The Piedmont Section 



off in squares, separated by broad, intersecting grass walks. The 

 upper squares are devoted to flowers and the lower to the vege- 

 tables. As was the case in so many of the older Virginia gardens, 

 the flower beds, within the upper squares, were laid off in a pattern 

 that formed an insignia of the Order of Masons — here they out- 

 lined a Maltese cross. This arrangement, according to Masonic 

 insignia, indicated that the owner of the estate belonged to that 

 order. An illustration of this may be seen in the garden at Mount 

 Vernon. 



The corners of the squares in the Redlands garden were marked 

 by shrubs, many of which are still there, notably the fine old box- 

 wood bushes which guard the entrance and those that separate the 

 vegetable squares from the flowers. These bushes are very 

 unusual examples of the enormous size boxwood of this type can 

 attain, though, of course, they are by no means so tall as the 

 tree-box. 



The Redlands garden is screened from view from the lawn by 

 the original lilac hedge, which makes indeed a fragrant wall of 

 blossom in the spring. In olden times this garden must have been 

 an enchanting spot with its upper squares laid out in beds of bloom- 

 ing flowers; its long borders, down either side of the main or 

 central walk, of cowslips, hyacinths, jonquils, white narcissi, butter 

 and eggs, violets, peonies, bleeding hearts, Madonna lilies, chrysan- 

 themums, four o'clocks, Jacob's ladder (I never see Jacob's ladder 

 now), larkspur, Star of Bethlehem, and lilies of the valley, with 

 here and there a lovely daily fragrant damask rose, or red June 

 roses growing low and blooming lavishly, and yellow Harrisonias. 

 There were coral honeysuckle and white jessamine or white roses 

 with hearts of gold, but quaintest of all, the oldest of American 

 garden roses — the queer, little, almost ugly, cinnamon rose. 



Under the box-bushes were shy white violets, not to forget blue- 

 eyed periwinkle and the flowering shrubs — mock orange, snowball, 

 syringa, smoke tree, flowering almond and just a little Southern 

 yellow jessamine and the smell and bloom of lilacs everywhere. 



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