Historic Gardens of Virginia 



This house that Colonel Burwell built extends, east and west, for 

 a hundred and ninety feet — an arrangement that allows the winter 

 sun to pour in and the summer breeze to sweep through from 

 south to north. To the east and to the west of the main build- 

 ing are the offices; that on the west, besides having extra bed- 

 rooms, was also used "befo' de war" as a school-house. Here the 

 tutor to the children of the Burwell family instructed, in addition, 

 the young people from the neighboring estates, all of whom were 

 cousins of one degree or another. One of the boys was William 

 Meade, afterwards Bishop of Virginia. The building to the east of 

 the main house afforded rooms for those servants who did not live, 

 as the others did, at the quarters; it also contained the laundry 

 with its flagged floor and ten-foot fireplace, its brick ovens and 

 its crane. 



Though these offices are two stories in height, the east wing of 

 the main building has only one story, over which is a very low 

 gable. It was in this pitch-black little space above the ceiling that 

 the family silver was successfully hidden throughout the War Be- 

 tween the States — successfully hidden in spite of the fact that the 

 place was not only near that center of fighting, the town of Win- 

 chester, but also directly on the highway between Winchester and 

 Manassas. Time and again, it was used as the headquarters of 

 one army or the other. General Merritt, during his stay, having 

 slept on a sofa now standing in the hall. 



Another occupancy by Union troops was more uncomfortable. 

 This was the visit paid the house by "Blenker's Dutch." It is be-, 

 lieved that they were not Dutch, but Germans. At any rate, they 

 could speak no English and maintained, truly or not, that they 

 could understand none. Unfortunately, soon after their arrival 

 they broke into the wine cellar, got very drunk and made things 

 unpleasant, if not actually dangerous, for members of the family, 

 who then included Mr. George H. Burwell, first, well advanced in 

 years and almost entirely blind, his little son, and various ladies. 

 The harm went no further, as it happened, than frightening the 



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