all before he 
grasps the hand of his host; or whether, 
after leading his friend through his house, 
he will introduce him to a radiant array of 
parterres and walks is a matter for the 
owner’s temperament to decide just as that 
temperament has bid the house to be classic, 
Puritanically formal or free and picturesque. 
At all events, the panoramic garden—by 
that we mean the garden whose whole layout is 
spread before the house and capable of being 
all taken in at a glance—this sort of garden 
is far more commonlv seen than any other. 
Fiver since the genial and rolling landscapes 
of Italy were transformed by the greatest 
garden builders the world has ever seen ; since 
the French, 
remem bering 
the scenic 
majesty of a 
Caserta or a 
D’E ,ste, reared 
terraced 
heights from 
which to enjoy 
their gardens 
laid out on 
level stretches 
of land, has 
the panoramic 
garden been in 
favor. Cer- 
tainly it is the 
choice of those 
who would 
portray gar¬ 
dens by means 
of camera or 
drawings, for 
the beauties of 
a half-hidden 
dooryard or 
sunny glade 
— however 
PLAN OF THE GARDENS “AVONWOOD COURT” 
The Seat of Charles E. Mather , Esq. 
T 3 
