His life was a continual game of chance, and in this game for many years he found his chief enjoyment in existence. It is not recorded that in the earlier years of his career Mr. Gould ever sought any physical relaxation in the way of sport or pastime. His whole mind, heart and soul lay between Wall street and his uptown home. Finally, however, money-making became an old story. Time and again he had milked Wall street dry, and his fortune had rolled up into the tens of millions. Then, observing an occasional smile on the faces of other millionaires, and hearing the laughter of light hearts all about him, he began to wonder if there were not other pleasures in the world outside of cent per cent. and the dull, eternal rows of figures that stood for stocks and bonds.
So one day he turned his back on the dingy office that represented his paradise and took a New York Central train for Irvington. Here he met Mr. Merritt, and was driven to the residence of the latter, a mile or so north of the old river town and close to the shore. Mr. Gould was very quiet and very reserved, but his keen eye took in all the possibilities of the place at a glance. When he returned to New York on the evening train he had closed a bargain with Mr. Merritt, by which the estate became his for a consideration of a quarter of a million of dollars.
A small army of builders and decorators and glaziers was employed, and out of the general chaos of bush and bramble arose the minarets of a modern palace, with wide, well-ordered grounds and every comfort one could wish for. Mr. Gould seemed to take great pleasure in planning the arrangements for his future country residence. For awhile all but the general detail of his business was put in the background. Every few days he would journey up to Irvington to see how matters were progressing. It may be safely said that these were the first leisure days of Mr. Gould’s life. His eyes grew brighter, his step more buoyant, and he began to look upon these little excursions as a pleasant diversion.
Sometimes he would take his younger children with him, and their unaffected happiness was another source of relaxation for the care-worn millionaire. Previous to this time money-making had been Mr. Gould’s exclusive thought. Thereafter it became to a certain degree intermittent.
Mr. Gould’s house on the Hudson, above Irvington, was called Lyndhurst. It is a stone structure of Elizabethan architecture, situated on a high green bluff overlooking the river and surrounded with a well-kept park. The entrance to the park is about a mile from Irvington, and is marked by two tall granite posts. A stone porter’s lodge is by the gate. Passing into the grounds one sees on every side the marks of the gardener’s care and the skill of the landscape gardener. There are not too many trees, only enough, and they are so grouped that while they make the house at the end of the driveway seem retired, they yet afford vistas through which glimpses can be caught of the stone towers and gables of the mansion.
Beyond the limits of the park lie fruitful and well-cultivated farmlands and orchards belonging to the Gould estate. One opening among the trees shows a gray tower and slender minarets. These mark the dog kennels. The driveway is broad and smooth, and winds over the undulating surface of the park toward the house. Some of the trees through which it runs are old oaks which have not been interfered with in the general plan of the grounds, but have been brought into stranger effect by the arrangement of the newer trees and the shrubbery. The road descends a little before it reaches the house and passes through a grove of evergreens. As one comes out of the dark grove, the beautiful house bursts at once on the sight of the visitor. Trim lawns surround it and beyond it the view is closed by the broad Hudson and the palisades beyond.
The central tower of the house rises high, bearing turrets at each of its four corners. The house is built of greystone, which is shot with bluish tints. It covers a large area and its many parts are grouped together so as to give an appearance which is at once beautiful and imposing. There are multitudes of graceful angles, mullioned windows, turrets and spires, all in harmony, and forming a picture delightful to look upon. Here and there are verandas with great windows opening upon them, and now and then a stone balcony high up. The great double doors of the main entrance are of stone even to the sashes of the diamond-paned windows at their top.
Inside the house there is a great hall in the center. On the right from the main entrance is the dining-room and on the left a large drawing-room. Everywhere are works of art, statuary and paintings. The house has a multitude of rooms in it and is built on a generous plan throughout. It is an ideal country home. Every window commands a beautiful view, but those on the west front have the finest. The Hudson can be seen for miles to the south and north. The palisades are seen in a magnificent sweep across the river, and the town of Nyack looks like a toy city on the further shore of the river. To the north are the mountains of the Highlands. The lawn at the west of the house slopes down to the edge of the bluff. Then there is a steep descent to the railroad track, which is hidden from view by thickly planted trees and shrubs growing on the declivity. A path leads down to a bridge over the track and a short distance on the other side brings one to the little wharf and boathouse. It was off this wharf that the Atalanta used to lie when Mr. Gould was at Lyndhurst.
The library in the house contains a splendid collection of books, which Mr. Gould bought from a man who had spent many years and much money in collecting them in all the markets of the world.
He erected a short distance away one of the largest and most handsomely equipped conservatories in the country. It covers nearly four acres, and from a distance looks like the fabled palace of Kubla Khan. Here there was another source of pleasure for the weary financier. He employed Ferdinand Mangold, Mr. Merritt’s former gardener, to take charge of the conservatory, and gave him carte blanche to procure the rarest flowers and exotics from all over the world. Mangold performed his work well. When the leaves grew yellow around Lyndhurst the autumn following the conservatory contained the finest palm garden on the Western hemisphere.