House and Garden 
with eager hands carried the statesman to the Phoenix 
Hotel, then Postlethwaite’s Tavern. The crowd in 
the street clamored impatiently for a speech and 
the traveler appeared on the balcony to comply with 
their wishes. After thanking them briefly, be said, 
“ And now, I must ask you to excuse me, for 
strange as it may seem to you, there is an old 
lady at ‘Ashland’ whom I would rather see than all 
of you.” 
In approaching “Ashland,” with its sloping park 
of blue-grass, its well-kept drives and winding foot¬ 
paths of tan-bark, bordered with periwinkle and 
canopied by interlacing walnut and ash trees, one 
feels a sense of restful seclusion and well-appointed 
comfort, and that this was its atmosphere in olden 
days is plainly written in all one reads of the domestic 
life there. 
The front door with its Doric columns and semi¬ 
circular transom of white glass opens into a square 
hall which has been greatly modified by the present 
owners. 
The arrangement of the house is not an unusual 
one in houses of that period, and is quite convenient 
and attractive. To the left of the front door is a 
small room used by Mr. Clay as an office; this room 
in rebuilding was very carefully modeled after the 
original. On the right is the stairway which is 
entirely modern, the old stairway being a narrow, 
awkward affair, intersecting doors and windows as 
it wound close to the front wall of the hallway. 
Directly opposite the front entrance are doors leading 
into the drawing-room and dining-room; these apart¬ 
ments open by French windows into the conserva¬ 
tory. 
In the north wing, through which runs a narrow 
hall, are the library, billiard-room and sleeping 
apartments. The south wing is entirely devoted to 
domestic uses. Throughout the woodwork is of 
beautifully finished ash. 
In the dining-room are found many interesting 
pieces of furniture; two serving tables, one of which 
shows in the photograph, were brought over the 
Alleghany Mountains one hundred and fifty years 
ago by the McDowell ancestors. The heavy claw 
feet show an Empire feeling in the winged effect and 
applied brass; the dining-table is equally interesting 
and is also an heirloom. 
Over the safe in this room hangs the portrait 
(painted by Jouett) of James B. Clay, the hero of 
Buena Vista, and beneath it the sword he used. The 
THE LIVING-ROOM 
