HOUSE AND GARDEN 
May, 
1914 
Most hillsides are rocky. Here the native stone was used to great advantage in making a flight of steps 
climbing up the slope. Tile ornament in combination is very effective 
retaining wall was built to hold in the foot of a steep hank. 
The material used in the construction work in the garden de¬ 
serves a word, inasmuch as it was all furnished by the site. J he 
stone was picked up on the hillside back of the house. Broken 
flagstone was used for paving the steps 
and seats, which had been taken up from 
the street sidewalk in previous years. The 
cedar, larch and chestnut timbers were cut 
on the hilltop. 
Mr. Henry Mercer, of Doylestown, Pa., 
designed the appropriate tiles which were 
used, and an Italian master mason who 
understood garden architecture with rare 
sympathetic insight built all the masonry. 
When the rough terracing was finished 
we found that a space 60 feet deep and 
about 115 feet wide must serve for the 
garden proper. At the rear of this flat 
level was another steep embankment, the 
forerunner of the hillside and woodland 
above. A dry retaining wall, with earth 
pockets, was put in to hold this slope in 
place, and, in order to break the long line 
of walling, a winding stair was contrived 
opposite the main entrance to the garden 
level. This had the effect of dividing the 
plot into two unequal sections, and im¬ 
mediately the main axial lines were fixed. 
The smaller space, marked (A) on the 
plan, was left as a stretch of lawn, with an 
enclosure of perennials and shrubberv 
surrounding the sundial and stone resting 
bench. 
On the wall of the bastion which hid the 
curve in the stone stair a decoration in 
glazed and half glazed tiles was set. While this appears rather 
bald at present, when the gracious drapery of the trumpet vines 
which are planted above it have grown a bit its outlines will be 
much softened. Crevices in the steps and wall have been planted 
with such alpines as alyssum saxatile,aquil- 
egias, rock cress, phlox divaricata and sub- 
lata, and sedums in all varieties. Fox¬ 
gloves and anemones are naturalized in 
the wooded spaces higher up. 
In the larger space (B) a simple, formal 
arrangement of beds was laid out, and in 
the centre of this the round pool and foun¬ 
tain were built. A massive stone seat to be 
canopied with roses now flanks the pool 
and gives a view of the garden interior, 
while the occupant is quite secluded. 
Back of this seat, and running parallel 
with the retaining wall, another long vista 
was created, terminating in a tea house, 
which was built in an awkward angle of 
the embankment. The immediate proxim¬ 
ity of this garden shelter, since it was a 
bare, arid spot, was then devoted to a 
rock garden, and one illustration shows a 
sunny seat here, and a short flight of stone 
steps leading from this up to the copse be¬ 
hind, which hides a compost heap behind 
a rubble masonrv enclosure. 
Directly in front of the garden house, 
which is paved with flagstones and fur¬ 
nished with hand-made chairs and a mon¬ 
astic table, is a large rose bed filled with 
high-bush varieties. The planting of some 
large shrubs and a few hemlock spruces on 
the crest of the slope at the edge of the 
A little cement, some waste slate slabs and the litter of stone work makes “the wishing chair” that com¬ 
mands a magnificent view of the whole garden 
