GARDEN THAT COST THREE MILLIONS.

Rodney and Otamatea Times, Waitemata and Kaipara Gazette, 11 September 1912, Page 7

GARDEN THAT COST THREE MILLIONS.

Mr. James B. Duke, the tobacco king, has nearly completed an expenditure of £3,000,000 .on a new park round his home at Somerville, NJ. It was formerly a dairy farm, but Mrs. Duke had a fancy for an artistic country estate, so landscape architects j were called in, and lakes, hill-.;, waterfalls, shrubberies, drives, and fountains, without regard to cost, were ordered. The park extends over 3000 acres. There are 32 miles of drives windingin and out of beautiful groves, past grassy lawnj clotted with statuary, gig-antic flower-beds, rose-bowered pergolas, fountains, balustrades, and temples. There are mote than 10,000,000 plants, of which one million are the rarest rhododendrons. Some of the plants were specially imported from the grounds of old French chateaus. Fountains are the tobacco king's particular weakness, and he has had 200 of all sorts and designs set up. The gig-antic fountains of Versailles are rivalled by the group near the new mansion. Every day 20,000,000 gallons of water will be spouted when they play. Art treasures from Europe in the shape of magnificent bronze statuary are included in the scheme, and anything that Mr. Duke decided was not good enough for the park has been banished to the stables for the aesthetic edification of the horses. The new mansion that i s to be the centre of this amazing private garden is still under construction. It is so designed that servants and tradesmen enter it by a tunnel from the main ro:id without passing through the gardens at all. Mr. Duke has arranged to open the park to the general public free of charge two days every week.