Historic Gardens of Virginia 



through the stair hall one finds a graceful spiral stairway which 

 ascends upon the right to the upper floor. 



The house possesses at least one unique — and strictly Southern — 

 feature. Upon the second floor, each room has large slat doors 

 used both for ventilation and as screens. It is significant of both 

 the material and design of this dwelling that it has never been 

 remodeled. Modern luxuries have been permitted to keep pace 

 with the times, and certain innovations have been allowed. Up to 

 the present, however, none of its owners has been willing to sacrifice 

 one line of the original structure for a more modern idea. 



In olden days, the inconspicuous service door at one end of the 

 hall gave access to the out-door kitchen. It must not be forgotten 

 that in colonial as well as ante-bellum times, the great families 

 lived in the manner of their English ancestors. Their houses were 

 not planned to permit the quick passage of food from kitchen to 

 dining-room. Today, a modern kitchen stands as an addition at 

 Horseshoe, though the old one still remains as an interesting and 

 historic landmark. 



A quaint little side entrance opens out of the stair hall on one 

 side of the house, and it is through this that the visitor is led to 

 make a tour of the garden which lies in the rear. Here, after 

 leaving many roses, one sees long, prim borders stretching, perhaps 

 a hundred feet, to reach a stone bench nestling among white and 

 purple lilacs. Again, we are reminded of William Byrd, for we 

 wonder if the present bench stands in the self-same spot as that 

 where, this Genial Seigneur tells us, "Miss Thecky," Lady Spots- 

 wood's sister, "sat and bewail'd her virginity." 



This garden, a survival, is said to have had Its beginning in 

 1815, and is intersected by wide turfed walks between borders of 

 flowers and shrubbery. Any search for box gardens would not be 

 complete without a visit to Horseshoe, where the garden plan fol- 

 lows the line of the estate and both explain the place name. A 

 grassy pleasaunce, studded at intervals by six-foot trees of semper- 

 virens boxwood, forms its controlling note. While not so tall as 



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