Here are some photographs from The Mount's web site.
 |
| Edith Wharton |
 |
| The gardens are stunning! |
 |
| Floral beauty. |
 |
| Do let us stroll. |
I've been visiting for many, many years. My first visit was as a young college student. The estate was far from the refurbished jewel that it is today. At that time a most pleasant, but in retrospect odd, caretaker gave me a tour - I was the only one. She took me around the house and shared the wildest stories about her experiences in the house that centered around visions and things that could not be rationally explained. She brought me up to cupola and told me, among other things, that at night she some times heard Edith walking around and would shout out, "Go to bed, Edith!" To say that I was spooked was an understatement.
 |
| "Go to bed, Edith!" |
For the last 20 years or so, The Mount has offered a premier Monday afternoon lecture series. These are always at 4:00 p.m. with a proper tea and scones afterwards. There have been some fabulous lecturers. This year the line up was amazing and it was hard to choose. Since I work, I only went to three but I saw the excellent Michael Korda who lectured on his book about T. E. Lawrence, Oscar Hammerstein III who did a jovial presentation on his family history, and, yesterday, Pauline Metcalf - who discussed Syrie Maugham.
In the past there have been other wonderful speakers like Reeve Lindbergh ("Under a Wing: A Memoir"), Eleanor Dwight ("Diana Vreeland"), Peter Kurth ("Isadora"), Suzanne Marrs ("Eudora Welty"), Roxana Robinson ("Georgia O'Keeffe"), and Judith Thurman ("Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette").
Last year The Mount hosted a writer's conference at which I saw the likes of Tad Friend ("Cheerful Money") and Katie Roiphe ("Uncommon Arrangements: Seven Marriages").
The summer schedule usually comes out in May. This year, after months of mountains of snow, it was eagerly awaited. I always order my tickets immediately.
There are also other events - the jazz cafe, plays, readings, and even a ghost tour. I have attended all of these - except the ghost tour - which I already had.
