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WILLIAMSVILLE
M-T) OT far from Studley, in Hanover County, the birth¬
A) SWAY JI place of Patrick Henry, there stands, just fourteen
7) miles from Richmond, an old homestead named
Williamsville. It is worthy to take its place in the
Virginia collection of noted homes because of its
beauty of location, its family associations, and its
historic setting.
. A recent visitor to this place stood on its lawn, now luxuriant
with the shrubbery planted by hands of long ago, and looked across
the hills to counties far away, so high is the elevation above the
surrounding country. [he view reminded her of that from the
lawn of Monticello, the home of Jefferson. Then down in the glen,
just outside the yard gate, may be seen traces of landscape-garden¬
ing rarely equaled by any garden in old plantation days. To the
rear of the house is a rustic view. Here, the boxwood has grown
into trees and forms an archway which, with the spontaneous shrub¬
bery around, makes a picture of rare beauty.
One day, nearly sixty years ago, during the sad days of the
War Between the States, two men stood on the back porch of
Williamsville overlooking this very spot. One of them was General
Winfield Scott Hancock, of the Federal Army; the other was Dr.
George William Pollard, the master of the house and plantation,
which had been so cruelly devastated by the exigencies of the war.
Here had been the camping ground of the enemy, and here and
roundabout had been the battle ground of many a hard-fought
struggle to keep the enemy from the Capital of the Confederacy.
“General, will you not give orders that the most sacred spot of
our home be spared? I have pleaded with your subordinates that
they do not build their breastworks over our family burying-ground.
They have destroyed our garden, the pride of our home and the
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