Historic Gardens of Virginia 



plenty of docile and intelligent labor at command. Ovals, squares 

 and circles were masses of color and fragrance, adding beauty and 

 delight to the beloved homes. 



In the bowered and perfumed privacy of these gardens, secluded 

 from the world by miles of distance and density of woodland, lived 

 those great makers of American history. Gone are some of their 

 gardens, but who shall say what influence for serenity and right 

 judgment and clear-cut honesty and dauntless courage were derived 

 from the lovely gardens and quiet and inspiring surroundings of 

 their youth and manhood! 



At Stratford the mind is turned inevitably to the childhood 

 there of Robert E. Lee, a handsome little boy, with his invalid 

 mother, going from house to garden around the box-edged flower 

 bed; and then on to the after years when that tall stately form, not 

 wearing the robes of a conqueror, was homeless. From within a 

 heart burdened with sorrows — not his own — rose a longing for the 

 first home he had known, and he wrote, on Christmas Day of 1861, 

 in a letter to his daughter, after Arlington had been taken from him, 

 "In the absence of a home, I wish I could purchase Stratford." 

 So passed that grand figure into history, leaving to us the rich 

 legacy of his high ideals of right and duty, leaving to us, also, 

 Stratford House, his birthplace, of which we can, with loving 

 and justified pride, quote the Psalmist, "the Lord shall count when 

 He writeth up the people that this man was born there." 



LiLA L. Williams. 



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