GARDENS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH 19 



impracticability of the undertaking was realized 

 they were left to the passionate embraces 

 of the jungle, which quickly swallowed them 

 up. 



The men and women who conceived these many 

 beautiful closes, arranged their walks and furnish- 

 ings and planted their hedges and borders, craved 

 the best examples of Chippendale, Sheraton and 

 Hepple white, and imported them from England 

 to adorn the interiors of their homes. Both within 

 and without those stately mansions the inherent 

 breath of refinement softly throbbed. 



Many of those old gardens are in existence to- 

 day very much as they were originally laid out, 

 especially several notable gardens in Camden, 

 South Carolina, and vicinity, that were made about 

 the years 1830-35, some even as late as 1850; 

 others exhibit but shreds and patches of their 

 pristine glory and are kept up only in part owing 

 to the circumstances of their proprietors, or to 

 the indifference with which they are regarded by 

 the families into whose possession they have come 

 through the fortunes of war. 



