Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1885-01-16
JOHN BURR0UGHSs HOME.

JOHN BURROUGHS HOME.
A oossIPY SKETCH OF THE MAN, AND HIS BE
LoNaINas, WHO WRITES 30 ENTERTAININaLY Y
OF OUT DOOR THINGS.
Roger RiordAn IN the Critic.l
When the author of winter Sunshine"
comes to town Il is over the most perfectly
graded track and through the finest scenery
about New York. Returning, he is carried
past Weehawken and the Palisades, through
the Jersey Meadows, in and out among the
West Shore Highlands, under West Point, and
past Newburg factories and Marlborough Der.
ry farms. He leaves the train at West Park
mounts bill through peach orchard, cross
es grassy field and the highway when he
reaches the top, opens rustic gate, and is at
home. From the road you look down upon
the roofs and dormers and chimneys of the
house, about half covered with the red and
purple foliage Of the Virginia creeper. The
ground slopes quite steeply, so that the house
is two stories high on the side next the road
and three on the side toward the river, which
winds away between high, wooded banks to
the Oatskills, 20 miles TO the north, and 10
the Highlands, 30 miles to the south. The
slope, in the rear Of the house, to the river, is
laid out in grapery and an orchard Of apple
and peach trees Between the house aud the
road the steep hillside is tufted with ever.
greens and other ornamental trees. At the
foot Of the hill the gray roofs of big ice
house are seen. Squirrels, that have their
n ssts in the sawdust packing, Chamber around
the walls. Near the house, to the left, there
is q substantial storehouse and Q carrage-shed
and stable. There are two other d wellings on
the farm. The country Immediately about is
all very much alike-nearly half Of II in orua.
mental plantations surrounding neat country
houses the other half, where 1t is not occu
pied by rocks, being covered with fruit or
corn or grass.
Mr.. Burroughs portrait must be drawn
out OF doors He is of medium h light, but,
being we'll built aud having q fne bead. he
gives the impression Of being by no means
middling sort Of man, physically. His skin
is well tanned by exposure TO all sorts Of
weather He has grizzly hair and beard.
The eyes and mouth have q somewhat femi-
nine character the eyes are humid, rather
large and tbsy are half closed when he is
pleased; the lips are full the line between
them never hard, and the corners of the
mouth are blunt The nose would be Roman
IL il were q trihe longer. / make no apology
for giving 80 short q descrpt OF a man
whom it would be- well worth while to paint.
II is unnecessary to sketch his mental fea-
lures, for he has unconsciously placed them
on record himself in the delightful series Of
essays which he has added to the treasures OF
the English language.
His walks his naturalstic Tambles, his
longer boating or shooting excursions, are the
subject OF some of his most entertaining
chapters; but a not impertinent curiosity
may be gratifed by some account Of his every
day life when at home and at work. His lit
erary lAbors are at standstill throughout the
summer. He does not take notes. Even
when he has returned from camping out or
canoeing, or from his summer vacation OF
whatever form, he does not rush at once to
pen aud paper He waits till the spirit moves
him, which it usually begins to do a little Af.
ter the first frosts. He rises eArly-between
five and six o'clock-breakfssts, walks, reads
the newspapers or employs himself about the
house and farm until 3 or 10; then writes for
three or four hours, seldom more. He has
always refused TO do literary work to order,
although he has had some tempting offers.
He will write only what be pleases, when be
pleAses, and so much as he pleAses. And he
observes no method in preparing, any more
than in doing, his work. He exacts from
himself no account Of his time. He does not
feel himself bound in conscience to improve
every incident that has occurred, every OBJ
servAtion that he has made during the year.
he simply let's the material which he has ab-
sorbed distil over into essays long or short,
few or many, As Providence directs. He does
| not belong to the class of methodicsl lAborers
who make q business of writing, and who
would feel conscience-stricken il at the close
Of their working day they had not blAckened
q certain number of sheets of white paper.
But he Acknowledges that good work is done
In that way, and he thinks 1t is all q matter
| Of habit.
His neighbors see to It that his leisure does
~ - -
made = bank examiner OF him, and a super
intendent Of roads, and, lAtterly, q postmas-
ter. The aforementioned position Is the only
one that has any emoluments attached to it,
but as he likes to drive he thinks it for his in
| terest to see after the roads, and he hopes,
now that his post-ofice at West Farms is in
working order, to get his mails in good time.
Most of his books-"Wake Robin, +" birds
and Poets, winter Sunshine" etc. we're
written in the library of his house, a small
room, fitted with bookshelves both glazed and
open, and enjoying q splendid view Of the
Hudson to and beyond Poughkeepsie. But
he has lately built himself study several
hundred yards from the house and more di-
rectly overlooking the river. Here he has
complete immunity from noise and from in
terruptions Of all sorts. II is little square
| building the walls rouRh-cast within and fac
ed with long strips Of bark without. Papers,
| magazines, books, photographs, Autographs,
lie scattered over the table, the window stills,
and the floor, and fill some shelves let into a
little recess in the wall. A students lamp on
the table shows that the owner sometimes
reads here at night. His roommAtes at pres
ent are some wAsps hatohed out OF a nest TAX
en- last winter and suspended TO the chimney.
This primitive erection is further ornsmented
with lot Of pictures Of men and birds, the
| DaRl,sla hafpn tha nlx5a
oeption-Rnd the birds all songsters. Two
steps from the study is a summer house Of
hemlock branches, with gnarled vine stocks
twisted in among them, whore one may sit OF
an afternoon and read the New York morning
papers or watch the boats or the trains on the
opposite bank, or the antics OF a squirrel
among the branches of the apple tree over
head, or the struggles Of a honey-bee backing
out of flower of yellow-rsttle.
Mr.. Burroughs has been his own architect,
and know many people who might wish he
had been theirs, too. He planned and super
intended the erection Of his house, which is q
four-gabled structure, with 9 porch in front
and a broad balcony in the rear Most OF the
timber for the upper story is oak from his old
Delaware county farm. The stone Of which
| the two lower stories are built was obtained
on the spot, aud is a dark slate plentifully
veined with quartz. Great pains were taken
in the building to turn the handsomest sam
Piles of quarts to the fore, and to put them
where they would do the most good Artisti'
oally. Over the Intel of the door, for exam
pie, is q row Of three fine specimens, and q
big chunk, with mosses lying between itG
crystals, protrudes from the wall near the
porch. The variety of color so obtained,
with the drab woodwork of the upper story
aud the red Virginia viue, keeps the house al
all seasons in harmony with its surroundings.
1t is no less so within, for DOORS wainsoots
window, frames, joists, sills, skirting-boards
floors and Tafters are all Of native woods, left
OF their natural colors and skillfully contrast
ed with one another, one door being of Geor
giA pine with oak panels, another OF chestnut
aud ourled maple, third of butternut anC
cherry, aud 30 on. Grayish or brownish ol
russet wall papers, and carpets TO match, give
the house very much Of the appearance of 1
nest, into the composition of which nothing
enters that is not OF soft texture and low anC
harmonious color.
|
They have recently been and got married
and have just returned from their honey
moon. Hs-'T wonder why so many people
stare at us, my dear 7" She-"No doubt the
ara wandering what oould have seen in Won