Stranica 164 [164]
OCR
WILLIAMSVILLE M-T) OT far from Studley, in Hanover County, the birthA) 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-gardening 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 shrubbery 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 [99]
