August, 1915 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
27 
the available supply seems to be still far from exhausted. Full- 
grown bushes of ancestral boxwood and occasional hedges 
flourish on many of the old places along the Connecticut and 
Rhode Island shores and all through Long Island, where box 
grows more luxuriantly than anywhere else north' of Philadel¬ 
phia. Away from the seacoast north of Philadelphia box is not 
quite hardy, although it is grown with partial success in all the 
Northern states and in upper Canada as far north as 52 0 lati¬ 
tude. There is an abundance of luxuriant boxwood in most of 
the Southern states, where the mild climate just suits it. 
Native to Persia and the region around the Black and Caspian 
seas, boxwood is in general cultivation now in many parts of the 
world, both in temperate and in tropical climates. Our ancestors 
brought their first boxwood bushes from Europe — largely from 
England, but some probably from France or Holland. 
What an interesting thing it would be to identify the oldest 
boxwood bush in the United States! Would it be found in 
New England, on Long Island, or in Virginia? No doubt there 
are boxwood bushes in New England over 200 years old, but 
the writer has not happened to locate or hear of any which he 
has reason to believe dates back of 1755. In New London, Conn., 
there is a group of six or seven fine old boxwood bushes at 
least 160 years old. They stand at either side of the entrance 
to the historic Shaw-Perkins mansion, a stately dwelling of gray 
granite built in 1755, and there is every reason to believe that 
the bushes are fully as old as 
the house. It would be hard 
to find a finer group of antique 
boxwood or to imagine them 
growing in any other environ¬ 
ment where they would fit 
into the picture so perfectly. 
Nor is it probable that they 
will ever be transplanted, for 
the mansion is now owned by 
the local historical society. 
The size of these box bushes 
is unusually large — the tallest 
over ten feet in 
with a magnificent 
spread. 
In Providence, R. I., an 
location for 
a comparatively 
few years. It is 
a wonderful spe¬ 
cimen, fifteen feet 
high and more 
than thirty feet 
around. 
One of the tall¬ 
est bushes which 
the writer has 
seen in New Eng¬ 
land is located in 
front of an old 
Connecticut farm¬ 
house, about half 
way between 
Guil ford and 
Branford, on the 
main turnpike 
from New Ha¬ 
ven to New Lon¬ 
don. The house 
is probably be¬ 
tween 150 and 
In the fore-court of Colonial houses box was invariably 
used, a planting followed in recent reproductions 
200 years old, and, judging 
from appearances, the box¬ 
wood bush must have grown 
there ever since the house was 
built. It hugs the foundation 
and wall of the house very 
closely, reaching up to the sill 
of the second-story window. 
The stem is eight or ten 
inches in diameter near the 
ground. 
being well 
height 
The vigorous verdure of box represents tradition and 
age; it is fraught with memories of days that are gone 
In the old Connecticut 
River town of Essex there is 
a place which could supply an 
abundance of antique box¬ 
wood suitable for transplant¬ 
ing purposes. The house is 
literally surrounded by a 
dense growth. Along one 
side is a great, massy hedge four or five feet in height and on 
the other side of the house are several great, round, shrubby 
bushes, which would fill a striking place in a normal garden. 
Hedges of antique boxwood are comparatively rare and the 
opportunity to buy up a whole hedge seldom occurs. The writer 
knows, however, where there is such a hedge on the Connecticut 
shore along the road over which one passes in going from New 
London to Waterford. Why it has not been bought up long 
ago one cannot help but wonder, for it has the appearance of 
being lost in its present location. It is four or five feet high, 
thick and perfectly formed, and runs along the road for a hun¬ 
dred feet or so, screening a plot of ordinary farm land. It would 
grace any garden, but .apparently antique boxwood is not so 
much sought after in this locality, for there are a number of 
fine estates in the neighborhood whose owners would not hesitate 
to pay almost any price if they really wanted it. 
Antique boxwood is probably more sought after and appre¬ 
ciated on Long Island than anywhere else in the neighborhood 
of New York. It has been used extensively and with exquisite 
results in producing immediate effects in many of the newly- 
made gardens on the country estates of wealthy New Yorkers. 
The old and new combine well as was done here in Mr. Breese’s 
garden where the old box hedges in a modern fountain 
ancient boxwood 
bush adorns the 
garden of the old 
John Brown 
place. It is known 
to be at least 150 
years old and 
there is no telling 
how much older 
it may be. In 1766 
this same bush 
was growing in 
the then famous 
gardens of the 
George Rome 
mansion at Bos¬ 
ton Neck, Nar- 
ragansett, R. 1 . 
The bush has 
only been grow¬ 
ing in its present 
