The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-08-28
Letter No. 1.


 To Mrs. Charlotte de Courtnay.
 My Dear Charlotte: I hear that you have not swerved from your determina- ton to spend summer in town, that through late hours and indigestible sup pers you are retaining your serenity of mind.
 This rather singular decision is not. feel sure. from any motive to pose as a woman who after years of frivolity and a particularly gay winter desires that her husband and children need a little more of her time. Still, it Is curious how late in life some people find out that home holds more attractions than the outside world. Some women have debutante daughters before they arrive at this state of mind; some men never reach fl.
 promised to write you when we were slipping benedictine that day. and you confessed to being weary of the passing show of society; and, taking you at your word I think you will be more inter ested, at least more refreshed by letter of country life, since you know nothing of it's joys.
 shall regale you later with the inter- esting gossip of many of the smart places where many of the men and women whom you know have been stay ing.
 The taste of summer tourists seems to really be towards Western North Carolina, where a wealthy syndicate has built a chain of sumptuous hotels, there by bringing the orld of fashion to these mountains between the blooming of the rhododendron and the golden rod, just as the Flaglers have made an American Riviera out of the Florida coast
 The summer hotels will probably never lack in patronage but a period has cer- tainy been reached among a large class of representative people who prefer to own country places where they may spend half the year if they desire to do so. The ten1ency to country life IS SO largely on the increase that there IS every reason 10 believe that the charm ing days when our grandmammas passed so much of their time on their country estates may be revived.
 am staying at an Engllsh-loolSing country house 1t was built and for rerly owned by an English family which accounts for it's very picturesque md distinct appearance. There IS so much we can learn from England, ana certainly their appreciation of country Ii is one of the customs We might ap- propriate 10 an advantage This, and that very pretty one of o'clock tea.
 English architecture is quite distinct i've.
 The man who planned this country house loved artistic things He must have traversed this country until he dreamed by day and night of noun tain peaks set in a flame of splendor' because the house faces the western sky.
 Ii is in the center of a wonderful land- zcane. like jewel in the diadem of n queen of the East. The white stueco which you have always thought charm Ing is so aesthetic in contrast with the luxuriant foliage of the mountain ranges and the delicious green of the meadows and orchards.
 | cannot begin to tell you of the rest fulness of it all.
 Ii is quite indiscrbable, because It IS not so much a physical sensation, as IL seems to be more of the soul
 In this land the season Is far in ad- vance of our Southern summers
 Imagine my dear Charlotte, fields of golden rod in August.
 The harvesting time is just ended leaving over this land of tle yellow sun- n
 Even now the woods have here and there blood-red leaves.
 The autumn fires have been lighted, and you know the charm of an open fireplace especially after drive along the mountain roadways,
 These mountains weave spell about you. They are never in the same mood. and today they are only very delightfully."- 4a... 1,a Faal have drifted far below them, and, like a diaphanous veil. have concealed much of their beauty.
 Even in nature there is sometimes a struggle for supremacy, and today the clouds have been victorious. and the en- tire landscape lies in a soft white mist as opaque as moonlight
 When You drive about in this sapphire land you are able to go fo7 miles along d roadway hanked by tall golden rod and wild clenatis white with blossoms. When you pause on the crest of a mountain and look hundreds of feet be- low YOU upon a scene of natures love liness. even you with all your worldli- ness, would fed a thrill over the wild beauty of this mountain country.
 Country life. my dear Charlotte, means a charming house. your horses and traps and an army of servants Unless you can afford all this l should not advise you to contemplate it for q moment.
 There arc several English-looking houses here One of these places is ewned by charming Southern family who havc lived North for years.
 am sure you will wonder how wom- m who has spent most of her life In New York is satisfied to come to the mountains and rear her children in q country place.
 She Is one of the happiest women l have ever seen.
 2 The house Is very quaint and artistic. She took mo over it recently and among it's many unusual features Is the old old stained glass over the front en- trance. These windows were brought from a little Episcopal church in Wales,