Earlier in the summer, I read a historical novel called,
A Lady of Good Family, by Jeanne Mackin. It was about young Beatrix Jones Farrand, the first female American landscape architect. In the novel I learned that Beatrix Jones was Edith Wharton's niece and had spent time at her aunt's country estate, The Mount, in Massachusetts' Berkshire Mountains
. Edith designed both the house and gardens at The Mount, and I imagine she must have been an important influence on Beatrix.
While traveling through the Berkshire Mountains one weekend, we stopped at Lenox, Massachusetts to visit The Mount:
Edith loved European gardens and architecture. You approach The Mount by entering a walled courtyard--the first room of many, as Edith envisioned life as a series of rooms and designed her home to reflect her vision:
"But I have sometimes thought that a woman's nature is like a great house full of rooms: there is the hall, through which everyone passes in going in and out; the drawing-room, where one receives formal visits; the sitting-room, where the members of the family come and go as they list; but beyond that, far beyond, are other rooms, the handles of whose doors perhaps are never turned; no one knows the way to the, no one knows whither they lead; and in the innermost room, the holy of holies, the soul sits alone and waits for a footstep that never comes." ~ from The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton
We toured the gardens first:
After descending a beautiful, wide double staircase to the garden, you encounter the first garden "room": an impressive alle of pleached linden trees known as a "lime walk":
At the end of the lime walk, to the left of the house is the French flower garden. It is a sunny, open garden featuring a central dolphin fountain and pool that is surrounded by mixed beds of colorful perennials and annuals.
Inside the house, Edith favored symmetry and natural light, which you can see in this photo of the gallery. This room was used as a waiting area for guests before they were received into the drawing room.
Edith disliked socializing and detested "small talk". She had an intimate circle of close friends, among whom Henry James was counted.
The drawing room still features the original plaster work on the ceilings--it is gorgeous. However, most of the furnishings are historically accurate reproductions, which means that visitors are truly invited
in to Edith's world with no need to stand behind velvet ropes.
Through the doorway in the photo above, you find yourself in Edith's library, the only room with original furnishings (we had to stay behind the velvet ropes).
My favorite room in the house was Edith's bedroom. She did all of her writing in bed on a lap desk. Guests and household staff knew not to expect to see her until noon each day. She stayed in bed writing until 11 am. As she completed each page, she let it drift to the floor.
Edith began her writing career at the age of thirty-one with the publication of a non-fiction volume called,
The Decoration of Houses. She went on to write forty books in forty years and was the first woman to win the Pulitzer Prize. She was awarded for her novel
The Age of Innocence.
The view from Edith's bedroom window. I
need white dotted swiss curtains for
my bedroom and that soft blue-gray for my walls. : )
Breaking with tradition, Edith preferred a round dining room table with limited seating. She believed a dinner party should be an intimate affair, ultimately a gathering of equals, as this was most conducive to excellent conversation.
We enjoyed our lunch on the beautiful wide terrace that wraps around the back and sides of the house:
Our favorite part of The Mount was Edith Wharton's "secret garden", a sunken, stone-walled, Italianate garden. We visited the estate on a mizzling day, and the secret garden was several degrees cooler and veiled in silvery mist:
All of the flowers in this garden are white: astilbe, climbing hydrangea, and jasmine. The effect is wild peace.
Thank you for reading!
Love and roses,
Sue ♥
