Historic Gardens of Virginia 



four-score years ago. You will find here the yaupon trees in great 

 profusion; huge clumps of bouquet and bridal wreath spirea, snow- 

 ball, mock-orange, California gold-leaf privet, flowering horse-chest- 

 nut, deutzia, lilac, yucca, flowering pomegranate, althea, and butter- 

 fly plant or buddleia. About the bases of the great crepe myrtles is 

 planted yellow jasmine which sets the garden aflame in the spring- 

 time, when the trees and shrubs are just beginning to bud. On the 

 fences honeysuckle and trumpet vine have massed themselves into a 

 veritable hedge. The roses comprise many of the old June and ever- 

 blooming varieties. Some of them rise from base-stems a foot in 

 thickness and reach to a height which enables them to hold their 

 own with the larger and more formal shrubs. At the southern 

 extremity of the eastern walk rises a well-trimmed tower of 

 wistaria. At its foot is massed a great bed of lilies of the valley. 

 A little to the north, the same walk is spanned by a great arbor of 

 yellow jasmine at the foot of which are bedded iris of many hues. 

 Wherever one turns, the garden is reminiscent of another cen- 

 tury, because of the prominence given to flowers that were popular 

 with our great-grandparents. Possibly, you would scarcely recog- 

 nize some of them by the names colloquially given them by those 

 charming ladies. "Red-hot pokers," "butter and eggs," "fair maids 

 of February," "butterfly plants," yellow and red cowslips, sage, 

 lavender, balsam, blue bottles, mourning brides, and the old Roman 

 hyacinths, which were so much more graceful than their more 

 modern sisters. There is, indeed, an ineffable something imparted 

 to a garden by age which time alone may supply. The best of 

 taste may not provide its equivalent overnight. Money cannot buy 

 it out of hand. It comes with the progress of many years and the 

 vicissitudes of many seasons. Just when a garden becomes an 

 "old" garden one may not readily say. But once a garden may be 

 so designated, it has attained a beauty and a dignity all its own. 

 It is the fact that the Sherwood garden enjoys this distinction in 

 high degree that lends to it no small part of its attractiveness 

 and charm. John Marshall. 



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