Stranica 186 [186]
OCR
TUCKAHOE A, Xe@4| brings one to a cedar-lined lane which leads into MeN, Ska the plantation of Tuckahoe. ei Zs For one mile this double line of cedars stretches, and, though serious gaps have been made in the broad avenue by time and weather, the continuity of the evergreen trees, through successive plantations, is now unbroken. ‘The oldest of these trees in their lusty age extend arms farther afield than in their youth, their naked trunks standing stiff and upright, so like the pipes of some cathedral organ that one would not start at the sound of deep, reverential tones coming along the lane. It 1s most impressive. Down the lofty nave of this forest cathedral gleams, at the end, under the open sky, the old, white gateway which bars the lane from the lawn. And straight ahead in the distance, upon a little rise of ground, the old house stands like some fading seventeenth-century picture shut away in its immediate world. Approaching it through the old gateway, one will never forget the picture, especially if the season be spring. NHoary-headed elm trees and clouds of golden daffodils literally surround it. Goldfinches and mocking-birds twitter a welcome, and, girdling all, James River in the distance. ‘he daftodils bend and sway, seeming to beckon one nearer, and the hospitable face of the old house wears the same warm welcome it wore in colonial days. Tuckahoe, which is today one of the best examples of the colonial plantation left in America, was founded in 1674 by William Randolph, of Turkey Island, for his second son, Thomas. The acreage contained originally in the estate has been placed as [113]
