150 
The Garden Magazine, November, 1923 
front of the house is not spoiled by fussy planting. There are 
merely a few vines on its face. 
U P IN Albemarle County in the mountains are other famous 
old Virginia places. One is the University of Virginia. 
The garden has serpentine red brick walls and the usual Box- 
edged flowerbeds. The campus has a double row of trees 
down each side and is enclosed by buildings connected with one 
another by covered walks, like colonnades. The whole is in 
gradually descending terraces, and when one looks down on the 
lawn from above, it has the appearance of being one level. It 
is small in scale and perfectly proportioned. 
Jefferson was very proud of being the designer and founder of 
this college, and his own place, Monticello, is near by. It is 
situated on the top of a high wooded hill with extensive views of 
the countryside in all directions. As one drives up over a new 
road in a comfortable motor, one can imagine how difficult it 
must have been to get up or down in a carriage or on horseback 
in the olden days. There are only the meagre remains of the 
gardens and terraces here. The house is set in the centre of a 
circular plateau on the mountain-top. The slave quarters were 
concealed and partially underground on either side of the house 
and dividing the circular lawn in two. The lawn on one side 
has trees planted in rows, on the other there are none now. 
In the house are ingenious devices invented by Jefferson for 
manipulating clocks and weathercocks. These show Jefferson’s 
enjoyment in working out mechanical devices. His writings 
tell how much he loved gardening and that even when busiest 
at the White House he was giving instructions for planting his 
home grounds. 
Not far from here through the mountains is the place of an¬ 
other Virginia President, Montpelier, the home of Madison. 
This is kept wonderfully groomed by its present owners, and 
somehow one wishes it were a little less spick and span. It 
brings to mind some of those fearfully tidy modern gardens, 
which look as if magicians had done the work. No withering 
flowers are allowed to remain to develop seeds; no watering-cans 
are left conveniently near for the last evening watering after 
transplanting; no tags or labels to special plants. 
The entrance gates are of wood, painted white and the posts 
are topped by vases. A Weeping Willow droops over them. 
The front lawn is circular, surrounded by shrubbery planting, 
and slopes up to the house, where there is a fine view of the 
rolling, hilly countryside. At right angles to the house is the 
reconstructed garden. It is enclosed in brick walls and is oblong 
with four terraces. Inside the oblong is a horseshoe. The 
Rose garden is on the first terrace and on another is some 
topiary work. Through the whole is a Box-bordered path of 
blue stones edged with tiles. In the border along the walls are 
Foxgloves, Delphinium, and Candidum Lilies. Roses climb on 
the walls and over the banks. 
F ROM Virginia to South Carolina is not far for an ardent 
garden pilgrim. Here the warmer climate changes the 
picture. In Virginia the principal accent in the planting is the 
Box; in South Carolina it is the great spreading Live Oaks hung 
with filmy veils of Spanish Moss. 
In the woods snowy Dogwood gleams through the darkness 
and Azaleas are like rosy cloudlets and star-like Cherokee Roses 
and yellow Jasmine climb over all the trees and shrubs, making 
a tangle. Along the streams and ponds the Atamasco Lilies 
raise their waxy fragrance from the muddy ground. On either 
side of the road and under the trees the Honeysuckle is so 
rampant it is a weed. There are Strawberry blossoms on the 
banks, and the Palmetto scrub gives a touch of lands still further 
south. With such luxuriance of natural flora great things are 
to be expected of the gardens. There was always much interest 
in gardening and botany here, and the Gardenia and the Poin- 
settia are both named after Charleston gentlemen, and the 
Noisette Rose was originated here in 1810. 
Mrs. Ravenel, in her book on Charleston, describes the gar¬ 
dens as they were about the year 1790, as follows: 
In the town behind the high walls, grew Oleanders and Pomegranates, 
Figs and Grapes and Orange-trees; both sweet and bitter bulbs brought from 
Holland, Jonquils and Hyacinths. The air was fragrant with the Sweet Olive 
and Myrtle and Gardenia. There were old-fashioned Roses, the Cinnamon, 
the York and Lancaster, the little white Musk and sweet Damascus. The glossy- 
leafed Cherokee clothed the walls with its great white disks, and was crowded 
by Jasmine and Honeysuckle. 
The country in and around Charleston is flat and the grounds 
are laid out on level stretches. All the places are sur¬ 
rounded by walls and these as well as the exquisite iron 
work are fine and worthy of study. The brick walls are some¬ 
times laid out with a design in relief and some are topped with 
iron grills. The plaster walls are tinted cream and reminiscent 
of Spain. They are not high enough to keep out the outside 
world but sufficient to ensure privacy. Most of them are 
covered with Roses and green, with the branches of Palms, 
Oleanders, and Magnolia, which lean over into the street. The 
houses all face south toward the gardens and the prevailing 
breezes. One enters through a door to the vine-clothed ver¬ 
anda and crosses this to the entrance of the house. 
In the gardens on a day in early April were blooming white 
and yellow Banksia and Cherokee Roses, Wisteria, Pansies, 
Bachelor’s-buttons, Calendulas, Stocks, Violets, Snowdrops 
in clumps almost as big as Daffodils, brought over ages ago from 
England. There were also Figs, Sweet Olive, Palms, Bananas, 
Magnolias, Camellias, and Pomegranates. There was a broad 
shiny-leafed shrub with (lowers and fragrance like Orange 
blossoms, called Pittosporum, much used as a hedge. There is 
no Box here, and curiously there were no Azaleas in Charleston, 
while on the near-by estates they are a feature and do so wonder¬ 
fully well. The Charleston gardens are really an outdoor con¬ 
tinuation of the house, a green enclosure with a few favorite 
plants placed informally—a place to take tea in or to sit and 
gossip over one’s sewing, or to take paper and pencil and write in. 
Some of the city gardens are quite pretentious, like the one be¬ 
hind the Pringle House, the Ashley Hall garden, and the Smith 
garden on the South Battery. Here one walks along the paths 
and shrubbery in a delightful tangle where vines and flowers 
were left just as great-grandmother or great, great-grandfather 
planted them. 
On the South Battery, facing the Bay is a little park with 
trees and green, and along the sea-wall is a Palm-bordered road 
with handsome houses on the land side. On a Saturday morn¬ 
ing colored women from the country walk along the streets, 
peddling flowers, which they carry in baskets balanced on their 
heads, forming a mass of color over their dark faces. 
What a pity that the hurry and competition of modern days, 
has first stripped our city streets of green and then darkened 
them. Thousands of years from now, the men of that day will 
marvel that any people could will to live in hideous stone cav¬ 
erns and canons. Then some archaeologist will find the re¬ 
mains of Charleston and say: “Why, here must have been some 
idealist’s plan of a city and those foolish people rejected it.” 
O UTSIDE of Charleston are three notable estates. To 
reach them one drives along level roads shaded by fine 
tall trees with Spanish Moss hanging from their branches. The 
famous Magnolia Gardens can also be approached from the 
Ashley River. 'These are supremely beautiful. The contrast 
of wandering along paths bordered with the most brilliantly 
colored Azaleas and then going to the cool, dark ponds where 
almost black trees with their gray draperies have fairy-like 
white Cherokee Roses and purple Wisteria twining through 
them, is like looking at a splash of color in a post-impressionist 
painting, and then at one of Whistler’s paintings in “Gray 
and Silver” or an arrangement in “ Black and White.” 
The next place a little farther along the Ashley River is the 
Middleton garden. With its broad terraces and extensive 
