House id Garden 
color. In a room of this kind, of course, the 
furniture could be nothing but mahogany. 
A great “four-poster” bed built to the 
ceiling, chairs of dignified and refined design, 
a washstand supported by four perfect min¬ 
iature columns and a massive old sofa, are 
all of the kind to 
delight an artist 
and to awaken the 
envy of a collector 
of antiques. 
In perfect har¬ 
mony with the 
house, the garden 
is of the geometric 
style, which had its 
prototype in the 
English homes of 
the early Colonial 
settlers. The cen¬ 
tral path, six feet in 
width, is the con¬ 
tinuation of the 
short axis of the re¬ 
ception hall. An 
elliptical bed, filled 
with tall roses, 
marks the center, 
and the vista is 
terminated furthest 
from the house by 
a latticed shelter. 
Smaller paths, all 
of red gravel, inter¬ 
sect at right angles, 
forming rectangular beds edged with tiny bor¬ 
ders of box. Old-fashioned flowers, phlox, 
marigolds, fuchsias and nasturtiums are the 
favorites, and there are roses in profusion, of 
which a Prairie Climber is the rarest. 
Here and there are placed taller growths, 
like sentinels guarding their more delicate 
comrades below. A wonderful box bush, 
eight feet in height and ten in spread, with 
branches as thick as one’s arm and curiously 
gnarled and twisted is a striking feature. A 
magnolia tree—a mass of purple and white in 
early spring and wonderfully decorative all 
summer, with its heavy, dark-green foliage 
against the white background of the house, is 
conspicuously beautiful, and likewise in their 
seasons are a trumpet creeper and a wistaria. 
I he long arbor against the garden side of the 
house, with its covering of grape-vines, is no 
small factor in adding to the general charm. 
It must not be supposed that all this is laid 
out to be evident at a glance, after the manner 
of a floor mosaic, or a rug. Ear from it! 
Nature and Art have combined to make a 
result far lovelier. 
High shrubbery 
conceals bed from 
bed, and at first one 
obtains but little 
idea of size and 
design, realizing 
only alluring vistas 
of shade and sun¬ 
light and color. 
A knowledge of 
the age and envi¬ 
ronment of so nota- 
blea housesuggests 
the probability of 
interesting histori¬ 
cal association. It 
is true that somber 
stains on the floors 
bear mute witness 
to the service of 
“ Wyck ” as a hos¬ 
pital during the 
battle of German¬ 
town. Louisa 
Alcott is said to 
have been born be¬ 
neath its roof—and 
there is more in the 
house’s story beyond the scope of a descrip¬ 
tive paper. “Wyck” is sometimes mentioned 
as “ The Brewery House.” The only plausi¬ 
ble excuse for the origin of such a name is the 
existence at one time of a small building used 
as a brewery and standing some distance from 
the house on the site of the present Walnut 
Lane, the thoroughfare which now bounds 
“ Wyck” upon the north. The little structure 
disappeared many years ago. In portraying 
something in which the chief interest depends 
upon an artistic aspect, the photographs seem 
so adequate that little can be added to their 
value. It will be sufficient, however, if some¬ 
thing perhaps otherwise unobserved has been 
pointed out here; a greater appreciation called 
forth for the beauty of a venerable house. 
Gilbert Hindermyer. 
559 
