MONTICELLO 



HE home of Thomas Jefferson is situated on a high 

 hill four miles southeast of Charlottesville. It is 

 called Monticello (Little Mountain) and is ap- 

 proached by a winding macadam road which clings 

 to the side of Carter's Mountain, the adjoining 

 peak to Monticello and one of the Southwest range. 

 The steep drive offers many sources of interest to the lover of 

 nature. The trickling of the mountain streams was music to the 

 traveller in the old days, for soon one came upon a moss-covered 

 rocky basin, or spring, embowered in ferns, which was welcomed 

 as refreshment for man and beast. Native shrubs and trees frame 

 with artistic beauty the vistas of the valley below, where lies the 

 town of Charlottesville; the view extending a mile to the west em- 

 braces the classic buildings of the University of Virginia, behind 

 which stretch in undulating lines the Blue Ridge Mountains, one 

 spur of which, the Ragged Mountains, was made famous in the 

 writings of Edgar Allan Poe, one time student of this great seat 

 of learning. 



At the crest of the mountain and at the point at which the county 

 road begins to fall to the other side into the eastern valley, there 

 is a gate at one's left which is the outer entrance to Jefferson's 

 estate. A lodge has recently been built there by the present owner. . 

 The drive to the house through the woods is enchanting in early 

 spring, and the luxuriant growth of Scotch broom, with its pendant 

 yellow blossoms, carpets the ground beneath, forming a veritable 

 cloth of gold. 



On the right, one passes a sacred spot, the family graveyard. 

 Here lies interred the mortal remains of Thomas Jefferson, his 

 beloved wife, his children and grandchildren. 



A monument is inscribed with the epitaph written by Jefferson 



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