Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 8.djvu/367

Rh he is planting many thousand oak and rock-maple trees, and clearing the underbrush from the already existing groves. From the causeway the road extends straight to the crest of the island, where are situated the model Queen Anne farmhouse, barn, and various out-buildings. Last year (1884) he broke up seventy-five acres, and has got wonderful crops from the soil. The land has produced two hundred bushels of corn to the acre, and other commodities in proportion.

On the western brow, facing the Weirs several miles distant, is being built a residence of the most substantial and artistic character. A. B. Mullett, the distinguished supervising architect of the Treasury for so many years, is the designer; and Job W. Angus, who built the Smithsonian Institute, is the constructor. The masons were brought from Washington and Boston. The granite of which the house is built is quarried on the island, and is laid in broken range and ashlar masonry. When completed, it will be the most elegant private residence in the State.

Back of the house, and encroaching upon it, is a grove of pine-trees of many acres, affording delightfully cool and shady glades. The rocks on the island are doomed to go, to fill up hollows and help construct a sea-wall or lake-wall. An ingenious gtavity railroad is used to move off the stones.

The landscape-gardening and arboriculture is under the supervision of F. L. Temple, a disciple of Frederick Law Olmsted.

The views from the wide veranda of the new mansion are superb, but are not quite equal to those obtained from the eastern crest, which is the highest point of the island. From here, the site of some possible hotel in the future, the whole expanse of Winnipiseogee with its thousand islands is in view, and one is in an ampitheatre of hills and mountains.

When all his plans and designs are carried out, Davis Island, or Governor's Island, under the new name by which it will be christened, will be one of the most charming spots in New England. Art will be combined with nature to produce the most charming effects. It will be a farm, a park, an estate, a never-failing delight to its owner, to his guests, and to his tenants if he permits his friends to build cottages in keeping with the surroundings on different parts of the island.

During the construction of his residence, Mr. Hutchins has entertained his numerous guests in a camp-like group of cottages on the "Beeches,"—a section of the lake-shore on the main land adjoining his island. Wooden tents are grouped on each side of a central parlor and spacious hall. And the little waves break within a few feet of each cottage-door.