House & Garden 
A DEUTZ1A BUSH 
A BOX HEDGE 
been growing there 
for full fifty years 
before the garden’s 
planting. 'Thegreat 
maple tree, too, 
must then have 
been a strong figure 
in the scene, just as 
it still predomi¬ 
nates over all else 
and ends a vista 
down The Arbored 
PFalk of the kitchen 
garden. 
The few old gar¬ 
dens which remain 
in America have 
had a diversified 
existence. Incon¬ 
gruities of their 
parts are to be 
traced to changes in 
their history, or to 
the whims of own¬ 
ers who brought to them, each in his turn, 
either careless indifference or the conceits of 
his time. But the garden of the Read House 
at New Castle has fared not so unfortunately, 
for it has been kept with continued and intel¬ 
ligent care. Even the old negro gardener 
THE ARBORED WALK 
assures the visitor 
that he has tended 
it steadily for 
twenty-five years. 
That it was laid out 
as a whole by one 
man, and at one 
time, is shown by 
the harmony of its 
different parts,— 
the seeming heed¬ 
lessness of its cen¬ 
tral section not¬ 
withstanding. The 
symmetry of the 
parterres in front is 
carried to the ex¬ 
treme rear of the 
grounds by the bal¬ 
ancing of two Eng¬ 
lish walnut trees at 
each corner of the 
vegetable garden. 
Within these limits, 
but a few feet above the waters of the Dela¬ 
ware,are theaged Balm of Gilead, the magnolia 
macrophylla, and the crepe myrtle. Wistaria 
and akebia vines cluster on the arbors, and 
a full rich growth of ivy covers The Rear of 
the House , adding a beauty to its stately walls. 
l 7 
