. Charles Eliot, landscape architect : a lover of nature and of his kind who trained himself for a new profession, practised it happily and through it wrought much good /Charles William Eliot. tention of making it a country-seat, and forthwith builta mansion which was valued by the assessors of 1798 at thevast sum of eight thousand dollars! This substantial househe placed not upon the highland, where the popular taste ofto-day would set it, but upon the flat, and from one to twohundred feet south of the southernmost rocks. Here it wassufficiently high above the brook, which flowed in front abo
. Charles Eliot, landscape architect : a lover of nature and of his kind who trained himself for a new profession, practised it happily and through it wrought much good /Charles William Eliot. tention of making it a country-seat, and forthwith builta mansion which was valued by the assessors of 1798 at thevast sum of eight thousand dollars! This substantial househe placed not upon the highland, where the popular taste ofto-day would set it, but upon the flat, and from one to twohundred feet south of the southernmost rocks. Here it wassufficiently high above the brook, which flowed in front about400 feet away, while behind it space was obtained for a well-sheltered garden. The east wing was built close to a littleknoll, which, with the trees upon it, helped to make the houseappear firmly and comfortably planted. The west wing alsohad its supporting trees. The smooth lawn before the housewas made with material dug from beside the brook, which wasthen induced, by the help of a low dam, to flow more quietlyand broadly. Plainly, English books on landscape gardening,like Reptons or Whatelys, had made part of this Americangentlemans reading — the low setting of the house and the. ^t. 29] ITS PLAN —REMARKABLE TREES 245 serpentine curves given to the grass-edged shore of the streamfurnish proof of this. At first, the approach-road entered the estate from thesoutheast and crossed the brook on a stone bridge of threearches, but in after years a new entrance was made in theposition shown upon our plan, and then the older way wasdiscontinued, with the unfortunate effect of bringing thedriveway to a sudden ending at the house door. No otherimportant alterations of the original plan have been attemptedsince the designer himself made this change. To be sure, thesecond Lyman, probably in haste to provide shade in certainparts, planted many Norway spruces; but these his son isnow gradually removing, to the great improvement of the gen-eral scene; for the deciduous forest trees wh
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectlandsca, bookyear1902
