Historic Gardens of Virginia 



well, where he kept meat, butter, and vegetables cool in summer, 

 for icehouses were unknown until later. Along the lower edges of 

 the lawn were old English haha walls to prevent the cattle from 

 approaching the house, but so arranged as not to break the view. 

 Thiese same cattle, however, of which there were many hundred, 

 were driven over the lawns whenever cutting was necessary, as there 

 were no lawn mowers in those days. 



Below the lawn was a deer paddock, and the irregular shores 

 of the river. On this southern lawn are beautiful old trees, almost 

 all of which were selected in the woods and brought to their present 

 situation by the young engineer himself. From the wharf a long 

 steep ascending foot-path and a long easier driveway both led to 

 the old burial-place of the family and to the newer tomb which now 

 is the mecca of all tourists. Here numerous memorial trees have 

 been planted by prominent visitors. 



If George Washington had not been a great statesman and 

 patriot, he would at. least have been an eminent landscape artist, 

 for nowhere in America have we such a splendid plan of landscape 

 gardening carried out with such accuracy and beauty, and all this by 

 a young engineer in his twenties. This makes one think more of 

 rod and chain and tripod, than of lace and powder and velvets! 



In the rear of the mansion, now the main entrance, was laid out 

 a fine lawn upon a level surface comprising about two acres. Around 

 it he made a serpentine driveway, and he planted a great variety 

 of trees on each side. The list of trees mentioned in his diary 

 which he selected in the woods and had planted on the grounds is 

 long — including elm, beech, maple, ash — the different varieties of 

 oak — gum, poplar, aspen, mulberry, dogwood, redbud, pine, cedar, 

 magnolia, hemlock, many holly, and laurel. These trees terminated, 

 by his own description, "By two mounds of earth, one on each 

 side, on which were growing weeping-willow trees, leaving an open 

 and full view of the distant hills. These trees were sixty yards 

 apart." 



Directly before the western front was a round grass-plot, de- 



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