House and Garden 
is held at Pasadena on New Year’s day of each 
year. It has become so famous that it attracts 
not only thousands of visitors from all over the 
Pacific Coast but from the Eastern cities and even 
from the European capitals. 
The above characteristic pastimes and the fact 
that he is a very proficient fencer, with the broad¬ 
sword especially, would seem in the very nature of 
them to belie the fact that his forbears were of the 
Society of Friends and he a man of peace. But 
those who know him 
best also know how 
kindly is his heart, 
how genial his com¬ 
panionship and how 
sympathetic and 
compassionate h i s 
nature. 
His bookshelves 
are filled largely with 
works on science and 
he possesses some of 
the rarest hooks 
written by Quakers 
and on Quaker 
History. On the 
walls of the library 
and dining-room are 
paintings by such 
artists as Dan Beard, 
Edward Moran, 
John George Brown, 
Walter Brackett, 
Ernest Wachtel and 
Henry Joseph Breu- 
er. The last named 
artist is, in the opin¬ 
ion of many English 
and American ex¬ 
perts, California’s 
most famous artist 
to-day. A large and 
valuable canvas by 
him entitled “The 
California Sand 
Dunes” belongs to 
Mr. Holder, who 
esteems it one of his most precious possessions and 
from its study derives inspiration for his “ muse ” when 
she becomes weary or listless. 
Hanging on the wall of the library is a fine engrav¬ 
ing by Loggan, a portrait of Dr. William Holder, 
1616, (London) author, composer, astronomer and 
clergyman. He married a sister of Sir Christopher 
Wren. His body lies in Westminster Abbey. 
On the second floor are the sleeping rooms, the 
walls of which are hung with dainty paper, some in 
stripe and some flowered. Old mahogany heirlooms 
represent most of the furniture, which, in the atmos¬ 
phere developed around it, seems to have always 
been there, instead of having traveled thousands of 
miles from its original New England homestead to its 
new home on the other side of the continent. 
From the library a door opens onto a little 
back stoop, from which one enters the garden, 
a bewildering jungle of beautiful color. Orange, 
lemon and grapefruit trees, with the golden fruit 
gleaming against the rich dark green of the foliage, 
form the background 
for flowering shrubs 
of many kinds. 
Peach, plum, apri¬ 
cot and nectarine 
trees are growing 
side by side, while 
fifteen varieties of 
grapes and several 
of guavas seem to 
vie with each other 
in the production of 
beautiful and lus¬ 
cious fruit. On the 
east side of the lot is 
a hedge of sweet peas 
trained on a woven 
wire fence, some two 
hundred feet long 
and averaging ten 
feet in height, which 
presents a blaze of 
color and fills the air 
with sweet perfume. 
Over the front 
porch or loggia are 
trained Tacoma, 
plumbago and white 
mandevelia vines 
with bunches of 
poinsettias in front 
of them. The west 
end of the house is 
covered with wild 
honeysuckle and a 
glorious red climb¬ 
ing rose, Marie Hen- 
riette. The walls of the front of the house are 
covered with heliotrope up as far as the second 
story, while the upper story is masked with 
Mad. Alfred Carriere roses. For eight years no 
frost has been severe enough to blight the tender 
heliotrope. At the southeast corner of the house 
a Wistaria mounts to the cornice and clambers 
along the eaves with reckless abandon. A double 
Eady Banksia rose is trying to emulate the Wis¬ 
taria and will soon overtake it, while around the 
corner on the east end of the house and almost 
THE SOUTHEAST CORNER OF THE HOUSE 
Masses of Wistaria, Lady Banksia and Poinsettia (in winter) 
12 
