414 Old Time Gardens 
a grass bank, which is ever a trial in a garden ; for it 
is hard to mow the grass on such a bank, and it never 
looks neat ; it should be planted with some vine. 
A very curious garden wall is the serpentine brick 
wall still standing at the University of Virginia, at 
Charlottesville. It is about seven feet high, and 
closes in the garden and green of the row of houses 
occupied by members of the faculty ; originally 
it may have extended around the entire college 
grounds. I present a view from the street in order 
to show its contour distinctly ; within the garden its 
outlines are obscured by vines and flowers. The 
first thought in the mind of the observer is that its 
reason for curving is that it could be built much 
more lightly, and hence more cheaply, than a 
straight wall ; then it seems a possible idealization 
in brick of the old Virginia rail fence. But I do 
not look to domestic patterns and influences for its 
production ; it is to me a good example of the old- 
time domination of French ideas which was so 
marked and so disquieting in America. In France, 
after the peace of 1762, the Marquis de Geradin 
was revolutionizing gardening. His own garden at 
Ermenonville and his description of it exercised im- 
portant influence in England and America, as in 
France. Jefferson was the planner and architect of 
the University of Virginia ; and it is stated that he 
built this serpentine wall. Whether he did or not, 
it is another example of French influences in archi- 
tecture in the United States. This French school, 
above everything else, replaced straight- lines with 
carefully curving and winding lines. 
