Some Long Island Country Estates 
from formal into natural was successfully softened. 
The trellis is overrun with vines, thus enclosing the 
garden completely. This formal garden also was 
designed to act in close relation to the house. A stone 
lined pool occupies the center and the paths are bor¬ 
dered with straight clipped barberry hedges. On the 
south side of the house are the tennis courts, sunken 
somewhat, beyond which is the thick forest grove. 
The other buildings on the estate consist of stables, 
farmhouse and several farm buildings, also a pri¬ 
vate water plant. 
This brief description of these attractive estates 
can do them scant justice. As they grow older, the 
barrenness which even yet exists in spots will 
disappear and they will continue to grow nearer to 
Nature. The average visitor will consider them 
beautiful and may enthuse over their attractiveness. 
but very few will probably ever appre¬ 
ciate the real transformations that 
have been wrought and the careful 
study that has been given to bring 
them to their present state and to 
provide for their future growth. Who 
would ever guess that the space be¬ 
tween tbe Mackay residence and the 
terrace at the beginning of the formal 
approach had been once a deep 
ravine; that tbe original incline to the 
Whitney house had been almost like 
a mountain side; that the beautiful 
stretch of lawn on the northeast of the 
Whitney mansion was a most disagree¬ 
able swamp; that where the Stow man¬ 
sion and gardens now stand was one 
of the densest forest sections of the 
neighborhood; that nobody realized 
tbe view toward the ocean on the Dur- 
yea property before the vistas were cut through and 
the new house located One may view a great bridge 
or a noble building and his first thought is of the labor 
it has taken and the money that has been expended. 
It is very often, however, that the full appreciation of 
the wmrk of the landscape architect is lost because 
the visitor does not know what the original condi¬ 
tions have been, or realize what art has accomplished; 
and the better the art in many cases the more incon¬ 
spicuous the actual result. Thus it might pay the visi¬ 
tor in adding to his interest, to look closer to these 
wmrks. Then while he may openly admire such an 
individual creation as a formal garden with its pro¬ 
nounced beauty, perhaps he may enjoy a glimpse of 
some quiet woodland more if he strives to imagine or 
ascertain how it may have originally appeared before 
art and experience made possible its enhancement. 
ONCE A SWAMP, NOW A MEADOW 
THE BEAUTIFUL PARTY ROAD 
