Historic Gardens of Virginia 



forecourt where the grass is very green and four symmetrical 

 holly trees give color and dignity. There is ivy clustered against 

 the wall and foliage massed behind the house. 



Below the court is a circle of green, with an ancient sundial, 

 and below and beyond, the many rolling acres in lawn and trees 

 where, in olden times, many deer were kept. The worn stone-steps 

 leading to the court have massive stone urns on pedestals at either 

 side. The walk leads through the court to more stone-steps that 

 lead to the portico and hall. These steps are guarded by bronze 

 dogs. The architecture of Mount Airy is not colonial at all, but 

 rather English, and one unique feature is that it is built entirely of 

 stone, native brown and grey sandstone. Time has weathered and 

 softened it, and it is very lovely, surrounded by the beauties of 

 Virginia landscape. 



At the back are five grassy terraces, the central one being a 

 perfect square of green. This was once used as a bowling green, 

 and one easily imagines the gay gallants of long ago, bowling 

 upon it, with might and main, and later going into the dining-room 

 to drink a mint-julep, from the "Old Bowl of Mount Airy," which 

 is famous in poem and story. 



These terraces are most unusual and end in a vista of flowers 

 and shrubbery, at the brink of the great hill, where one gets a 

 view of surpassing grandeur. Before you lie extended many miles 

 of farm and woodland — most of it still belonging to the estate. 

 There the Rappahannock River, three miles away, winds like a 

 blue ribbon, in the distance; and, on the farther side of the river, 

 the houses of the little colonial town of Tappahannock, in Essex 

 County, spread out upon its shores. 



There was once a large, formal garden at Mount Airy. 

 There were parterres and hedges and, several feet below the green, 

 at the right, was the kitchen garden. But, in the sad days after 

 the war, things had to be changed, and the kitchen garden was 

 ploughed for wheat, the parterres lapsed into a lawn, in which 

 paths and ornaments are still seen. It has never been restored to 



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