The Fells served as a summer retreat for three
generations of the Hay family. From 1891 until his death in 1905, John Hay,
diplomat and distinguished man of letters, summered in a cottage he built
on the eastern shore of Lake Sunapee, facing Mt. Sunapee. He called his
estate “The Fells†after the Scottish word for rocky upland pastures. His
son Clarence Hay designed and built a walled Colonial Revival style garden
featuring arbors and trellises, flowering trees and shrubs, and classic
statuary. Construction of the rock garden began in 1929. A stream runs through
the rock garden and there is a lily pond in the centre. There is also a rose terrace and 100-foot perennial border.
