IX 
SOUTH CAROLINA 
There are few new gardens in South Carolina, but an 
untold number of old ones deserving to be revived. Around 
Charleston, especially, old-time mansions, quaint walls, 
and gateways abound that are an inspiration to lovers 
of graceful antiquities. To restore an abandoned garden 
must be indeed a joy to one with enough imagination to 
recreate flower places fitted to the surroundings. 
The illustrations in this chapter give some idea of the 
richness of the early gardens laid out by the wealthy owners 
of many generations past. Magnolia-on-the-Ashley, con- 
sidered by some as one of the world’s most beautiful sights, 
especially in springtime, is the most famous place in the 
State. It is owned by Colonel Drayton Hastie, who in- 
herited it from his grandfather, the Reverend Mr. Dray- 
ton, an Episcopalian minister, in whose family it had re- 
mained since the latter part of the seventeenth century. In 
the days of the Reverend Mr. Drayton it was discovered 
that the garden had been laid out over land containing 
extremely valuable phosphate deposits, but neither he nor 
his descendants would have the place disturbed for the 
sake of an increased fortune, and the garden continues as 
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