Historic Gardens of Virginia 



At the bottom and down the sides were broad, grassy walks 

 and spaces where plum and small flowering fruit trees blossomed; 

 here apple trees stretched their long limbs out lazily in the spring 

 air waiting until the great cherry trees, which towered above them, 

 should have shed their snowy bloom. There were birds — birds 

 everywhere. 



Underneath these fruit trees, blooming untended among the 

 grass, are yuccas and iris; only they were called in those days bear 

 grass and flags, and the leaves of the yucca, when shredded and 

 knotted together, served as twine for the garden and plantation. 



Perhaps the enchantment of the spot lay largely in the eyes of 

 the beholder, because those who knew it and lived with it loved it. 

 In all the hundred and twenty-five years of its life it has always 

 been very dearly loved by some woman, its mistress, who found 

 in it happiness and tranquility of mind, even serenity of speech in 

 watching and tending it as best she might. So, though lacking 

 many things that make other gardens beautiful and desirable, yet 

 Redlands has one requisite, that is a prerequisite of every garden, 

 and is best set forth in the old well-known lines — 



"A gfarden is a lovesome spot, 

 God wot." 



Sally Randolph Carter. 



[270] 



