The Potomac and Rappahannock 



The gardens were of the oval design customary for homes of 

 important famihes before the Revolution. The shape probably 

 was adopted not only because of its beauty and grace, but for the 

 practical convenience of the driveway leading from the entrance of 

 the ground to the house and making it easy to drive a vehicle In 

 or out without need for turning. The oval at the entrance to Strat- 

 ford was bordered with box, favorite evergreen and outdoor decora- 

 tion of the colonists, doubtless brought from the old home gardens 

 in the mother country. In this oval, convenient for observation, 

 stood the usual sundial, infallible timekeeper so long as the weather 

 allowed. The box-border enclosed the familiar flowers of the 

 English garden — hollyhock, wallflower, cinnammon-pink, larkspur 

 and the ever-cherished, beloved and admired roses. 



Endeavoring to get clearly into our minds the picture of the old 

 garden fronting the broad building with field and forest on one side 

 and river on the other, we may assume that the oval was filled with 

 beds, or "boutons," as they were called, of more or less intricate 

 and fanciful designs, according to the fashion of the times. There 

 was the box-walk, the box-maze and the rose-embowered summer- 

 house. Fithian says a celebrated dancing master of the day held 

 classes at Stratford on certain days, from ten in the morning until 

 late afternoon, and it is pleasant to think of the pupils, in the 

 intervals between lessons, wandering amid the box-borders, playing 

 at hide-and-seek in the box-mazes, or resting in the shade of the 

 towering oaks and beeches which had been left from the original 

 growth. 



The kitchen garden at the side of the house, surrounded by high 

 brick walls, held squares of vegetables, outlined by the usual iris, 

 grown for Its roots, furnishing orris powder and perfume. The 

 herb garden was a part of the equipment of every plantation house, 

 the medicinal herbs furnishing much of the medicine used in days 

 before convenient drug stores and doctors were in evidence. 



The quiet, dignified gardens of old Virginia had a charm all 

 their own, supervised as they were by flower-loving owners, with 



['87] 



