GARDENS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH 11 



that even in the most carefully regulated New 

 England family are comparatively few and far 

 between, the occasions of births, marriages, and 

 deaths. A record of these was faithfully kept 

 in the massive Bible that reposed upon the table 

 which stood in the exact centre of this sombre 

 room of rooms. 



Before the Revolutionary War there were few 

 elaborate formal gardens in America. Undoubt- 

 edly the best example of one existing to-day with 

 its original shapes and edgings and many of its 

 minor details is that at Mt. Vernon, the home of 

 Washington, near Alexandria, Virginia. In the 

 year 1764 it was probably the most elaborate 

 pleasure garden in the Old Dominion, for prior to 

 that period the planters had not been given to 

 spending either much time or money upon useless 

 luxuries. After the war, however, and in the 

 early part of the nineteenth century all the large 

 estates in the South were provided with pleasure 

 grounds, which varied in size and elaborateness 

 according to the inclinations and pocket-books of 

 their proprietors, and the natural features of the 

 land. All, however, were upon a more ambitious 



