Bellefontaine , at Lenox , Massachusetts 
on the left, around a courtyard enclosed within 
a high brick wall. 1'he axis of the building 
crosses at right angles that of the avenue. 
Continuing toward the house an arcaded 
portico shines in full sunlight beyond the 
shadows of the avenue and is framed like a 
picture in the cleft between the trees. At the 
bottom a low stone wall half-covered with 
creeping vines, retains a dower garden. 
Several stone steps ascend between two 
sentinel cupressus Lawsoniana to walks ot 
broken stone which enclose and intersect four 
parterres. There is a freedom in the plant¬ 
ing and skilful massing of flowers and bushes 
within the terrace that gives a level setting 
to the building on three sides. 
The drive turns to the left after leaving 
the avenue and goes on past the service wing 
of the house to the great formal courtyard 
cut into the woods, and of which we 
shall have more to say in another paper. But 
we have now turned to the right from the 
flower garden and we are on the grassed and 
planted terrace before the house. This space is 
divided into twolevels of almost equal areaand, 
though crossed by three walks near the edges, it 
has been kept as a quiet and unobtrusive fore¬ 
ground. There are no parterres here and only 
THE HOUSE FROM THE EAWN 
BELLEFONTAINE 
against the walls so as to give variety to the 
architectural lines and yet to preserve them. 
The beds are pied with petunias, nasturtiums 
and hollyhocks, while hydrangeas in boxes 
have been placed at important corners or at 
centres of spaces. A profusion of foliage 
crowds out upon the walks. The red lychnis 
chalcedonies , the rosa rugosa and the yellow 
rudbekia are brilliant before the shadows in 
the arches of the portico. In the centre of 
all an Italian fountain plays a tinkling stream 
into a low basin and is an effective light object 
in the long perspective of house and avenue. 
There are two of these gardens, one at each 
side of the house, and they are enclosed 
1 J 
small clumps of shrubbery and flowers inter¬ 
rupt the lawn. The shrubs, becoming thicker 
on the upper level,reach up to the very bases of 
the great columns and hang over the balus¬ 
trade. Standing in front of the central colon¬ 
nade one looks between two stone pines 
across the descending fields. Below to the 
right are the greenhouses, and beyond is the 
barn; but these buildings are far enough away 
and below the eye to leave the wide view un¬ 
marred. It is a country of broken outlines 
of hills and many hues of wood and field 
passing into distant blue. The highway far 
off to the right, descending toward the 
south, is lost in a first few hills which hide 
6 
