GARDENS OF WILLIAMSBURG 



VEN the most skeptical person must admit that the 

 narrow strip of land lying between the James and 

 the York rivers is America's richest historical 

 possession. Here are the tombs of those who 

 risked their lives to build a nation. Here are old 

 churches and courthouses standing as they stood 

 in days long past and gone. This is the spot where Bacon planned 

 his disastrous rebellion, and here is the college where Jefferson 

 and Marshall first gained fame. Here, too, is the site of the 

 famous Raleigh Tavern, where Jefferson danced with "Fair 

 Belinda," and the Apollo, where many jovial feasts were held 

 among the great men of the Colony. 



The situation of Williamsburg, upon a ridge midway between 

 the two rivers, was wisely chosen, and gave rise to the first 

 name, "Middle Plantation." The town was impaled by Sir John 

 Hervey, Governor of Virginia in 1632, and in 1699 succeeded 

 Jamestown as the capital of Virginia. 



Architecturally, the little city is white and rambling and 

 dormer-windowed, and wandering dreamily through these aisles 

 of history one revels in the romantic houses, the oldest all being 

 built along the same lines, in accordance with a law which con- 

 sidered the number of stories in its taxation. 



Williamsburg the quaint — so the old town has been called for 

 years — is truly a place of many memories. On some of its streets 

 there still stand aged trees that shaded Washington and Corn- 

 wallis, and about some of the houses the latter-day gardens are 

 reminiscent of the time of the English Georges. One is prone to 

 dream at the whispered name of Williamsburg, for it belongs to 

 the picturesque Virginia of yesterday — the Virginia of feudal life 

 and gallant living, of adventurous men and Watteau-like women; 



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