Blithewold Mansion and Gardens Location: 101 Ferry Road (Route 114), Bristol, R.I. Phone: 401-253-2707. Admission: Mansion and garden tour $8; grounds alone $5. Discounts for sen iors, students, and children. Get directions

Verdant tips are relatively rare in New England. Colt State Park in Bristol, a former gentleman's farm, is lush, as is nearby Blithewold, a country estate.

Blithewold is the mansion of your dreams - a stately stone and stucco edifice with commodious porches, cushy lawns, and seasonal outdoor concerts at the edge of the sea. Sailboats hover in the distance and on clear days you can see Hog and Prudence islands. The 45-room, 17th-century-style English manor sits on 33 acres overlooking Narragansett Bay, and was built in 1907 as a summer place for coal magnate Augustus S. Van Wickle. Marjorie Lyon, Van Wickle's public-spirited daughter, spent her summers at Blithewold until she died at age 93 in 1976. She bequeathed the house, gardens, and beautifully tended arboretum to the Heritage Trust of Rhode Island. You can take tours of the house and grounds, or just wander on your own beneath the lindens, ginkgoes, and sprawling beeches.

While Blithewold has a protective, enveloping quality, Colt State Park at the edge of Narragansett Bay feels expansive. It's big (460 acres), intensely green, with wide-angle views of water and sky. The former estate of Colonel Samuel Colt slopes gentle, down to Mill Gut Salt Marsh, adding to the grandeur of the spot.

Near the shore, century-old ornamental trees shade a picnic grove. Deeper into the park, vestiges of stone walls are visible among the acres of fields. A fresh water stream gurgles through woods abundant in oak and maple trees. A portion of the park is a 250-year-old working farm, Coggeshall, which is open to visitors.

Published in the Boston Globe Calendar's 1999 Wandering New England issue.