The Tidewater Trail 



tanning house, one of the conical-shaped icehouses peculiar to Tide- 

 water Virginia, an unusual number of fine barns, and quarters for 

 the house servants and field hands. The out-of-doors kitchen had 

 an immense fireplace — crane, and a Dutch oven and, of course, in 

 the good old days, a "tin kitchen," where huge saddles of mutton 

 and haunches of venison were roasted before the great fire of logs. 

 On either side of the house were "strikers" for the house-servants, 

 each one having an especial number, and it needed twenty-one 

 strikes to complete the tally in the days before '6i-'65. Mr. and 

 Mrs. James H. Roy lived in a small but comfortable brick build- 

 ing, still in evidence on the lawn, while they personally superin- 

 tended the building of their home and the laying out of the grounds 

 and garden. 



The garden is surrounded by an unique scalloped brick wall. 

 A broad, graveled walk extended from east to west as one entered, 

 and another from north to south crossed it in the middle, where 

 there was a latticed summer-house covered with jasmine and 

 honeysuckle and fitted with seats inside. The walk from north to 

 south was bordered by grapes carefully trained on lattices, while 

 on either side of the entrance walk were raised borders, where 

 many shrubs and flowers grew. On the north and south of this 

 walk were flower-beds in circles and hectagonals where every sort 

 of sweet old-time bloom was cultivated. Along the borders were 

 arborvitae trees at intervals, and under them grew lilies of the 

 valley in profusion, and such shrubs as calycanthus, smoke trees, 

 tamarisk and English laburnum with, here and there, fine box- 

 bushes. 



In each scallop of the brick wall was a raised mound, covered 

 with violets, out of which grew a rosebush. Against the southern 

 walls pomegranates and figs ripened to perfection and French 

 artichokes were successfully cultivated. The figs bear abundantly 

 to this day, but the pomegranates have disappeared with the passing 

 of the skilled gardeners. 



A giant pecan tree on the lawn thrives as well as if in its native 



[■59] 



