Historic Gardens of Virginia 



o'Battle, and later, the Jacqueminot and the Bourbons of the Agrip- 

 pina type. The first I recall of the wonderful Tea family was 

 known only as the Tea Rose. I have often wondered if it had 

 any other name. 



Over the four arches (poorly suggested in the diagram) twined 

 the Grevel or Seven Sisters. No regular order had been followed 

 in planting; no bedding, no grouping. A great vine of yellow 

 jasmine (Gelsemium sempervirens) monopolized the "diamond" 

 on the left as you entered. Trained originally up a single post, it 

 wound over and over the top until it took the shape of a huge 

 shock of hay. 



In the center of each circle stood a large iron vase, from which 

 verbenas usually hung and vainly reached earthward. Spiraeas of 

 several kinds, Rose of Sharon, deutzias, and a calycanthus were 

 among the shrubs. Between and among the roses and shrubs 

 bloomed, in the spring, bulbs of all sorts, and in summer, all of the 

 old annuals. A dense honeysuckle hedge served as a background 

 and obscured the vegetable gardens beyond. These terminated at 

 the center walk in two large lilac clumps, and to the right in a great 

 bush of mock-orange. 



At the entrance, between two o'er-arching arbor vitae trees, were 

 permanent seats. And many other seats, during the fair days of 

 summer, were added, for here visitors were entertained, and here 

 lovers knew they would not be intruded upon, if by good luck, they 

 first occupied the position. 



In each flower-knot, yet not in juxtaposition, stood a grand box- 

 tree; the largest I have ever seen. Within one of these, when a 

 lad, I constructed a seat, and hidden there, would study my lessons 

 and then read Bulwer's novels and Scott's poems. The alleys were 

 all evenly sunken about eight inches, and the beds and borders were 

 held up in line by a narrow bluegrass edge. These grass edges were 

 kept trimmed with a knife. No boy of the family has ever for- 

 gotten this part of it, nor, also, of helping old Moore, the negro 

 gardener, work the beds. Speaking of Moore, how often have I 



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