Oldal 55 [55]
OCR
s. ot 2 HiIsToRiIcC GARDENS OF VIRGINIA A e. = — ried Judith, the daughter of William Shakespeare. He left his share of the property to his great-nephew, Robert Richardson, who sold it, in 1720, to Nathaniel Harrison (1677-1727), of Wakeheld, Surry County. Brandon was next inherited by Nathaniel Harrison II, and the present house, or its original part, was built by him in 1735, and subsequently grew, with its various generations and needs, until it spread its wings almost across the lawn. Some of the most distinguished Virginians were born within its walls, and many more have been sheltered under its hospitable roof. A wide space of open green is left just in front of the door, and from the steps of the porch there stretches a double line of box across the front of the house on both sides. The double line continues down each side of the front grounds for about four hundred feet, where it joins enormous bowers and hedges of lilac which lead out from the main grounds to more secluded arbors and garden houses. I[hese ancient box-hedges have grown far past all expectations of the original planter, and have assumed queer shapes, gnarled and twisted, each more beautiful than the other, and they have furnished days of endless pleasure for the many little children who have played “house”’ on the velvety brown carpet under their soft green boughs. The grass walk, about fifteen feet in width, leads down to the river, the vista of which is one of the most beautiful on the James. It is wild and wide, and takes one back to the days when the Indians fled in their canoes from the white settlers. Though Jamestown was a thriving settlement, with a House of Burgesses in session in 1619, the Indians still held for themselves the kingdom of James River. We feel this historic fact at Brandon today. On either side of the garden walk from the open green to the river, a distance of some two hundred yards, there is a continuation of fine old specimens of spiraea, syringa, weigela, calycanthus, crepe myrtle, forsythia, japonica, lilac, corchrous, or rock rose, and snow136]
