Stranica 115 [115]
OCR
a a te Historic’ GARDENS) (OROVIRIGINTA —£ The Ampthill of today is very different from the Ampthill that Archibald Cary knew. Its spacious rooms have been used as a tavern, and it has been otherwise desecrated. The sweeping lawn, which once led to the river, has been cut into fields, and time and the hand of man have felled many of the aged trees which once guarded the place like a corps of faithful sentinels. How sad to think that it should have passed from the possession of the family who made it famous! But that seems to be the fate of most old homesteads. They are doomed to linger on in poverty and neglect long after their original owners are sleeping. In poverty, because they must starve in their old age for the sound of familiar and much-loved voices; and in neglect, because new owners seldom seek them with a feeling of pride in possession. [hey have nothing left but their memories and traditions—a few bright flowers grown among too many tears. EpITH DABNEY TUNIS SALE. [70]
