VII 
THE PRESIDENTS’ GARDENS 
j”T is a peculiarly fitting and happy circumstance that 
the history of old-time gardening in America 
should come to a close with the magnificent estates of 
two such Americans as our first and our third Chief 
Executives. And that these great plantations of 
Mount Vernon and Monticello were the personal 
charge and beloved occupation of their respective mas¬ 
ters, before, during, and after their years of service to 
the infant republic—if ever there were such a “before” 
and such an after” in their wonderful lives, which, 
as a matter of fact, there was not—is the final gratify¬ 
ing coincidence and delightful fact. 
Many great men have built splendid houses and 
planted splendid gardens, but more or less by proxy, 
more often than not. But these two men built homes , 
and built them themselves—almost indeed, with their 
own hands. The estate of Mount Vernon had been 
the plantation of Washington’s father to be sure, at 
whose death in 1743 it passed to Lawrence Washing- 
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