The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-09-24
GREAT BARUINGTON'S FEUDAL CASTLE.
Ramparts WhIchhFrown on a Peace-
fuI Massachusetts Village,
Shutting In the Country Homo OF n
Money Baron.
A Residence Which Has Cost Its
Owner Several Millions.

NEW YORK, September 23-The Sun today
publishes the following account OF the pres
ent appearance Of the noted Hopkins-Searles
castle in the Berkshire hills at Great Bar
rington, Mass.
The wall surmounting the mansion Is
about as massive as the great wall OF CHI
ma, but it Is considerably shorter; :yetsit Is
massive enough for fortified city. In math-
ematlcal dimensions the wall Is not less than
eight feet high, though in places 1t falls away
to ilittle more than half that height, but
there the formidable iron pallng springs
from the rampant. 1t Is more than an eighth
OF mile long: Compared with Il the IA
nous wall Of the Ophir farm in Westchester
county Is little more than a mole hill. The
rampant Is serrated like the battlements OF
feudal castle.
At Intervals narrow little blind door
olive In hue, Is fitted into the massive wall
as tightly as the glass In the face Of a coffin,
and there is knob and lock In the frame
Of ii, with a mere slit Of keyhole.
One strOlls along this great barrier, ft TO
environ the abode Of Bluebeard, with a
growing desire to see what Is beyond II, but
at every point he Is baffled, for with such
consummate ingenuity has the foliage with
In the enclosure been arranged and trained
he can see nothing OF the castle, which Is
gunshot from the street, but the blue turrets
and peaks, and reddish-yell0w checkers OF
the roof tiles.
But, he reasons, there must be a break at
the driveway entrance, whence one may
gaze directly at she mansion front, and he
follows the stone barricade thither, and a
fresh Disappointment awaits him. The wall
parts there II is true, but with marvellous
ingenuity 1t is made to curve Inward In a
quarter circle, with a two-story porter's
lodge at the end, so that the tall, iron-paled
oafa honOa af FiObt anplQQ with the atrQSt
wall. The passer gaZes merely into the
thick shrubbery Of that part OF the park ad-
Joining the street.
The wall Al the gate rises eight feet. solid
masonry. In the face Of the curved stone
flap Is another little Olive-green door, with
shining brass knob and keyhole slit In brass
'scutcheOn. Electric Jets spring above the
stone gate posts In the heavy foliage; black
metal griffins start out on stony perches ON
each side Of the gate, From the driveway
In low iron fence on stone. embankment
wall Is or 20 feet above a sunken meadow,
whose velvet turf, on which choice cattle
Craze, extends. as level as a floor. half mile
to the foot Of lofty Prospect mountain at the
rear Of the castle.
A beautiful row Of slim, shapely poplars
skirt the street margin OF the meadow and
its further border, standing in twos, ike
column Of soldiers, and their slender boughs
serve TO whet the singular desire for self
sequestrati0n that manlfestly Is the ruling
motive I'M the blue stone castle. Through the
leafy l00ph0les In the poplars the world Is
at liberty to look across the sunken meadow,
which Is part Of the 100-acre demense, TO
the dark wooded slope OF the mountain. The
gazer gets an unsatisfactory view, too, Of
one side elevation of the castle, uplifted on
a knoll above the vast unfenced meadow,
and buttressed with p0nder0us foundation
walls. The great front wall Is unfinished as
yet. At the further end w0rkmen are lifting
blocks Of stone on the half completed sides
Of a round tower at the junction Of the wall
and the iron paling; but 1t will not be long
beyOre the structure Is done. IL need not be
said that the great blue wall and the blue
castle are parts Of the homestead Of Mr.. and
Mrs. e. f. Searles, or that the street barrier
Is the most extraordinary structure OF the
kind In America.
Thus Mr.. and Mrs. Searles have walled
themselves in against the world and their
own village neighb0rs, aud IN the blue castle
when they are not inhabiting another Of
their numerous homes, they dwell in grand
and utter isolation.
More than half the time the Searleses are
away, and about all the village folks see OF
them Is at intervals, when, Unexpectedly,
the tall front or postern gate creaks open,
and drag drawn by praneing cobs rolls out
with merry party aboard 1t. Nobody In
Great Darlington knows anything about the
Searleses Lor their mansion" said an intelli-
gent villager the other day only once. at the
organ recital in July, were the people inyit-
ed to see the house and grounds. don't
know that anybody cares to go inside the
wall, he added. "but then, it's not pleasant
where your neighbors wall themselves up
against you, Is it?"
Climb lofty mountain east Of the village,
and one looks directly into the Searles estate
kellogg Terrace, 1t is called; still the man
sion, sequestrated In shubbery, eludes
scrutiny. Soaring above the trees in the ex-
pansive park one discerns the outlines, to
gether with the turrets and gables, OF an edl-
fee that Is like French Chateau with roofs
Of composite architecture and here and there
a purely Yankee notion embodied in stone.
The chateau has cost 81, 600, 900, exclusive OF
land, Titanic wall and the furnishings for
the rooms. 1t has been finished and
furnished with princely magnifcence.
One room alone, the organ hall is the finest
thing Of the kind In private dwelling In
the world Mr.. Searles told James K. Treat
of Boston to build him the best private or
gan in the world. and Treat did so. charging
S75, 900 for the Instrument. In 1t are some
pipes that, 1t Is said. were spirited out OF the
grand organ In Westminster Abbey.
One room In the castle has panelled cell
ing, and in each panel Is set painting by an
old world artist. There Is $4,000 gem In
one Of the overhead inches. Another apart
ment Is carpeted with rugs from Persia; still
another hung with tapestry woven by Par
isian artist who destroyed the design, In
vented by himself, after the fabric had been
wrought. The doors OF one room are gothic
oaken ones smuggled away from the Queens
palace at Windsor. There are staircases OF
steel and bronze. In one room Is bric-a-brac
from all over the world.