Date: Fri 14-Jul-1995

Publication: Bee

Author: AMYD

Quick Words:

garden-Hermitswood-DiLisio-

Full Text:

GARDENS AS ART, ENJOY COVER STORY

B Y A MY D'O RIO

Gardeners are artists. They just paint their backyard pictures with plants

instead of paint. Some adhere to conventional wisdom and paint beautifully

inside the lines, others venture outside those lines and remind us there are

different ways to approach the landscape. Throughout the summer, The Bee will

feature some of these unconventional landscapers and their work.

A true romantic cannot drive by Hermitswood without slowing down and trying to

catch a peek into the mysterious 9« acre estate.

Beyond the stone pillars, with their statues of recumbent greyhounds, are

dark, stone-lined pools and shaded nooks of fern and lily.

This Taunton area property in Newtown is the essence of the secret garden:

slightly hidden, quiet and a little wild.

Much of the property is mature woodland, but the maintained sections are a

striking mixture of statuary, water and a tumble of ivy that seems to fall

from the house in every direction.

Through the years, this unique property has intrigued many people. Some, even

venture through the iron gates in search of its creators.

The grounds have been a labor of love for the Di Lisio, Brown and Hammond

families. Together, they bought the property in 1967 as a summer home. It has

since become a permanent residence for the Hammonds and Di Lisios.

The families set about uncovering and redefining the overgrown property, and

adding onto what was then a small cottage.

The home has been expanded and renovated in the vein of English vernacular

architecture, inspired specifically by the Arts & Crafts Movement.

The grounds, however, cannot be attributed to one particular style.

The Di Lisios, with their Italian heritage, have a love for geometric garden

design and classical statuary.

The families are also fans of an English movement started by Capability Brown,

who advocated a more natural approach to landscaping with open, park-like

grounds.

Much of the estate, however, is dark nooks and woods with leaf-strewn pathways

throughout.

The centerpiece to the grounds is a large 56-by-125 foot, formal rectangular

pond lined with stone and slate. Once a small oval pond, the Di Lisio, Hammond

and Brown families decided to enlarge it and give it a more formal shape. The

families then put four, six-foot tall stone statues depicting the four seasons

around the pool's edges.

The formal pond is obviously the crown jewel of the property, but there are

many other gems not to be missed.

In an old hedge of yew sits a statue of St. Fiacre, the patron saint of

gardening, who holds a spade in one hand, a lily in the other.

St. Fiacre makes his appearance throughout the property, but in this spot, the

hedge has been hollowed in an arch to shelter the art.

In the back of the house is another spring-fed pool that is lined with stone,

and it has a fountain in the center - a boy holding a goose.

Hermitswood, while a fitting name, is unusual, like the property itself. One

of the Di Lisios found it on a bookplate in his grandfather's home in Italy.

He suspects the bookplate came from the Black Franciscan friars that lived

near his grandfather's home. It depicted friars sitting underneath a tree, and

above the picture, it said "Hermitswood" in Italian.

The name is appropriate for a variety of reasons, but the most poignant is

that the first recorded owner of the property, John Wiley, was supposedly a

hermit himself.