WASHINGTON'S GARDEN 



ing paths and framed vistas are as Washington planned 

 them. His, too, the prim box-hedges and such of 

 the walls as remain. Behind the greenhouses, in the 

 past, stretched the long straight rows of flowers where 

 Mrs. Washington gathered basketsful of blooms for 

 the house ; here, too, were her savory herbs, and a bush 

 or two of lavender. 



Very lovely the old wall is now, with its soft tones 

 of gray and rose and cream, where the shrubbery 

 reaches high, lifting its blossoms above the coping. The 

 paths are bordered with narrow beds of flowers, and 

 there are many other straight long beds that are a mass 

 of color and fragrance, and vocal with the hum of bees. 



Contemporary letters and sketches give many a view 

 of the General, clad in sober drab costume and wide- 

 brimmed hat, riding or tramping about the estate. Judg- 

 ing from notes in his diary and letters of his own, he 

 was far more interested in the fields and farms than in 

 the flower garden proper. Nevertheless, he notes on a 

 certain January 10, that "The white-thorn is full in 

 berry," and also remarks that he has been planting 

 holly. Beyond much doubt, however, it was Martha 

 Washington who had the chief care of the more deco- 

 rative part of the homestead. She it was who filled the 

 beds with seeds and roots in the spring, and cut the 

 fresh flowers, or clipped off the faded ones in summer. 

 That was woman's work, and though the General was 

 fain to wander among the roses with a keen pleasure in 



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