DESIGN 
171 
Once the fantastic mosaic pavement of vari-colored 
stones was laid along his walks and in the court be¬ 
fore his door, little was needed to keep them clean for 
his enjoyment. The rain would wash them and the 
wind would sweep them dry—and if a grassy tuft ven¬ 
tured here or there, what harm 4 ? Or if a weed or two 
or three came to dwell among the flowers? Were 
there not plenty of the latter? And who should keep 
the roses that had faded plucked and tidy, when roses 
were forever blooming and fading? Enough that the 
boxwood was kept true to its purpose; the rest was 
as fair, and as heavy with rich fragrance under a com¬ 
fortable negligence, as the most distressing labors 
would avail to make it. 
Coming north to Virginia the very opposite is found, 
with Col. Fitzhugh’s estate and its quite imposing ar¬ 
ray of buildings—five he mentions, besides the dwell¬ 
ing-house, and does not include the “quarters” of the 
immediate family servants—as an example of a less 
ingenuous style of living. This, with its garden “a 
hundred foot square” is the earliest model we have of 
the English gentleman’s garden in America. It was 
made before the simple and sensible Elizabethan de¬ 
signs had been dwarfed by the work of Le Notre; for 
Versailles was only in process of construction about 
the time Col. Fitzhugh set out his orchard, probably. 
His description does not give any hint, unhappily, 
