LAWSON HALL 



EVEN miles from Norfolk on the road leading 

 towards Cape Henry is Lawson Hall. The planta- 

 tion originally contained over one thousand acres 

 and was a Crown grant to Sir Thomas Lawson of 

 England in 1607. It is said this same Sir Thomas 

 Lawson was one of the company who sailed in the 

 ship of Sir George Summers, which was caught in a gale off the 

 Bermudas, and that it was from this stirring tale Shakespeare got 

 the material for his "Tempest." 



Formerly ships came from the sea through Little Creek and 

 landed their stores near the site of the present house. Of these 

 merchant ships the Lawsons are said to have had many, and 

 brought in them, so the story goes, some of the bricks and much of 

 the carved grey marble of which the original dwelling was con- 

 structed. In the latter, the walls were two feet thick and the draw- 

 ing-room twenty-six feet square. Every room was finished in rich, 

 hand-made wainscoting, but, unfortunately, this house was de- 

 stroyed by fire several years ago. The residence we now see was 

 built a few years ago by the present owner, Mr. C. F. Hodgman, 

 who has built with appreciation and sympathy for the older home 

 and has added greatly to the restoration of Lawson Hall. 



However, it is the gardens which interest us most. It is not 

 known just when these were laid off, but those who are familiar with 

 the life of trees say it must have been over two hundred years ago. 

 Here there are great beeches and laurel oaks with a spread of over 

 ninety feet and many boxwood trees in formal rows; these are 

 among the largest in America. The box-trees and the rows of 

 cedars make it a scene as if summer were here the whole year round. 

 One feels in looking at the old place that one of these Lawsons 

 brought with him the memory of some much loved garden in Eng- 



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