Historic Gardens of Virginia 



Wandering back to the house, one pauses enthralled by the 

 size and perfect proportions of a Ginkgo biloba, or maidenhair 

 tree, full eighty feet tall, with its trunk measuring twenty inches 

 in diameter, standing sentinel at the right of the entrance. This 

 tree is a fortune in Itself — not commercially, perhaps, but because 

 of its marvelous beauty. 



To the right of this is a giant arbor vltae, cropped lov/ to 

 form a playhouse for children, its top a tangle of Cherokee roses. 

 Nearby, a massive hemlock seems to frown upon such levity. 



As one wonders at the planting, the romance comes to mind that 

 a certain John Tabb, son of Phillip Tabb, of Toddsbury, wooed 

 and won the fair Evelina Matilda Prosser, who inherited the White 

 Marsh tract of three thousand acres from her mother. Their com- 

 bined fortunes made John Tabb the wealthiest man in Gloucester 

 County. Mrs. Tabb was loth to live so far from the social whirl, 

 so her husband offered to make her the finest garden in Virginia, 

 with every tree and shrub that could be grown in this climate, if 

 she would but consent to make her home at White Marsh. 



It was then, in 1848, that the present house was built and 

 the lawn with Its priceless trees planted. This was no mean under- 

 taking in those days, when each foreign growth had to be specially 

 Imported. Thus, the collection stands a tribute to the planter's 

 good taste botanical. 



From the rear portico of the house are shown four terraces, 

 a long grape arbor, and vegetable gardens with the meadows 

 beyond. 



Magnolia, elms and crepe myrtles fringe the terraces on both 

 sides, affording many alluring spots for eager lovers, and the names 

 Inscribed upon window-panes prove they were not unfrequented! 



In by-gone days "each terrace was laid out in a continuation 

 of beds outlined by little boxwood bushes a foot high, and threaded 

 by grass walks. The flowers In these beds consisted mostly of 

 hyacinths, peonies, lilies, pinks, with the usual annuals and roses 

 planted everywhere." 



[168] 



