WESTOVER 



IKE an exquisite emerald clasp upon the golden, 

 chain-like river, lies the green lawn of Westover. 

 Upward from the winding James the sward, 

 studded with great, gnarled tulip-poplars, sweeps 

 smoothly to the stately and magnificent old home- 

 stead of the Byrds. Nearly two hundred years 

 ago some of these trees are said to have been planted, and now 

 they stand like giant guards upon the ancient lawn. On each side 

 brick walls descend to the edge of the river bank. 



Westover goes back almost to the beginning of the English in 

 America. In the year 1688, WiUiam Byrd, the first of his name in 

 Virginia, who had come with his young wife, Mary, to the Colony 

 in 1674, and settled at the falls of the James, purchased the 

 plantation from Theodorick Bland. About 1735 his son, the second 

 William Byrd, built the beautiful home, which still stands, sur- 

 rounded by the lovely emerald lawn, the flag-pathed courtyard, and 

 the gracious old garden in which his dust reposes. 



The house, of red brick mellowed to a warm old-rose, without 

 porch or ornament, is considered one of the most perfect examples 

 of Georgian architecture in America. It has a high, steep roof, set 

 with dormer windows and flanked by lofty chimneys. Before the 

 door gray-stone steps rise in a pyramid to a beautiful doorway, 

 which many a builder has copied. 



The main entrance to the grounds is upon the side opposite the 

 river and is through wonderful gates of wrought-iron, which often 

 have been described. Nowhere in America, unless it is in ancient 

 and historic Charleston, which has so many lovely gateways, is there 

 a finer example of the iron-master's art — a double grill, ten feet 

 high, surmounted by the monogram of William Evelyn Byrd, and 

 swung between two massive, square brick pillars which bear leaden 



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