The Piedmont Section 



visited ex-President Madison, one of his suite laid out the garden 

 to please the charming Madame Dolly. Tradition has it that this 

 gentleman was Major L'Enfant, but this is extremely doubtful. 

 The young Frenchman took as his plan the hall of the House of 

 Representatives in Washington, and this amphitheater design af- 

 fords wonderful opportunities for terraces and steps. When 

 emerging from the shadow of the overhanging box-trees, the vivid 

 panorama of the garden is one never to be forgotten. 



For many years a French gardener (at the then fabulous price 

 of $400 a year) tended the elaborate parterres and clipped the 

 hedges and made wonderful topiary designs in the box-bushes. 

 But, alas, the lavish hospitality, the dissipations of the graceless 

 stepson, and the too great generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Madison 

 caused considerable financial stress, and the French gardener had 

 to be dismissed and his place filled by one of his black assistants. 

 This was but the beginning of pecuniary embarrassments which 

 harassed the last years of Madison's life. 



When, in 1900, Mr. William duPont took over this historical 

 estate, the garden was surrounded by a rail snake fence. The ter- 

 races had been ploughed down and were planted in vegetables, and 

 only the wonderful box, extending down the center of the garden, 

 remained; the latter so straggly and overgrown that one could 

 hardly walk down the path. Mrs. duPont had the terraces graded 

 and turfed, the flower beds laid out and planted. She had the 

 paths made of gravel with tiled edging. Under her direction steps 

 were built and garden ornaments added, but it has taken years of 

 patience and toil to bring the garden back to its present state of 

 perfection. 



I like to pass swiftly over the years of neglect and think of the 

 garden in all its old-time glory — as it is now in June with roses 

 everywhere. Ramblers drooping over the walls, tree-roses standing 

 about in prim precision in gay beds of larkspur and lady slippers 

 and brilliant phlox and the white marguerite, without which no 

 French garden is complete. 



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