Stranica 78 [78]
WESTOVER
sa|LKE an exquisite emerald clasp upon the golden,
chain-like river, lies the green lawn of Westover.
Upward from the winding James the -sward,
studded with great, gnarled tulip-poplars, sweeps
smoothly to the stately and magnificent old home¬
stead of the Byrds. Nearly two hundred years
ago some of these trees are said to have been planted, and now
they stand like giant guards upon the ancient lawn. On each side
brick walls descend to the edge of the river bank.
Westover goes back almost to the beginning of the English in
America. In the year 1688, William Byrd, the first of his name in
Virginia, who had come with his young wife, Mary, to the Colony
in 1674, and settled at the falls of the James, purchased the
plantation from Theodorick Bland. About 1735 his son, the second
William Byrd, built the beautiful home, which still stands, sur¬
rounded by the lovely emerald lawn, the flag-pathed courtyard, and
the gracious old garden in which his dust reposes.
The house, of red brick mellowed to a warm old-rose, without
porch or ornament, is considered one of the most perfect examples
of Georgian architecture in America. It has a high, steep roof, set
with dormer windows and flanked by lofty chimneys. Before the
door gray-stone steps rise in a pyramid to a beautiful doorway,
which many a builder has copied.
The main entrance to the grounds is upon the side opposite the
river and is through wonderful gates of wrought-iron, which often
have been described. Nowhere in America, unless it is in ancient
and historic Charleston, which has so many lovely gateways, is there
a finer example of the iron-master’s art—a double grill, ten feet
high, surmounted by the monogram of William Evelyn Byrd, and
swung between two massive, square brick pillars which bear leaden
[47]