WILLIAMSVILLE 



OT far from Studley, in Hanover County, the birth- 

 place of Patrick Henry, there stands, just fourteen 

 miles from Richmond, an old homestead named 

 Williamsville. It is worthy to take its place in the 

 Virginia collection of noted homes because of its 

 beauty of location, its family associations, and its 

 historic setting. 



A recent visitor to this place stood on its lawn, now luxuriant 

 with the shrubbery planted by hands of long ago, and looked across 

 the hills to counties far away, so high is the elevation above the 

 surrounding country. The view reminded her of that from the 

 lawn of Monticello, the home of Jefferson. Then down in the glen, 

 just outside the yard gate, may be seen traces of landscape-garden- 

 ing rarely equaled by any garden in old plantation days. To the 

 rear of the house is a rustic view. Here, the boxwood has grown 

 into trees and forms an archway which, with the spontaneous shrub- 

 bery around, makes a picture of rare beauty. 



One day, nearly sixty years ago, during the sad days of the 

 War Between the States, two men stood on the back porch of 

 Williamsville overlooking this very spot. One of them was General 

 Winfield Scott Hancock, of the Federal Army; the other was Dr. 

 George William Pollard, the master of the house and plantation, 

 which had been so cruelly devastated by the exigencies of the war. 

 Here had been the camping ground of the enemy, and here and 

 roundabout had been the battle ground of many a hard-fought 

 struggle to keep the enemy from the Capital of the Confederacy. 

 "General, will you not give orders that the most sacred spot of 

 our home be spared? I have pleaded with your subordinates that 

 they do not build their breastworks over our family burying-ground. 

 They have destroyed our garden, the pride of our home and the 



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