HousecrGarden 
Vol.II OCTOBER, 1902 No. 10 
THE GARDENS AND GROUNDS 
OF MOUNT VERNON, VIRGINIA 
I N the fresh of the morning the old garden 
was a place of delights. The shadows were 
still long and held that limpid depth which 
is of the early day alone. The cool moist 
air was heavy with the scent of the flowers. 
The rose, queening it here in the full beauty 
of her own month of June, was dominant; 
but as the wind drew 
gently across the beds 
and borders, there 
came a breath of 
mignonette and a 
weaving of many 
delicate and delicious 
fragrances u pon a 
ground of pungent 
box. 
Bird-song filled 
the silence of the 
garden. Catbirds 
piped their tuneful 
varied airs, in the 
intervals of breakfast, 
and the wood thrush, 
hid in a leafy bosquet, 
dropped slow notes 
silver clear and sweet. 
The squirrels, too, 
find thicket here and 
were skurrying about in numbers, very tame. 
We came into the garden not by the wicket 
from the lawn but from the road behind the 
“quarters” and greenhouses. One sees the 
garden thus more in its relation to the lawn 
and to the house. In the front of the picture 
some quaint box-bordered beds hit just the 
right key in the impression. 
Beyond these, tall box hedges, clipped flat 
on sides and top, enclose large rectangles where 
flowers are set in geometrical figures. To right 
and left the garden spreads its length, and be¬ 
yond its farther wall rise masses of foliage from 
the trees about the lawn through whose boles 
and branches the white walls and red roofs of 
the “ mansion” and dependencies gleam. 
In the box borders 
at our feet are clumsy 
and involved patterns, 
of a formal sort and 
rather Dutch in sug¬ 
gestion. These and 
further traces of topi¬ 
ary art near by witness 
the hand apparently 
of some schooled 
gardener of the 
eighteenth century 
Old World who was 
employed at Mount 
Vernon toward the 
close of Washington’s 
life. 'There is a tradi¬ 
tion that his diploma, 
engrossed in Dutch, 
is extant among his 
descendants in Alex¬ 
andria. 
The main lines of the garden—defined by 
gravel walks and box hedges—still conform 
to the simple plan of the old map said to be 
from Washington’s hand, the original of 
which is in the Toner Collection of Wash- 
ingtoniana in the Library of Congress, in 
charge of Mr. Lawrence Washington. 'The 
only later map I have been able to find is 
one of the present estate of Mount Vernon, 
THE porter’s LODGE MT. VERNON 
459 
