Two Nantucket Gardens 
permanent paths and low terraces of the 
garden. Happily there are hands which 
care for many of these gardens, and re¬ 
pair their ruins tenderly as they dwindle, 
taking delight in the generations of roses 
which have blossomed year after year for 
half a century or more in the same knot 
or bed. 
The accompanying plans and photo¬ 
graphs illustrate the Sanford and King 
gardens which are perhaps the most inter¬ 
esting of the older gardens on the island. 
Sad to say, like the majority of existing 
New England gardens, they were built at 
a comparatively recent period, the early 
part of the last century being the date 
ascribed to them. Fortunately there is evi¬ 
dence to support the tradition that they were 
copied from much older gardens then in their 
prime. A detailed description either of the 
design of these estates or their plantations 
would perhaps prove tiresome, but it may be 
profitable however to consider briefly a few of 
the more important features of the designs, 
h ormality is evidently the first characteristic of 
the two gardens. This element was doubtless 
DIAGONAL VIEW OF ROSE GARDEN 
THE SANFORD ROSE GARDEN IN WINTER 
much less an esthetic object of the designers 
than an expedient of economy imposed upon 
them by the limited size of the gardens and 
their effective maintenance, as well as the ease 
of marking the designs upon the ground. 
T he seclusion given the gardens by means of 
border screens which separate them from the 
street, from neighboring property, and even 
to a slight degree from the houses themselves, 
is also a noteworthy characteristic. In both 
designs, how¬ 
ever, there is 
little effort to 
screen the stable 
from the garden, 
and the only 
path connection 
between the 
house and stable 
is afforded by the 
garden footways. 
The economic 
value of the 
garden is also 
evidenced by the 
presence of fruit 
trees which were 
probably as 
much prized for 
their material 
yield as for their 
embellishment 
of the enclosure. 
The two plans 
also indicate the 
sanford place dependence 
3H 
