Historic Gardens of Virginia 



as the office, where the business of the plantation, which was worked 

 in three shifts by a large force of hands under three overseers, was 

 usually transacted. 



The mansion contains twenty-five rooms, three of which — the 

 front drawing-room, the center drawing-room and the libraiy — 

 constitute a suite of rooms which in point of design, finish and 

 space would compare favorably, if not more than favorably, with 

 any similar suite in any of the conspicuous homes of the Virginia 

 past. The library, which is a truly beautiful Gothic room, is 

 furnished with a fine collection of standard books, mainly pur- 

 chased by Charles Bnice in London in or about the year 1848. 

 One of the most attractive features of the house is its vestibule, 

 with a floor of black and white marble, and supplied with niches 

 filled with classic figures. 



The grounds and flower gardens are about eight acres in area 

 and were laid out by a Mr. Kirk, a Scotch landscape gardener, at or 

 about the time the residence was built. Under his supervision, the 

 grounds were adorned with many varieties of trees, native and 

 exotic, such as the ash, the beech, the deodar, the cedar of Lebanon, 

 and other species of domestic and foreign trees too numerous to 

 mention. Scattered among these are clumps of shrubbery. As the 

 original plantings have succumbed to the ravages of time, they have 

 been renewed with the same painstaking care that marked their 

 origin. 



Equal skill and good judgment were shown by Mr. Kirk In his 

 scheme of grass plots, roadways and walks, which are fully worthy 

 of the extensive space over which they are spread. The flower 

 garden is broken up by a system of judiciously designed grass 

 walks into many beds of varied shapes. In form, it is semi-circular, 

 and environing the semi-circle is a dense background of noble oaks 

 and other forest trees. In this garden a perpetual succession of 

 roses of different varieties has always been maintained throughout 

 the summer months, to say nothing of many kinds of flowers. In 

 few, If in any, of the old gardens of Virginia can be found such 



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