DESIGN 171 



Once the fantastic mosaic pavement of vari-colored 

 stones was laid along his walks and in the court be- 

 fore his door, little was needed to keep them clean for 

 his enjoyment. The rain would wash them and the 

 wind would sweep them dry — and if a grassy tuft ven- 

 tured here or there, what harm*? Or if a weed or two 

 or three came to dwell among the flowers? Were 

 there not plenty of the latter? And who should keep 

 the roses that had faded plucked and tidy, when roses 

 were forever blooming and fading? Enough that the 

 boxwood was kept true to its purpose; the rest was 

 as fair, and as heavy with rich fragrance under a com- 

 fortable negligence, as the most distressing labors 

 would avail to make it. 



Coming north to Virginia the very opposite is found, 

 with Col. Fitzhugh's estate and its quite imposing ar- 

 ray of buildings — five he mentions, besides the dwell- 

 ing-house, and does not include the "quarters" of the 

 immediate family servants — as an example of a less 

 iilgehuous style of living. This, with its garden "a 

 hundred foot square" is the earliest model we have of 

 the English gentleman's garden in America. It was 

 made before the simple and sensible Elizabethan de- 

 signs had been dwarfed by the work of Le Notre; for 

 Versailles was only in process of construction about 

 the time Col. Fitzhugh set out his orchard, probably. 



His description does not give any hint, unhappily, 



