He had enjoyed The Holt, his New Jersey home, and was much interested in improving it.  His neighbors and friends there were valued companions.  But in his heart there had always been a longing for a home, not suburban—­a place in the real country, and with more land.  Finally, the time came when he felt that he could gratify this longing.  He liked the Virginia climate, and decided to look for a place somewhere in that State, not far from the city of Washington.  After a rather prolonged search, we one day lighted upon Claymont, in the Shenandoah Valley.  It won our hearts, and ended our search.  It had absolutely everything that Mr. Stockton coveted.  He bought it at once, and we moved into it as speedily as possible.

Claymont is a handsome colonial residence, “with all modern improvements”—­an unusual combination.  It lies near the historic old town of Charles Town, in West Virginia, near Harpers Ferry.  Claymont is itself an historic place.  The land was first owned by “the Father of his Country.”  This great personage designed the house, with its main building, two cottages (or lodges), and courtyards, for his nephew Bushrod, to whom he had given the land.  Through the wooded park runs the old road, now grass grown, over which Braddock marched to his celebrated “defeat,” guided by the youthful George Washington, who had surveyed the whole region for Lord Fairfax.  During the civil war the place twice escaped destruction because it had once been the property of Washington.

But it was not for its historical associations, but for the place itself, that Mr. Stockton purchased it.  From the main road to the house there is a drive of three-quarters of a mile through a park of great forest-trees and picturesque groups of rocks.  On the opposite side of the house extends a wide, open lawn; and here, and from the piazzas, a noble view of the valley and the Blue Ridge Mountains is obtained.  Besides the park and other grounds, there is a farm at Claymont of considerable size.  Mr. Stockton, however, never cared for farming, except in so far as it enabled him to have horses and stock.  But his soul delighted in the big, old terraced garden of his West Virginia home.  Compared with other gardens he had had, the new one was like paradise to the common world.  At Claymont several short stories were written.  John Gayther’s Garden was prepared for publication here by connecting stories previously published into a series, told in a garden, and suggested by the one at Claymont.  John Gayther, however, was an invention.  Kate Bonnet and The Captain’s Toll-Gate were both written at Claymont.

[Illustration:  A corner in Mr. Stockton’s study at Claymont.  Showing the desk at which all his later books were written.]