6 9 
fine specimen of the rare ''creeping yew," and at the rear of 
the house was one of the first "wild flower" gardens in 
Germantown, it containing native plants from many sections 
of the United States. The garden also possessed many rare 
shrubs, a unique variety of weeping oak, and a noted grove 
of "over-cup" oak trees, which Prof. Thomas Meehan 
pronounced "the finest he had ever seen." 
"Grumblethorpe" presents one of the oldest and one 
of our most attractive gardens, but we shall refer to it 
briefly, for a description of it has appeared in the publica- 
tions of this Society, one more complete than it is possible to 
give at this time. The "Grumblethorpe" or Wister garden 
is located directly upon Main Street, opposite to Queen Lane. 
It is a herbaceous garden of the old fashioned type, having 
fine walks, box-bordered, covered at stations by trellises. Its 
beds for vegetables and flowers are systematically aranged, 
and in them perennial plants develop, and flower with the 
season's progress, so that from the flowering of the 
"Christmas Rose," until the flowering of the witch-hazel, 
the garden almost continuously is in bloom. In the garden 
are many fine trees, but the gem among many varieties is a 
"Sugar Pear" tree which has been bearing fruit continuously 
for nearly 160 years, a tree yet vigorous, and out-topping 
every pear tree I know. It may be worth recording, that 
this tree had been bearing fruit for several years before the 
better known "Lady Petre pear tree" of John Bartram's 
garden had been imported. The garden was constructed 
before the days of landscape engineers in America, and it is 
a worthy memorial to the skill and care of generations of the 
Wister family. The gardener in charge for many years was 
Patrick McGowan, who is now located at Friends' Home, 
Greene Street and Washington Lane. 
Turning now into Shoemaker's Lane, a noteworthy 
garden was that of "Ivy Lodge," whose owner was John 
Jay Smith, and whose gardener was Thomas Hendricks. 
John Jay Smith was born at Green Hill, near Burlington, 
N. J,. June 16, 1798. In the year 1849, ne came to German- 
