The Potomac and Rappahannock 



slips of the Persian Jessamine and Guelder Rose." A month 

 later, Colonel Mason wrote from Gunston Hall to General Wash- 

 ington, sending him a present of some cider. He had, he says, 

 broached four or five hogsheads, and filled the bottles with the 

 best, all being made of Maryland Redstreaks. "The cider this 

 year is not so clear and fine," he tells his friend, and he wonders 

 if grinding his apples late in the fall is the cause, and adds, "As 

 the cider in bottles will not ripen for use until late in May, I have 

 also filled a barrel out of the same, which I beg your acceptance 

 of." He recommended that a little ginger should be put in, as it 

 improves cider. At another time he sent Washington some water- 

 melon seed, which he had promised him. 



In the flower garden at Gunston are masses of heliotrope, phlox, 

 delphinium, lemon verbena, rose geranium, ageratum, foxglove and 

 many roses. In the fall the hardy chrysanthemums produce a riot 

 of color. 



In the center of the garden plays a bird fountain, made from 

 the capitol and base of a discarded column from the United States 

 Treasury building at Washington. This was found in a vacant 

 plot in Washington, where it had lain for years. On its base it 

 bears the date 1840. It is made of sandstone from the long since 

 abandoned quarries of Aquia Creek, from which also were made 

 the quoins of the Gunston house. 



An arched brick step leads to the Falls Walk, skirting the crest 

 of the hill, from whence a sudden declivity leads to the lower field, 

 which, in Mason's day, was a deer-park, studded with trees. The 

 Falls Walk leads on to the dock, whence a recently constructed 

 canal connects with the Potomac. 



From the east end of the garden a lilac-bordered path leads 

 toward the lawn, parallel to the spacious double walk, bordered 

 by flowering cherry trees, under whose shade, in center beds, the 

 spring bulbs bloom. 



The bowling green, to the east of the box-walk, almost square 

 in form, is enclosed by pleached fruit trees, and flowering shrubs; 



[J99] 



