PLATE 38
"Villaserra," Warren, R. I. Reverend Joseph Hutcheson
From a photograph lent by C. A. Platt, Esq.
CONNECTICUT
Connecticut gardens are many, both inland and along the shores of the Sound. Those of the hilly western section have the advantage of a somewhat cooler altitude. Otherwise it is unnecessary to give further details as to climatic conditions,[3] as the northern boundary is about a hundred miles distant from northern New Jersey and the temperatures differ but little, although of course every hundred miles northward makes gardening a somewhat simpler proposition, because of slightly cooler conditions as well as a shortened flower season.
In a reputed true story of the long-ago settlement of Old Saybrook there is mention of a woman's flower-garden, doubtless the earliest on Long Island Sound. Here the sheltered inlets and bays must have seemed a welcome haven to our Pilgrim fathers from the wind-swept coast of Plymouth, whence they had wandered, probably seeking fertile farmland. The gardens of this State, with some notable exceptions, are mainly those of a simpler type, made and tended by their owners, who living in them, will continue to beautify them more and more as time goes on. These unpretentious creations of flower lovers often show originality not always found in gardens of a more formal design, and might be considered typically American.
Following the idea of simplicity, the first two illustrations of this chapter portray the "lovesome spot," where flowers predominate, with nothing to recall the splendor of other lands. A place for the harboring of flowers for the sake of the flowers, and this was surely the thought that brooded over the first New England gardens planted in the early half of the seventeenth century, when American gardens had their beginning.
The glimpse through the arched gateway of the garden at Knock-Mae-Cree—in old Irish, Hill of My Heart—(Plate 168), and the curtailed view of the flowery planting in the Woodside garden stimulate a longing further to penetrate into these lovely sanctums.
The garden at Elmwood is partly illustrated in the accompanying picture—it is further gracefully adorned with pergola and pool. Liberally designed without being elaborate, it has a charm that is all its own.