“ Hill Stead ” 
LOOKING THROUGH THE PARLORS 
enclosure is the garden, laid out in the shape of a 
long octagon. The arrangement is formal: the flower 
beds, of varying shapes and sizes, are edged with 
box, and are filled with flowers of the old-fashioned 
varieties. 
In the center of the garden is an octagon-shaped 
summer-house, painted green and white, and with 
benches along each side. On the slope toward the 
greenhouse is a grape arbor, made of heavy timbers 
and resting upon brick pillars. There are also 
settees under the arbor, from which shady spot one 
gets favorable views of the flower beds below. One 
could hardly find a more secluded and charming 
retreat, where from shaded corners one looks down 
the green turf to masses of bright flowers below. 
Passing through a wooden gate we come to the 
wild garden and follow a path, made as only cows 
know how to make them, to a tangle of wild flowers 
and shrubs transplanted from neighboring woods and 
hills. Here in season bloom the pink azalea, moun¬ 
tain laurel and the pink lady’s slipper, while rare 
ferns and irises make green the wet places. 
Seven or eight years ago the spot where “Hill 
Stead” now stands was a barren field with a few 
apple trees. To-day the grounds are shaded by 
elms, measuring two or more feet in diameter three 
feet from the ground. These have all been moved 
to their present locations and successfully planted, 
it is scarcely necessary to say at great expenditure 
of labor, care and monev. 
The farm buildings and superintendent’s house 
are about one third of a mile from the mansion on 
the Farmington road to Hartford. The equipment 
here is very complete in all its details. A herd of 
Guernseys furnish milk, cream and butter for the 
house here and for the family when in New York 
during the winter season. 
It is only through days of careful exploring that 
one forms a complete conception of the amount and 
thoroughness of the work that Mr. Pope has done 
to transform the fifteen different farms that his 
estate comprises into one well planned and organized 
whole. The creation of a few years has the com¬ 
pleteness and mellow repose of an old production. 
Neither the house, its contents nor the grounds show 
evidence of the tyranny of the professional decorator 
and landscape gardener. “Hill Stead,” right in 
conception and consistent in execution, is entirely 
the sincere expression of the tastes and the mode of 
life of its occupants. 
