mta — ■ iStKf 



The James River Plantation Belt 



phoenix, the golden spur and Lady of Leeds in proper succession. 

 No one knows just who it was who planted the multi-great-grand- 

 parents of this present wealth of jonquils which mantle Bassett 

 Hall in a robe of gold in April as year follows year. 



So profligate have they become in number, so far-spreading 

 have they gone, that the right has been given the Williamsburg 

 Civic League to take from them enough bulbs to naturalize on the 

 esplanade which extends along Duke of Gloucester Street. 



Along the path which leads from the lane to the house, a chain 

 of cowslips links the present to the past, and fragrant lilies stand 

 together like angels in a dream. Bassett Hall is, in truth, the 

 envied possessor of what many of us dream of, but few fortunate? 

 possess — "a lily avenue climbing to the doors." 



Adjoining this lawn is the former home of Peyton Randolph, 

 Speaker of the House of Burgesses and President of the Con- 

 tinental Congress. The acreage here has dwindled with the years 

 and the garden has given way to modern needs of a town, but the 

 same staunch bulbs return season after season. And in August, 

 when the grass is brown and the leaves are withering, masses of 

 tiny purple lilies hold up their crowns in loyalty to the first master 

 of the home. 



Just across the street is the Gault house, built just when, and by 

 whom, no one knows, but rich in its historic lore and legend. 



At the Thompson house, on Nicholson Street, Patrick Henry 

 lived when he practiced law in Williamsburg. One of its tiny 

 attic windows, the outlook from which is now so restful, was once 

 the scene of frenzied watching against Indian depredations. There 

 is, perhaps, more of a formal garden at this particular place than 

 anywhere else in the little town. Box clumps are scattered here 

 and there among lilacs and snowballs and the early flowering shrub 

 yellow jessamine. Violets and narcissi; iris and jonquils; lilies — 

 the pure Madonna and the tigerish Jamestown lily. The yellow 

 Rose of Texas, known better as the Harrisonii, blooms above beds 

 of bloodroot and hepatica brought from the woodland beyond. 



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