Richmond and Vicinity 



brought forth on great occasions to decorate the house, once 

 nourished. To the left of the greenhouse are two large box-trees. 



There was a custom among the ladies of the earlier period to 

 exchange flower slips and seed. In this way friendships and 

 memories were renewed each year as the plants blossomed. So 

 the Watson or Archer garden gave out the fragrance of Westover, 

 Shirley and Brandon; Barboursville and Castle Hill. In return, 

 the Byrds, Carters and Harrisons; the Barbours and Rives, re- 

 ceived their slips from the chatelaine of this house. All the old-"^ 

 fashioned flowers grew here — lilacs and snowballs; cydonia 

 japonica, syringa, calycanthus, and yellow roses. There were 

 others, and many rows of hyacinths and jonquils; tulips and 

 daffodils. 



A brick courtyard adjoins the garden and a low gateway leads 

 into it. On the right of this gate are several stone steps with 

 foot-scrapers, and here one passes under an arch of roses into the 

 kitchen-garden. 



Opening onto this court are several brick buildings, a smoke- 

 house, a large kitchen building with servants' quarters, a green- 

 house, and numerous wood and coal houses. 



At the end of a long, straight walk in the garden is the stable, 

 with a high and heavy gate, through which the family carriage 

 was driven. 



For a hundred years a picturesque sycamore tree stood in the 

 middle of the pavement outside the garden wall. This tree measured 

 fourteen feet and three inches in circumference, and the oldest 

 inhabitant cannot remember when it was not there. Of primeval 

 growth, it had boldly taken possession of the street, and it was 

 only removed by the city authorities when pedestrians demanded it. 

 Its silvery branches furnished material for several of our best 

 and most beloved writers. The late Thomas Nelson Page likened 

 the pallor of a dying man to the bark of this tree, in one of his 

 short stories, and both the tree and the Archer house are described 

 In Ellen Glasgow's "The Romance of a Plain Man." It was 



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