450 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1953 



it almost certain that sashes were in common use ahnost from the 

 date of the founding of Williamsburg. Nor does the discovery, on 

 the site of the William Parks printing office, of innumerable fragments 

 of lead cames in any way alter this conclusion, for it is probable that 

 Parks, when the owners of houses dating back to the days of Middle 

 Plantation substituted sashes for casements, bought up the lead with 

 the purpose of sending it to England to be converted into type. 



Valuable was the light which articles found in or near a foundation 

 threw on the parts of the structure which were no longer standing. 

 Not only did fragments of mantels, or of stone steps or of windowpanes, 

 or of flagstones yield welcome evidence, but every bit of rusty hard- 

 ware was helpful. The architects were left in no doubt that the 

 builders of two centuries ago made frequent use of H hinges, H L 

 hinges, and butterfly hinges on the doors of residences, and long strap 

 hinges on stables, coachhouses, smokehouses, dairies; that the houses 

 were fitted with large brass or iron locks ; they got exact information 

 as to the form of nails, shutter fasteners, gutter supports, cramps used 

 for binding stone or brickwork, foot scrapers, latches, iron railings, 

 metal gates, etc. The fullest use was made of bits of wall copings, 

 water-table bricks, butter bricks, well bricks, firebacks, hearth stones, 

 fireplace facings, entrance steps. 



The archeologists, with all the persistence and insight of a Sherlock 

 Holmes, even secured information from wood which had rotted away 

 perhaps a century ago. They would have liked to find fragments of 

 wooden cornices, balusters, and pediments, but this was not to be ex- 

 pected, since earth is very destructive of wood. But they did locate 

 certain fence lines by identifying the post holes by the discoloration 

 of the soil, and so determined the boundaries of some of the lots. 



In the restoration of Williamsburg the archeologist proved as valu- 

 able an ally to the landscape gardener as to the architect. In fact, 

 since histories, letters, and reports gave few details as to the layout 

 of garden walks, steps, walls, and garden houses, without the data 

 gleaned with the pick and shovel the landscape gardener would often 

 have been working in the dark. 



We do not know who designed the palace gardens. The work was 

 done under the supervision of Governor Spotswood, but for the plans 

 themselves, with the main layout and the details, he must have em- 

 ployed an expert landscape gardener. Now, little by little, fragments 

 of the work of this long-forgotten "artist" were unearthed, which, 

 together with maps, inventories, and descriptions, made is possible to 

 restore it in all its unity and beauty. 



In what had been the North Garden the excavation revealed parts 

 of the foundation of the west, the north, and the east walls, showing 

 not only their positions, but the width, the distance between posts, 



