Richmond and Vicinity 



to Watteau's landscapes than to Washington Square and Greenwich 

 Village. This came with a New Year greeting: 



"I love your Box Trees ! taller than Pope Leo's in the Vatican ! 

 His garden as a wonder shown no Box Tree has like these you own. 

 And this I think is quite a pity because his garden is so pretty." 



Another tribute, dated May lo, 1920, is from the graceful pen 

 of one of the most charming writers in Virginia, the author of the 

 "Commuter's Diary": 



. "I have just seen for the many hundredth time the most 

 wonderful of gardens. It would take more than the length 

 of this paper to describe it properly. It has a century and 

 more behind it — the roses in one border are the same. 

 which were originally planted there when the grandparents 

 of the family, as a young married couple, established them- 

 selves and made a home for themselves and their posterity. 

 There, flowers appear in all due seasons and a well-kept 

 greenhouse carries the winter plants and shrubs too tender to 

 stand the cold of the open borders. Walks, fringed with 

 lilies and violets, gladioli and pansies; trellises covered 

 with climbing rose-bushes; rows of grapevines, now budding 

 into leaf, abound on all sides. 



"The most striking thing, however, about it is the noble 

 'box walk' formed by the double line of great box-trees, 

 beginning at the entrance and extending away to the far side 

 of the garden, where a green bank, bathed in sunshine, 

 gleams in the distance, through an arcade whose graceful 

 curve reminds one of the arch of the Natural Bridge, 



"An examination of the individuals composing the group 

 now bordering on the century-mark brightens one's admira- 

 tion. Interlacing branches form the beautiful arch within, 

 while without, the massed effect of the rich-green alignment 

 mounting heavenward is most effective — each tree in its 



[95] 



