Historic Gardens of Virginia 



sloping as It does to the north, the tone of the design must be cool 

 and peaceful, tending more to grass and evergreens and massing of 

 shrubbery, than to brilliance and bloom. 



It is probable that there was a flower garden here from the 

 first occupancy of the house. But it is certain that, in 1830, Mr. 

 Spence, a Scottish landscape gardener, was employed to embellish 

 the existing grounds. This he did in the garden proper by grading 

 and terracing the land into three levels, though they are no longer 

 level today. The lowest of these, that farthest from the house and 

 next the stone stables, is the kitchen garden. Upon the inter- 

 mediate terrace is a pool and some fine old white pines which form 

 a pleasant little grove of seven. The principal part of the flower 

 garden lay then, as it does now, upon the highest of the three 

 levels, and was entered through gates set in a picket fence that 

 divided it from a little lawn next the house. In this part of the 

 garden were most of the shrubs and all of the flowers, and here 

 Mr. Spence set out a number of hemlocks, probably as ornamental 

 bushes. They are now large trees, and two of them frame a small 

 vista down the center of the garden to the pool. A number of 

 other evergreens must have perished, though they can be remem- 

 bered by persons still living and are described as having been of 

 considerable size. Only the pines and hemlocks survive at the age 

 of about ninety-three, which is youth itself compared to the oaks 

 in the park. 



Some work of additional improvement was done upon the 

 garden about 1855. But then came the war and destruction. In- 

 deed, so far as the garden was concerned, the tragic years that 

 followed were worse than the war itself. In the seventies, Mr. 

 George H. Burwell, first, died; his family moved away, and the 

 place was rented. No doubt, the garden was allowed to grow as it 

 pleased and, being on fertile ground, it grew into a jungle. 



When the present owner came into possession of the property, 

 in 1908, there were only single foot-paths through great tangled 

 masses of shrubbery and scrub. But the trees were still there, par- 



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