GUNSTON HALL 



UNSTON-HALL - ON - THE - POTOMAC, five 

 miles below Mount Vernon and eighteen miles 

 below Washington, the home of George Mason, of 

 Revolutionary days, was built by him in the years 

 1755 to 1758. 



l^he south front of the mansion faces the 

 Potomac. From a little portico on this front one looks toward the 

 river, between two rows of English box (Buxus Suffruticosa), twice 

 the height of a tall man, and two hundred and twenty feet long. 

 This avenue leads directly to a terrace overlooking wide stretches 

 of meadows, interspersed and bordered with forest trees and com- 

 manding a view across the broad Potomac to the hills of Mary- 

 land beyond. 



Doubtless it was Colonel Mason's intention, when he planted 

 this box hedge (the slips of which were probably brought from 

 England), to keep it trimmed in the low, formal style then cus- 

 tomary, with a spacious walk between its rows. Through many years 

 of neglect, the hedge was not trimmed, and, with soil apparently 

 ideal for its growth, it has reached its present great height and 

 beautiful form. A leading authority in this country estimates the 

 box at Gunston Hall to be about forty years older than the box at 

 Mount Vernon. Possibly, slips from the Gunston Hall box were 

 sent to Mount Vernon to start the lovely planting of box there, for 

 exchanges were frequently made, as we learn from Washington's 

 diary, in which he acknowledges additions to his flowers and fruits 

 from his friend, George Mason, at Gunston Hall. In 1763, Wash- 

 ington writes of "grafting cherries and plums from Colonel 

 Mason's." Again in 1785, Mason, after spending the night at 

 Mount Vernon, was sent by Washington back to Gunston Hall in 

 his coach, "by return of which," adds Washington, "he sent me 



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