Stranica 79 [79]
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eagles with wings spread proudly as if for flight. It is a curious
thought to recall that these eagles, symbols of our country, were set
there long before our country was even a dream. From this great
gate a graceful iron fence slopes to each side, divided into sections
by square pillars, each capped with a different emblem of stone.
Here, in the wilderness, Byrd set a bit of England. It was in
the English blood to make and to love a garden. Even now, this
overgrown old garden, with its formal box-hedged squares and old¬
fashioned flowers, reminds one of the lanes and hedge-rows of
England. Ihe sweet-smelling box recalls the old fragrance of for¬
gotten memories—rosemary and rue—lace laid away in lavender—
the spicy scent of sandalwood.
Quaint sweet williams bloom in company with the pale forget¬
me-not; foxgloves, purple and white, grow beside iris, white and
purple; clove-pinks, the progenitors of all our regal carnations, vie
with peonies, shaded like the inside of a flushed shell; lilies of
serene and virginal white look chastely upon their gaudy, flaunting
cousins, tiger-striped and voluptuous; timid violets peep out from
beneath bold hollyhocks; and everywhere are roses, some of which,
the legend says, will bloom in no other ground.
Flowering shrubs are there—the modest bridal wreath spirea,
syringa, or mock-orange. Crepe-myrtle bushes grown almost into
trees and calycanthus with deep red-brown flowers verging upon
purple. In this rich, moist soil the vines have grown with almost
tropic luxuriance. Rambler roses and trumpet vines riot through
and over the old hedges, which, untrimmed in spots, have grown
into tree-like proportions, and wistaria has woven and twisted itself
into tangled thickets of verdure, which in season are masses of
purple bloom. | |
But the greatest charm of this rare old garden lies neither in
the sweet box-hedges, the beautiful beds of old-time flowers, the
graceful shrubbery, nor the clambering vines. Nor in the count¬
less birds that make the enclosure melodious with their song. It
is found in the thoughts, redolent with romance, that this
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