Stranica 28 [28]
GARDENS OF WILLIAMSBURG
o*
Ph
ath VEN the most skeptical person must admit that the
oY BT narrow strip of land lying between the James and
®| the York rivers is America’s richest historical
AY
i] possession. Here are the tombs of those who
risked their lives to build a nation. Here are old
churches and courthouses standing as they stood
in days long past and gone. This is the spot where Bacon planned
his disastrous rebellion, and here is the college where Jetterson
and Marshall first gained fame. Here, too, is the site of the
famous Raleigh Tavern, where Jefferson danced with ‘Fair
Belinda,” and the Apollo, where many jovial feasts were held
among the great men of the Colony.
The situation of Williamsburg, upon a ridge midway between
the two rivers, was wisely chosen, and gave rise to the first
name, "Middle Plantation." The town was impaled by Sir John
Hervey, Governor of Virginia in 1632, and in 1699 succeeded
Jamestown as the capital of Virginia.
Architecturally, the little city is white and rambling and
dormer-windowed, and wandering dreamily through these aisles
of history one revels in the romantic houses, the oldest all being
built along the same lines, in accordance with a law which con¬
sidered the number of stories in its taxation.
Williamsburg the quaint—so the old town has been called for
years—is truly a place of many memories. On some of its streets
there still stand aged trees that shaded Washington and Corn¬
wallis, and about some of the houses the latter-day gardens are
reminiscent of the time of the English Georges. One is prone to
dream at the whispered name of Williamsburg, for it belongs to
the picturesque Virginia of yesterday—the Virginia of feudal life
and gallant living, of adventurous men and Watteau-like women;
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