HYLAND
of a writer, so quiet are its environs. Even the customs
room, commercial core of the house, is meditative,
containing Dering's worktable and ledgers, and stand-
up and roll-top desks made by local craftsmen. In
fact, writers were not strangers
to this house; James Fenimore
Cooper was a guest, sitting in
the parlor with its Federal settee
and Chippendale tea table and
chairs. Finely hand-crafted
objects in the house include a
tall mahogany case-clock made
by William Claggett of Newport,
another built by Nathanial Dominy
of East Hampton.
The dining room is a magnificent
study in early American style, with
chairs by the great craftsman
and stylist Duncan Phyfe; the
porcelain dishes on the long
mahogany table carried as
ballast in ships returning from China. But it is likely the
capacious kitchen which appeals most to contemporary
sensibilities in search of the true hearth experience. Just
as we now covet Aga cookers and wooden dish racks
even in the city, so is the Dering kitchen equipped with
all manner of quaint, charming, yet still useful labor-
saving devices: a toasting rack and waffle maker, a tin
