i5 
From a certain view-point, "Fair Hill" is apart from 
from our subject, but from another one, it has much to do 
with it, for without question, it was the model upon which 
the Germantown early gardens of the better class were after 
patterned, and from it, at a later period was issued the 
celebrated "Farmer Letters" of John Dickinson. Only a 
short time before his death, Pastorius referred to Fair Hill 
Garden as "the one keeping the finest I hitherto have seen 
in the whole country, fitted with abundance of rarities, 
physical, and metaphysical." 
Of it, Deborah Logan later wrote, "Fair Hill, built 
and occupied by Isaac N orris, was considered the most 
beautiful country seat in Pennsylvania. The courts and 
gardens were in the taste of those times with gravel walks 
and parterres. Many lofty trees were preserved around the 
house, which added greatly to its beauty and at the time of 
my remembrance the out-buildings were covered with 
festoons of ivy, and scarlet bignonia." 
Contemporaneous with the gardens of Dr. Witt was 
the garden of 'Stenton," planted by James Logan in 1720. 
We have no definite knowledge whether it was small or 
great. We do know, its products were most valuable, for in 
it, and about it, Logan acquired sufficient knowledge to 
interest and instruct his friends at home and abroad. From 
it in 1735, James Logan communicated to Peter Collinson 
an account of his experiments in maize, which was printed in 
the "Philadelphia transactions" for the year. These experi- 
ments were undertaken to investigate the sexual theory or 
plants, which had first been advanced byDr. Nehemiah Grew. 
An order of plants by Robert Brown named Loganiaceae, 
which includes the beautiful yellow flowering jasmine of the 
Southern United States, preserves the name of James Logan 
to naturalists, until botanical records shall be no more. The 
garden of Stenton so far as preserved, was of the box- 
bordered type, was known for its fine trees, and especially 
for an avenue of hemlock trees planted in 1739, which 
extended from the mansion to the cemetery near. 
