The Piedmont Section 



ington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and even LaFayette, who 

 was a visitor at Castle Hill when he was last in America. 



From her grandfather. Dr. Thomas Walker, Judith Walker 

 inherited Castle Hill. She later became the wife of William Cabell 

 Rives, United States Senator, and twice Minister to France. Addi- 

 tions were made to the old house during her life, and the present 

 lawn was laid out under her direction. It is interesting to note that 

 the father of Judith Walker, the eldest son of Dr. Thomas Walker, 

 was not only a Colonel and Aide-de-Camp on the Staff of General 

 Washington, but he was a United States Senator as well; so not 

 only was she the daughter of a Senator of the United States, but 

 her husband held also the same high office. 



Dr. Thomas Walker, who married Mildred Thornton, a 

 cousin of General Washington, completed at Castle Hill, in 1765, 

 the house which stands today in excellent preservation. It is one 

 of the few homes still standing on the soil of Virginia that is 

 older than the beginning of the War of Independence. This 

 house is still the home of the descendants of its first owner, who 

 do honor to their lineage. For five generations, it has been a 

 seat of hospitality and culture. In the great square hall, the 

 youthful, music-loving Jefferson once played the violin, while the 

 still younger Madison danced. Here the doors have opened to 

 welcome five men v/ho were Presidents of the United States. 



The wonderful box-hedges, the tallest of them all now almost 

 fifty feet in height with its broad arches, through which one catches 

 glimpses of the garden and the mountains standing guard beyond, 

 tell the story of the eventful years that have passed since the build- 

 ing of Castle Hill and the planting of its garden. 



Gertrude Rives Potts. 



[267] 



