A Long Island House and Garden 
perilously near the floors and walls. A 
glimpse into the half-underground kitchen 
—now in disuse—with its big flreplace 
and huge Dutch oven, recalls an old-time 
expedient for attaining some measure of win¬ 
ter comfort, for here, probably, during the 
bitter cold days the entire household gathered, 
as in a living-room, to share the welcome heat. 
1 he same conditions may be imagined to have 
existed in the Van Cortlandt Manor House at 
fronts on the main road or highway, a wide, 
tree-shaded street that ties together the towns 
and hamlets of Long Island like beads on a 
chain. 
The owner’s possession of some valuable 
furniture and decorations of the Renaissance, 
secured on his different visits to England and 
the Continent, made an extension of the old 
house imperative, and a separate room with 
interior fittings to accord with the collection, 
GARDEN ENTRANCE TO THE GREAT HALL 
Van Cortlandt Park, New York, now under 
the care of the Colonial Dames, where the 
lower kitchen is one of the chief objects of 
curiosity to the visitor. 
The old entrance to the Long Island farm¬ 
house is as finely proportioned and as simple 
in detail as the famous doorways designed by 
Samuel Maclntire of Salem, Massachusetts; 
the upper railing is a late addition copied from 
a Colonial mansion. This part of the house 
and an exterior that would combine har¬ 
moniously with the original building was 
devised. 
The dimensions of this great hall, thirty-five 
by seventy-five feet, impress one with the feel¬ 
ing of far-back feudal days when barons and 
noblemen occupied one end of their banquet 
room, and retainers and serving people were 
stationed in their own sections, all under the 
same roof. 
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