The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1934-09-12

bling low
wings covered
with ivy. Nor Helen Essary
by the surrounding mountains,
changing in mist and sunlight.
Nor by the repose of its wide
lawn, sweeping down under
oaks and fir trees to the foot
of the hills. Nor by the COM
partnership of delightful guests
from the nearby countryside
(such guests as the John Down
1ngs who came over from
Front Royal where John is COM
monwealth attorney and Mat
tie grows flowers and is pursued
by hostesses who need her gay
friendlineSS and charm to make
their parties a success. Nor
even by the encouraging hoSpi-
tally of Mr.. and Mrs. Henry
Suydam, who were our recent
host and hostess while Mrs.
Suydam's mother, Mrs. Barnett,
was in Narragansett.
The special quality of Wake
field is a combination of all
these virtues and is as romantic
and entertaining as a novel by
Thomas Nelson Page, edited by
the gentleman who writes THE
Talk of the Town" for the New
Yorker.
We drove down to Virginia
with Henry Suydam. Henry,
having just left the Washington
Bureau of the Brooklyn Eagle,
is now the special assistant to
the attorney general. By this
change, journalism is losing a
brilliant personality, and the
Gridiron Club is losing its vice
president and a member who
contributed many of its clever
est satireS.
Wakefield is about half an
hour beyond Warrentoh, over
rolling country, with the Blue
Ridge Mountains always in
sight. At Flint Hill, we passed
the lodges of Stirling Larrabee,
who. Withdrawing as M. F. H. of
the Warrenton Hunt, now hunts
from another community. The
hotel at Flint Hill has profited
tremendously by the change in
the Larrabee hunting ground.
Dozens of hunters now crowd
the little inn in the season.
At the end of the rambling
driveway that leads to Wake
field Manor, Anne Suydam well
coined us at the foot of box
wood path. Several young col
ored boys appeared silently and
bore off the luggage. While an
amazingly efficient Mary Anne
unpacked our weekend clothes,
mint juleps, made by a special
Wakefield ceremony, appeared
by magic.
We sat confidentally on one
Of the big porches. Considered,
a swim in the big pool down
under the willows. Made a not
broken engagement with
young Henry Suydam to see his
baseball game the next after
noon. "Hemmy" is a mere T.
year-old, but with the indispen-
sable assistance of his govern
ess, Miss Scanlon, he has or
ganized a baseball team COM
posed, except for himself, of
the young colored boys about
the place.
Soon we were hesitating over
the choice of a second julep or
o game of croquet, played on
special court Qighted at night
by flood lights, with big, heavy
mallets. The decision of the
moment was for croquet-With
q julep prospect not too far dis
tant.
: The next day those guests
who wanted to go to the top
of the mountain, where the new
Skyland Trail cut in, found
riding horses hitched under the
trees. Athletic characters
started off on foot to explore
the course of a stream. other
congenial spirits merely sat in
the sunshine talking, smoking,
and enjoying the view. The
day ended with some really fine
music, the sort one always finds
at the Suydams.
Wakefield Manor is fur
nished, not Self-consciously, but
chamingly, with old mahogany,
portraits and pleasant chintzes.
Some of the silver came origi-
nally from Kenmore, in Fred
ericksburg, home of George
Washington's mother, where
the ancestors of Mrs. Suydam
lived for about 10 years.
The china and furnishings of
the porcheS are reminders Of
the years Mrs. Barnett spent in
China when her husband, the
late Major General Barnett, of
the Marine Corps, was sta
toned there.
Several cottages and lodges
not far from the mansion are
used as guest houses.
Across the road from Wake
field is Kenmore, the home of
Mrs. Alexander Gordon, jr., of