The Creation of a Site 
Acland ancestors, Vernais, Palmers, Wroths 
and Aclands, the earliest being that of Thomas 
Vernai in the reign of Henry VII., and his 
arms, three ferns, are to be seen in old 
stained glass coats-of-arms let into the win¬ 
dows. Ttiere are also the Palmer who married 
his daughter and heiress, Colonel Peregrine 
Palmer, who fought at Naseby and other bat¬ 
tles on the Royalist side and who left in his will, 
that when the king came to his own again, 
his sons were to claim no reward for their 
father’s services; and a Wroth of the time 
of Edward VI., who was given by that king a 
beautiful gold cup, now in the possession of 
Sir Wroth Lethbridge. There are portraits 
of Colonel Acland and his wife, Lady Harriet 
(Lox-Strangways), who accompanied her hus¬ 
band to America where he fought under Gen¬ 
eral Burgoyne in the War of Independence, 
and who, on hearing that he was wounded and 
taken prisoner, October 7, 1777, set off in an 
open boat with two attendants down the Hud¬ 
son River. Being stopped at nightfall by the 
American outposts, she had to wait all through 
the cold night under threat of being bred on, 
till in the morning she was able to communi¬ 
cate with General Gates, who at once allowed 
her to join and nurse her husband. The cele¬ 
brated English artist, Turner, painted some 
charming water-color views of Sussex for 
a relation of Sir P. Acland’s, and these 
hang in the drawing-room. Among the stags’ 
heads adorning the Hall is a most perfect 
specimen belonging to an old stag, which, 
found in a covert some miles away, ran to St. 
Audries, jumped the Park fence and was 
killed close to the house. Among many 
curious and interesting things in the house 
is a copy on vellum of a Wychff’s Bible 
given as an heirloom by the Countess of 
Derby “to her nighest relation, Mr. Palmer 
of Fairfield.’’ 
THE CREATION OF A SITE 
(See August House and Garden, page 100) 
A I A HE great importance of strategy, as a 
factor in the choice and development 
of a site for the home, was pointed out in the 
August issue of House and Garden. The 
house with its surroundings shown in the 
accompanying photographs has been selected 
as a specially pertinent illustration of that 
point as well as of another already referred 
to, but awaiting later development, viz.: the 
interest and value which attaches to individ¬ 
ualism in the arrangement of the plan. 
At the time this property first came under 
the observation of the owner it was a small 
unimproved bit of back-lot property, which 
had been left, partly by the failure of the sur¬ 
rounding properties to close up, and partly 
also due to the existence of a disused alley- 
way. The whole served as an ash and 
refuse heap for surrounding owners whose 
houses all face on important streets in one 
of the best residential quarters of the city. 
A short cross street, relatively narrow and 
having a north-south direction, intersects the 
alleyway, in front of this property. 
The back yards of the surrounding houses 
were, for the most part, separated by high 
board fences and the general aspect of the 
internal square which they formed was of 
the usual ugly and strictly utilitarian sort 
common enough as an outlook from the back 
windows of city houses. A more uninvitingly 
suggestive place for the site of a gentleman’s 
residence it would have been difficult to 
discover within the district in question. 
Securing legal possession of the abandoned 
thoroughfare, and adding it to the ash-heap, 
a lot was secured with a frontage of fifty feet 
on an asphalted cross street and a depth of 
eighty feet. 
The house itself is nineteen feet wide and 
fifty-two feet deep and is placed, very prop¬ 
erly, close to the north line of the lot. There 
are no important windows in this north side, 
whde the back yards of the houses fronting- 
on the east-west street on that side form a 
sufficient separation. All of the principal 
rooms of the house have south windows 
overlooking not only its own garden, but the 
