A Newport House and Garden 
can neither be put into words or photographs. 
While both interior and exterior are founded 
on a certain amount of precedent, the result 
is extremely individual, not to say original. 
The richness of detail and coloring may 
appear somewhat Spanish, the logical treat¬ 
ment of the plan may be adapted from the 
French, and the homelike quality may seem 
characteristic of 
English domes¬ 
tic architecture; 
but the dominant 
note throughout 
is very properly 
American. Thus, 
the architect has 
not only succeed¬ 
ed in building a 
beautiful house 
but a genuine 
home for its 
owners. 
Of the gar¬ 
dens, laid out by 
the writer, a 
brief description 
must suffice. 
They are intend¬ 
ed to supplement 
the indoor living-rooms with a series of 
enclosures where visitors can sit and walk out 
of doors in seclusion, surrounded by an abun¬ 
dance of flowers. A privet hedge sets these 
enclosures apart from the rest of the grounds. 
Furthest from the house are the gardens least 
intended for ornament. One plot of ground 
contains the cold-frames and the plants held 
in reserve until they are required elsewhere. 
This section is screened from the others by a 
long arbour of pleached fruit-trees set out 
many years ago. 
Next comes the picking garden. Here 
there are a succession of narrow, oblong beds, 
each filled with one or two varieties of flowers 
intended to be picked to ornament the house, 
or to be sent away as gifts. Though con¬ 
venience was here the primary consideration, 
the general effect of the arrangement is 
pleasing. 
The shrub or fountain garden, as it is 
sometimes called, is beside the picking gar¬ 
den. An oval 
grass-plot, sug¬ 
gested perhaps 
bv a B o ulin g- 
rin, LeNotre’s 
adaptation of the 
English bowling- 
green, surrounds 
an oval tank of 
water filled with 
lilies and lotuses. 
The grass is 
enclosed by a 
square, filled 
with shrubs and 
herbaceous 
plants. 
Nearest the 
house and visi¬ 
ble from the 
dining-room and 
the nearest loggia is the ornamental flower 
garden. In style, it shows a reminiscence of 
Spain, though too faint perhaps to be at once 
perceived. This appears in the general design 
of the flower beds and in the placing of 
standard roses and dwarf fruit-trees along the 
borders of the main paths and in the arches 
covering their intersection. In the middle is a 
circular grass plot where are placed four seats, 
behind which hang garlands of roses fes¬ 
tooned over iron chains. The central feature 
is a sun-dial inscribed with the appropriate 
motto: 
“ Lightly falls the foot of time that only treads on flowers.” 
A GLIMPSE OF THE PARK 
I94 
