THE OAKS 



MONG the large estates on the Staunton River in 

 Charlotte County are Red Hill, the home and 

 burial place of Patrick Henry; Staunton Hill, of 

 the Bruces, whose noble mansion was for many 

 years the most costly in Virginia, and Is still one 

 of the most beautiful; Ridgeway, of the Carring- 

 tons, and The Oaks, of the Rices — to name only a few of many, 

 noted for their spacious homes and lovely surroundings. 



The Oaks was for years known as South Isle, but the changing 

 course of the river having left the distinctive island in its low- 

 grounds high and dry save in times of freshet, the name had become 

 a case of "lucus a non lucetido," and was accordingly changed 

 about two decades ago to one made obvious by a surrounding grove. 

 We hear, however, that the present owner has returned to the 

 earlier title. 



Every old house was noted for its garden. In ante-bellum 

 Virginia her garden was the pride, almost the passion, of the 

 mistress of the plantation; it was as much outside the masculine 

 province as was the cut of her gown. All that was required of 

 the master was the loan of "hands" in times of emergency. The 

 garden was designed by the Lady of the Manor and planted under 

 her supervision. It was the expression of herself: a landscape 

 gardener would have been an impertinent Intruder. 



The garden of The Oaks, as It now exists, was the creation, 

 before mid-Victorian days, of Mrs. Izard Bacon Rice, a woman 

 with the latent powers of an artist. Its ample acreage was divided 

 by broad, turf-edged walks Into plots of varying size and shape. 

 The central walk was bordered by alternating shrubs of box and 

 of "pink perpetual" roses. The roses have now become lost in a 

 continuous wall of box more than six feet in height. Midway its 



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