40 OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 



of rank, the sons of gentlemen and squires, pleasure 

 loving and accustomed to rule. And so, quite naturally 

 on these vast domains, there grew up a system like, and 

 yet not like, the feudalism of the Middle Ages, with 

 its luxury, its independence, its freedom, and its serf- 

 dom. 



Villages and towns were not, and indeed are not to 

 this day, throughout the greater portion of the Cava- 

 lier country. The plantation was the unit; each was 

 a small barony, each planter an overlord. Hence, 

 when the time of finer arts than rude necessity de- 

 manded had arrived, these developed according to this 

 somewhat magnificent conception of himself and his 

 holdings which the planter cherished — a conception, 

 which such men, under such conditions, could hardly 

 avoid cherishing. 



Englishmen, bom to a love of the great ancestral 

 homes, to a passion for land, for sport, for horses, for 

 rule as well as for independence and self-government, 

 they brought to America certain traditions to which 

 they clung tenaciously; and certain ideals, which 

 amplified themselves spontaneously, as it were — 

 under the congenial conditions which America at that 

 time afforded — into a luxurious, half princely, yet 

 withal simple mode of living, unlike any that has 

 ever prevailed anywhere else in the world. Every- 

 thing that was done, was done on a scale of lavish 



