Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1885-04-25
MINISTER PHELPS HOME.
One OF the LOveliest Places in New
England--The Jurist's Great
Love of Outdoor Sports.

eyes lighted upon the house and grounds
OF the distinguished lawyer, he would
say:
Why, that is an Englishman's home.
isn't it?'' 'o'
Mr.; Phelps is not an Englishman, but
with his love and admiration for every
thing that is best in English customs and
characteristics, he has modelled his Yer
mont nome after modest English coun-
Try seat There is patrician air about
Ine place which arrests the eve at once.
The house itself, of brick, is low and
somewhat rambling, embowered in trees
ana vines. There is northern L, con-
tanning MIR. Phelps study, a broad but
unpretentious porch in front, and vine
covered piazza on the southwest. over
looking the lake and the Adirondacks be-
yond. The lawn about the house is
wonderfully line in summer time. the
admiration OF the whole city, for there is
not another such in town, nor, | doubt.
IN all New England. 1t combines the
quiet and natural elegance of an English
park with the smooth-shaven neatness of
the American front yard. Its natural
slope and long rolling banks-not the
ugly and prominent terrace so common in
New England-are simply superb. One
looking at them through the cool vistas
OF the trees has luxurious sensation, as
1t were, OF drifting and floating away, just
between the velvet grass and the broad
shadow OF the leaves. The lawn is ex-
qulsltely kept, and extends far back of
the house and deep into the orchard-not
ending abruptly in coarse, ragged grass,
TIN cans, and bits of kitchen rubbish, as
the impairment New England lawn usu-
ally does, but shading away like picture
into the background OF garden and grove.
Just over the fence to the south, how
ever, is Mr.. Phelps distinctively English
part. A noble grove of yews. extending
over nearly five acres of smooth and
slightly sloping ground, verging upon a
broad, sunny field, and all surrounded by
the prim, high, aristocratic paling of the
English park. Mr.. Phelps takes the
greatest pride in this grove; and well he
may, for it is like bit of stately old Eng
land mixed up in an American mosaic
No vandalism is now committed within
its sacred precincts. No small boy scales
the fence in search of "but nuts" or
chases the chipmunk to his hole in the
loamy earth. The gray squirrel knows
he is safe from the sportman's pursuit in
that lordly Enclosure, and the birds which
have nested there for season after season
in perfect security fill the air with their
graceful songs.
a very English home without is that
of our new Minister to England; and
within, also, the same atmosphere pre-
walls. Everything about the house is
rich and substantial. None of your thin
veneering here. Dark woods prevail
like the sombre, stained interior of the
English country mansion. You walk
upon rugs and carpets dark and rich and
deep that they seem like meadow grass
under your feet, and you might go from
the top to the bottom of the house with
out hearing the sound of your own steps.
Everything is quiet, genteel, subdued, so
that there always seems to be a twilight
atmosphere in the house. The pictures
on the walls are no gaudy, Respondent
canvases of faring effects, but soft etch
ings, engravings, and here and there a
small painting with a masters initials in
the corner.
Mr.. Phelps richly furnished study looks
like an arsenal. Over the doors, over the
bookcases, against the walls, over the
mantel, everywhere, in handsome
brackets hang the noted sportsman's
guns. Nor has Mr.. Phelps confined him.
self to the collection of the modern artil-
lery Of the field. He has probably the
most elaborate and valuable private col
lection of small arms of all nations and
periods in existence. Upon the walls of
his home you will find the cumbrous
Moorish gun, reaching almost from the
mantel to the ceiling, and all crusted over
with the most beautiful and precious or
namentation of gold and silver; the Span
/ fcl, do
and adorned; pistols and guns from
! all quarters of the world But dearer
far to Mr.. Phelps than these priceless
antiquarian treasures are his own field
guns - the guns he has used in his
pleasant shooting trips from boyhood up,
and of whose every scar or scratch he
could tell you the minutest history with
an infinite zest. Here is the light muzzle-
loader he used in his boyhood and young
manhood, when Champlain's glorious
water" and Dead creek and little
Otter" echoed to a merrier music than
they will ever hear again. Even now,
in these modern days of breech-loaders.
Mr.. Phelps clings with a conservative
fondness to the wonderfully-shooting
muzzle-loading guns of his boyhood, al
though he has an admirable collection OF
high-priced breech-loaders in his arsen-
al" "There is nothing equal to the
old-fashioned, double barreled muzzle-
loader for long, hard shooting at ducks
he said to an admiring young devotee of
the sports of field and stream. When
want to make difficult and telling Shots
1 trust to my old gun here"
Mr.. Phelps does not shoot as much
now as he did in his younger days, partly,
I suppose, because of increasing age and
cares, and partly because he has to go
so far to find the game he especially.
covets. Time was when the vicinity OF
Burlington used to echo right merrily
with the sound of his gun, and the
country people would say, when they
heard the Sharp, business-like crack
from the hillside or the swale:
All! that's Phelps and his dog. Now
the birds have got to take it J"
While Mr.. Phelps is known to every
body in the vicinity of his home, 1t is
true that he has not formed many friend
ships or even intimacies among his tel-
low-townsmen. am not one OF those
who ascribe this to feeling of false pride
or oyerestimation of himself on Mr..
PHELPS part. He is by nature con-
servative, self-contained man, and the
dignity and polish which he has acquired
in his professional and social relations
tend, naturally enough, to narrow the
circle of his general intercourse: But
kinder-hearted man and man OF timer or
wider sympathies you will seldom find.
He has never refused to ally himself with
any benevolent or philanthropic enter
prise in this community which has APP
healed to him for aid or influence. He is