40 
OLD-FASHIONED GARDENING 
of rank, the sons of gentlemen and squires, pleasure 
loving and accustomed to rule. And so, quite naturally 
on these vast domains, there grew up a system like, and 
yet not like, the feudalism of the Middle Ages, with 
its luxury, its independence, its freedom, and its serf¬ 
dom. 
Villages and towns were not, and indeed are not to 
this day, throughout the greater portion of the Cava¬ 
lier country. The plantation was the unit; each was 
a small barony, each planter an overlord. Hence, 
when the time of finer arts than rude necessity de¬ 
manded had arrived, these developed according to this 
somewhat magnificent conception of himself and his 
holdings which the planter cherished—a conception, 
which such men, under such conditions, could hardly 
avoid cherishing. 
Englishmen, born to a love of the great ancestral 
homes, to a passion for land, for sport, for horses, for 
rule as well as for independence and self-government, 
they brought to America certain traditions to which 
they clung tenaciously; and certain ideals, which 
amplified themselves spontaneously, as it were— 
under the congenial conditions which America at that 
time afforded—into a luxurious, half princely, yet 
withal simple mode of living, unlike any that has 
ever prevailed anywhere else in the world. Every¬ 
thing that was done, was done on a scale of lavish 
