Backyard prehistoric standing stone supporting a section of clothesline, Borgholm, Sweden, July 1949, by Mårten Sjöbeck, via Swedish National Heritage Board Commons on flickr.
There appears to be another stone in the neighbor’s yard, on the right side of the photo.
Garden of “As You Like It,” the James Harper Poor House, East Hampton, New York, ca. 1915, by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Commons on flickr.
Poor was a New York City businessman (dry goods) and Shakespeare devotee, who, in 1899, bought a shingled American Colonial country house, part of which was built in the 17th century. He then changed its style to English or Tudor Revival — all half-timber and stucco, as was so fashionable at that time. Today, the property is The Baker House 1650 bed and breakfast.
The outdoor theater of the Piranhurst estate of Henry Ernest and Ellen Chabot Bothin, Montecito, California, 1917, hand-colored glass lantern slides by Frances Benjamin Johnston, via Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
The Bothin’s fortune was made in coffee and spices (San Francisco), real estate, and water. Their estate became famous in the 1920s for the parties and performances held in its 350-acre “Tea Gardens” — which included the clipped cypress theater shown here.
Today, the site is in ruins and is part of the Mar Y Cel open space preserve. There are histories of the property here and here.
“Flower bed (blomsterrabatt) with gladiolus at Trädgårdsföreningen, The Garden Society of Gothenburg, founded in 1842,” Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden, 1944, a color slide by Fredrik Bruno, via Swedish National Heritage Board Commons on flickr.
The glads offer no solution:
being—falling—
you mustn’t count the days—
fulfillment
livid, tattered, or beautiful.— Gottfried Benn, from “Gladioli“
“Palmieri, Firenze [ or Florence, Italy] – Box garden from level of tennis court,” ca. 1915, via Arthur Peck Collection, Oregon State University (OSU) Special Collections & Archives Commons on flickr.
Note the patterns of the clipped boxwood in the middle distance and those on the villa at the top.
Arthur Peck was a Professor of Landscape Architecture at the Oregon Agricultural College from 1908 to 1948. During his long career, he created a teaching library of 24 boxes of glass lantern slides — now in OSU’s archives.
Behind the house the upland falls
With many an odorous tree—
White marbles gleaming through green halls—
Terrace by terrace, down and down,
And meets the star-lit Mediterranean Sea.‘Tis Paradise. . . .
— Herman Melville, from “After the Pleasure Party: Lines Traced Under an Image of Amor Threatening“
enclos*ure 