Historic Gardens of Virginia 



much carried away, while the garden was completely torn up and 

 laid waste. Evidences of war's devastation are still visible — bullet 

 holes in a mantelpiece and in some of the heavy timbered doors — 

 the remains of the old brick walks leading to the outside kitchen, 

 which was totally destroyed, and pieces of mutilated furniture. 

 A fine old Sheraton sideboard was found, after the estate was sold, 

 lying out under some trees, with its drawers, which had been used 

 as horse troughs, lost or broken. 



Woodberry Forest lay idle for some years after this, and it 

 was not till 1870 that it was given to Captain Robert Stringfellow 

 Walker by his father, who had bought it when it was offered for 

 sale at the close of the war. 



The house is beautifully situated on a hill, to the right of which 

 the valley stretches out into the foothills of the Blue Ridge Moun- 

 tains, with the mountains themselves only about fifteen miles dis- 

 tant. On its left, the steep slope is terraced to the Rapidan 

 River, which at this point half encircles the place. The opposite 

 hill, with its wooded sides and, now and then, cleared fields, forms 

 a lovely setting to the southern frontage of the garden. 



The site of the old garden was the same occupied by the 

 present one, though the latter has far outgrown the original. The 

 hill, stretching from the residence to the Rapidan River, is com- 

 pletely taken up with the ten-acre vegetable garden, and the slice 

 at the top devoted to flowers. The old flower garden was a simple 

 one, typical of so many Virginia country homes — several long 

 borders, as they were called, stretching the whole width of the 

 garden enclosure, and lying at the top of the slope which extends 

 to the river. It is entered by a wicket gate, and half way between 

 that and the vegetables was the sun-dial, the beloved object of the 

 children, whose never-failing source of delight was that Grand- 

 father's Clock and the sun-dial both told the same kind of time! 

 A group of old purple lilacs, cut down during the war, bordered 

 the walk, and the beds of roses were noted through the com- 

 munity — Harrison's Yellow, Cabbage, Lorraine, Damask, Musk, 



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