SABINE HALL 



HERE grow ivo strange flowers every year — 

 But when Spring winds blow o'er the pleasant places 

 The same dear things lift up the same fair faces." 



Just such a garden is that at Sabine Hall, which 

 is situated on a ridge one mile back from the broad 

 waters of the Rappahannock River. 



The house, Sabine Hall, was built in 1730 for Colonel Landon 

 Carter by his father, Robert Carter, of Corotoman, who was 

 called by his compatriots "King" Carter by reason of his very 

 extensive possessions in the Colony of Virginia. 



Colonel Carter, like many another squire of his time, found 

 great delight in Horace, and legend has it that he named his estate 

 for Horace's Sabine farm because of his interest in the Roman poet. 



The house, with its high ceilings, spacious rooms and wide 

 halls, remains today one of the finest among the Colonial dwellings 

 of the Old Dominion. The walls of the drawing-rooms and great 

 halls are hung with family portraits, among them being pictures of 

 Landon Carter and "the three great ladies who successively bore 

 his name." One of the family's most valued possessions is a fine 

 portrait of King Carter. The estate, consisting of some four 

 thousand acres, is on the Rappahannock, in Richmond County, not 

 far from Menokin, the home of Francis Lightfoot Lee. It was at 

 Sabine Hall that Colonel Carter, "retired from public praise," car- 

 ried on his famous correspondence with General Washington and 

 the Lees, much of which has been preserved. These historical 

 documents show the great influence he exerted over Colonial and 

 Revolutionary affairs. 



On one front of the Colonial brick house are lawns many acres 

 in extent shaded by stately old trees. On the other, commanding 

 a beautiful view of the lowlands and river, is a very lovely terraced 



[2.7] 



