Four rescued dogs of assorted breeds with names like Levi and Tally patrol Half Pond Farm on Bump-a-Long Road.

The house -- a hunt box that grew in all directions -- contains a trove of artifacts, including intricate ivory chessmen garbed as Muslims and Sikhs, a Shetland-sized rocking horse, ponderous key-wound clocks and a Limoges demitasse set overlaid with gold leaf fit for Her Majesty's sipping. A spirited filly and a paint graze surrounding pastures. Their master, a charming English gentleman named Reginald Miller, is a world-famous lapidarist (gem cutter) who flew for the Royal Air Force in World War II.

Miller's home and four others, each singular, each fascinating, comprise the Southern Pines Annual Home and Garden Tour from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 8.

"We try to have interesting houses that appeal to everybody," says garden club president Mary Gozzi.

The selection committee always looks for a horse farm since, Gozzi says, "They are so much a part of the uniqueness of our community."

Finding people willing to open their homes in these times can be difficult, she continues.

"We like a house with a story behind it, a warm and gracious feeling, perhaps a collection of beautiful things," she says.

Miller's barn board-sided house, which almost fades into the landscape, is a period piece, the period being equestrian.

"Horses brought us to Southern Pines," Miller says.

His wife kept horses near Sleepy Hollow, a Rockefeller estate in New York. So Miller adopted the pursuit. He heard about Southern Pines and Ginny Moss, the beloved queen of the horse set, through an acquaintance. The Millers came for a look in 1988.

"I thought it was God's country," he says.

They quickly found and purchased 20 acres with a hunt box, circa 1936.

Miller's daughter Doreen Schlicht who lives on the property explains: "People used to come down by train (from New York, Philadelphia and elsewhere) on Thursday, stay for the hunt and hunt breakfast, then go back on Sunday."

They built pied-a-terres over or beside the barn, some plain, some not. The hunt box purchased by Miller was extravagant, with a cathedral ceiling and swimming pool -- but not rooms enough for full-time occupancy. The Millers built out and up in all directions, filling the now-4,200 square feet with a potpourri of furnishings, Oriental rugs, collections, paintings (notice the decanters, Asian figurines and black-and-white photographs of English abbeys Miller took during World War II) -- and orchids.

"I'm addicted to orchids like some people are addicted to smoking," Miller says. His collection fills a bay window facing the veranda. When the blossoms droop Miller sends them to a farm near Pittsboro where they are rejuvenated and returned.

"All I have to do is pay the board," he says with a chuckle.

Miller is clever in several pursuits. He points to a framed poem with medieval motif titled "The Fly Young Knight," punctuated with hand-tied fishing flies. Miller wrote the verse, designed its rendition and tied the flies.

The copious kitchen was where he cooked as a younger man. One can imagine him, seated before the fire, moving those ivory chessmen across a needlepoint board made by his wife. The Millers' requirements for enlarging the house were few and basic: besides the new kitchen they wanted a huge his-and-hers bathroom, dressing rooms and an upstairs bedroom with walls of windows overlooking the barn and pasture so, in case either was ill, he or she could watch the action. Mrs. Miller died in 2002.

The equestrian art, especially a painting of the Millers' champion Sign of the Times, will be appreciated by followers of Southern Pines painter Danila Devins, who also painted the hunt mural at FirstBank on Broad Street.

In addition to Devins' work, Miller displays an unusual set of side-saddle riders, a framed Hermes scarf with equine motif and prints of 19th century equestrian scenes by Benjamin Herring. Despite contents illustrating lives well-lived around the world, the house at Half Pond Farm (original property line bisected a pond) remains a livable, lived-in homestead.

"This is a typical 'non-decorated' house; horse farms are casual, not fancy. But the setting is beautiful," says Mary Schwab, the garden club captain in charge of the venue.

Each room will have fresh flower arrangements created by garden club members and a hostess to answer questions.

Miller sustained serious injuries from a jumping accident and no longer rides but his enthusiasm has not waned.

"I go up to the barn and sit under a tree," he says. "The horses are the main thing here."

Proceeds from the tour are used for plantings along the railroad, replacing dogwoods and funding horticultural scholarships at Sandhills Community College. Also on the tour are Chimbley, the home of Annie Hallinan and Michael Jones; Susan and James Rice's Old Town Colonial overlooking Pinehurst No. 2; Stonegate, the English country manor home of Mrs. William Bonsal III; and Jean and David Shunk's home at the Country Club of North Carolina.

Tickets may be purchased for $20 at www.southernpinesgardenclub.com, The Country Bookshop and Campbell House, in Southern Pines, and Lyne's Furniture Gallery, in Pinehurst. Lunch will be offered by the Country Club of North Carolina for $15.

Contact Southern Pines writer Deborah Salmon at debsalomon@hotmail.com.