leasts* — vsts^ 



The Piedmont Section 



high, oaks and other trees remain. The grounds consisted of twenty 

 acres, surrounded by a stone wall, with a lilac hedge on the inside. 

 The garden of ten acres required a trained gardener, and some- 

 times forty men were brought in to keep it in order. 



Mrs. James Coles Bruce, grandmother of the owner, was a 

 great lover of flowers, and she collected foreign as well as native 

 flowers and shrubs for her garden. 



Gravel walks sixteen feet wide led through the garden and 

 separated from each other grass plots sixty feet square. These 

 were bordered with flowers to a width of six feet. A large, round 

 bed marked the center of the garden and roses bloomed all through 

 it — the moss and the cluster. Giant of Battles, Shamrock, micro- 

 phylla, the Harrison and the Blush. 



Leading to the grounds was an Ailanthus avenue one-half mile 

 long. This Ailanthus, or Tree of Heaven as it was then called, was 

 an imported tree, not indigenous to the United States, and was con- 

 sidered very rare. 



The pictures give a better idea of the house than I can, and 

 show the beauty of proportion, lines, and extreme simplicity. One 

 wonders at the result from a home architect. I think my grand- 

 parents had a great deal to do with the building and no doubt 

 received help from an intimate friend of theirs, John E. Johnson, 

 who was noted for his good taste. 



The names of many faithful servants were associated with 

 Berry Hill. "Uncle" Aleck, the butler, was noted for his honesty 

 and strength, and never told an untruth. During the War Between 

 the States, he asked not to be told where the silver was buried, 

 as he could not be unfaithful to his master, nor could he lie. And 

 when one of the enemy stole his master's watch, this faithful servant 

 took it from him. There were three generations of butlers and 

 three of cooks at this house. The cook during my father's life was 

 very black and claimed his ancestor was a king. 



My grandfather, though a Union man at the beginning, had 

 four sons in the Confederate service, losing two of them, so he felt 



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