Biltmore , North Carolina 
pressive as a hundred elms deferentially 
drawn up on each side of your carriage drive, 
and at Wilton, from whichever of the four 
winds you approach, vou must pass through 
long lanes ot these giant footmen .... 
though indeed the avenues to Wilton are 
evidently of comparatively recent growth.” 
In attempting to discuss the treatment of 
the landscape at Biltmore 1 am very much 
at a loss for lack of the plan, which the owner 
is, unfortunately, disinclined to have pub¬ 
lished. Without it, it is difficult to convey 
an adequate idea of the landscape architect’s 
work. From the lodge gates, at the entrance, 
for three miles up to Biltmore H ouse, the 
drive winds through wooded vales or over 
gentle rises, giving view through glades, of 
the encircling mountains. At every bend 
or fork is a picture in tree forms, and here 
and there is a bit of tamed wild beauty 
in water and rock, a pretty bridge, a bank 
glorious with rhododendron, and there are 
countless charming arrangements of shrub¬ 
bery and plants against the background of 
the forest, the road always ascending by an 
easy grade to the first terrace of the foothills, 
from which Biltmore House commands the 
plateau. The effect of this approach is emi¬ 
nently seigniorial, and the impression of its 
dignity is enhanced by the little village of 
half-timbered and roughcast houses just with¬ 
out the lodge gates. 
Biltmore House owes nothing to local sug¬ 
gestion. It is neither of the South nor of 
the mountains, nor are its associations in any 
wise of our own land and time. What it says 
to us is in foreign speech, in the accent of 
France, of an old long-gone day little short 
of mediaeval. It is, in fact, a chateau in 
very late French domestic Gothic, with tran¬ 
sitional features. If not directly inspired by 
the architecture of Francis 1 ., by that of the 
wing of Blois built for him by the architect 
Charles Viart, it is strongly reminiscent of 
French work of the period between 1498 and 
1515, or to widen the limit, under Charles 
XI I., and Francis I : the last development of 
domestic Gothic and perhaps the most beauti 
ful architecture of France, the link between 
the feudal castle of the Middle Ages and 
the modern seigniorial dwellings of Louis 
XIII. and the “ Grand Monarque" 
With the charm of this formative or tran¬ 
sitional period of French architecture Richard 
4 
