House and Garden 
any mishap you become the victim of pro¬ 
fessionals, and build other people onto your 
acres, and plant other people’s tastes in your 
gardens, you will never comprehend the ideal 
home, and you will drop down into as con¬ 
ventional a life as you led in the city. 
A country house should almost invariably 
set far back from the street, and especially 
be out of anything like a row with the houses 
of its neighbors. You are not going into the 
country just to see who goes along the high¬ 
ways. With a telephone and a family of 
trees, birds, bees, bugs, animals and plants, 
you do not need to see the human folk that 
go along the highway. On your veranda 
and in your library are books, papers, maga¬ 
zines; and in your gardens and orchards are 
the manuscripts from which these books 
were written. 
The house naturally gets upon as high a 
ground as can be conveniently reached by a 
drive. Drainage is one of the very first 
requisites. The drive must have five-inch 
tile underneath, and a slight side depression 
for surface drainage. Border it with trees 
or, if it be a short drive, with hedges of Tar¬ 
tarian honeysuckle. I was lately called to 
aid in laying out a place where one long row 
of fine elms led from the gateway to the house. 
We arranged a wide avenue with this single 
row of trees standing along the center, over¬ 
hanging it on each side and helping to dry 
the roadbed with its roots. This plan was 
the most natural adjustment to conditions. 
As a rule, take Nature very much as you 
find her, instead of shading everything to 
your preconceived views. As your place 
progresses it should express one single con¬ 
crete idea. Too many places undertake to 
make a unity out of a bundle of other people’s 
notions—or neglect the unity altogether. 
The owner buys what he thinks is pretty and 
plants it. The result is a country museum, 
and not at all a country home. 
A SECOND STOREY BALCONY 
196 
