House and Garden 
HON. JOSEPH H. Choate’s English garden, stockbridge, mass. 
"1 liis is not true, because each contains features 
distinctly individual, which render it uni(|ue among 
its class. Unless the garden is an exact replica, 
made so hy direct intention, it can no more he like 
another than two human faces can he exactly alike, 
d here is a general similarity, and what we might 
call a family resemblance, hut very little servile imi¬ 
tation; as the position occupied hy each differs so 
widely from that assigned to every other, that location 
alone would render repetition not only undesirable, 
but actually impossible. Each formal garden is a 
rule and a pattern for itself, and could hardly he 
copied to advantage. 
Certain features appear and reappear in an endless 
variety, aKvays escaping monotony. The feature 
which was once termed an arbor, has now been trans¬ 
muted into a pergola, but has suff ered nothing by the 
change. According to the lay of the land and to the 
juxtaposition of buildings, it may occupy center, 
entrance, or any side, with equal appropriateness. 
So it is with the shrubbery and the trellises; so with 
the sunken garden and lily-pond; so even with the 
fountain, whose location, more than any other one 
thing, can make or mar the beauty of the whole en¬ 
closure. The great central fountain, in varied 
shapes and forms, has been the principal theme of so 
many a beautiful garden, that we had almost growm 
to believe that the center was its only acceptable 
place. 1 his is not true. Change the shape and 
size of the fountain, and it is more ornamental in 
another place. It can stand in a nook, among the 
shrubbery, with an effect as artistic as that reached 
hy the central location of the Italian scheme. 
An example' of indi\ iduality, where original and 
striking effects are produced, as just now suggested, 
by means of unusual grouping, is found in the formal 
garden of Hon. T. Jefferson Coolidge, at Manchester, 
Massachusetts. It is reached from the somewhat 
higher level of the entrance hy means of short flights 
of stone steps. In the center of this sunken space, 
one would naturally look for the stereotyped fountain 
of Italian marble, but one looks in vain. Its place 
has been usurped hy a sun-dial brought from England, 
and the usurpation constitutes a pleasing surprise. 
All around the dial lie formal beds of blooming 
plants, which are changed as the season changes, 
so that they may be always in fullest florescence. 
Nor is the fountain wholly wanting. As we stand 
by the sun-dial and look across the brilliant parterres, 
we see a flight of stone steps, guarded upon each side 
by a crouching leopard. Behind these, and against 
the wall, stands a handsome fountain, supported by 
strangely carved dolphins, and surmounted hy a 
statue of Neptune armed with his trident. Granite 
42 
