Historic Gardens of Virginia 



fence, seven or eight feet high, with each paling sharpened like an 

 arrowhead. The entire fence was whitewashed every spring, when 

 the walks were freshly filled with tan-bark. I have never seen tan- 

 bark used for this purpose anywhere else, but even months later it 

 made an elastic, quickly-drained path for pedestrians when mud 

 was ankle deep on the country roads. 



The garden sloped gently towards the east and towards the 

 house. The upper half was laid out in formal beds with a broad 

 walk dividing it in equal parts. Down the center of this walk were 

 apple trees, whose branches spread out on either side forming a 

 long, shady aisle in the heat of summer. This was broken only 

 in the center by an arbor of seven sister roses — red, pink, and white 

 roses borne on the same cluster. From this arbor four other walks 

 radiated to the corner beds of turf which seemed to rivet the plan 

 together. Groups of cedar trees, whose branches swept the grass, 

 were planted diagonally opposite in these corner beds. To balance 

 them was a gigantic blackheart cherry tree, and a service berry tree. 



Besides these corner beds there were eight larger beds, formed 

 by the intersection of the walks, each one grass-edged and bordered 

 by flowers. The flower borders were not supposed to interfere 

 with the good, homely vegetables for which the beds were designed, 

 and which were laboriously spaded and raked every spring. 



Perhaps in the days before 1861, when the trees and shrubs 

 were pruned carefully and when the servants were sufficient in 

 number to furnish competent gardeners, the vegetables were able 

 to hold their own against the encroachment of the flowers which 

 bordered their domain. But since that time lilies of the valley 

 have spread in many thick mats; lilacs and snowballs have waved 

 their plumes far over the potatoes; tulips and jonquils have as- 

 sociated freely with the onions, while white violets have spread 

 under the cedar trees, over the grass and among the currant bushes, 

 until they appear, when in full bloom, like a light fall of snow, and 

 the passing breeze comes laden with their perfume. In the seven- 

 ties pink hyacinths grew thickly along the borders, and often in the 



[350] 



