AN OLD RICHMOND GARDEN 



N the good old days of Richmond there stood on 

 the square bounded by Franklin, Adams, Jefferson 

 and Main Streets, two large stucco houses sur- 

 rounded by gardens. That nearest Adams Street 

 was owned by Dr. Robert Archer, and the other 

 by his son-in-law. General Joseph R. Anderson, 

 C. S. A. Dr. Archer's house, somewhat changed, became later the 

 property of his grandson, Colonel Archer Anderson, whose wife 

 and children still own it. 



Just half of the old garden remains, with its primeval trees; 

 its old brick walls covered with ivy, honeysuckle and Madeira vine. 

 There, every spring, come up afresh the lilies of the valley from 

 the garden of Edgar Allan Poe's foster mother. There the cow- 

 slips and peonies and Harrison roses bloom today as they did when 

 "old miss" (as Mrs. Harrison of Brandon was called by her 

 intimates) sent them with her own hands to my mother so many 

 years ago ! There still are the circular benches around the 

 enormous trees; and there, too, bloom the honeysuckle, microphylla 

 roses, mimosa tree and so many shrubs from the beautiful old 

 garden at Fortsville, the John Y. Mason country home. 



Fortsville, an estate of one thousand acres lying in Southampton 

 and Sussex Counties, came to Judge Mason through his wife. Miss 

 Fort (de Fort). The oldest part of the house was built of origi- 

 nal timbers which were pegged together by wooden pins— having 

 been constructed before iron nails were used. The garden, too, was 

 old and unique. A centre mound, on which was a small maze of large 

 box bushes and "grey man's beard" — I always likened it to Rosa- 

 mond's Bower — dominated the garden, which went from it like 

 the spokes of a wheel, in green sunken alleys and masses of flowers. 



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