Stranica 208 [208]
OCR
8 THE UPpPER JAMES and careful measurements made so as to enable them to locate the spot. Months afterwards when the war was over, several men dug nearly all day without results and, just as the search was about to be abandoned, Mrs. Rutherfoord suggested making new measurements, allowing for growth of the cedars, and the box was discovered well under the edge of the hedge. Near where the giant elm cast its shadows over turf like that of Old England, there was an arbor, and many a love scene was enacted there during the seventy years of the Rutherfoord occupation. Behind the hedge, under a great hackberry tree where the turf was like velvet, the girls would spend hours sewing and reading and the colored children be sent to remind them of meal times. With the passing of slavery, the heavy pecuniary losses entailed by the War Between the States and the death of Mr. Rutherfoord and of Edward, the “‘perfect gardener,” portions of the garden became gradually much overgrown, while the lawn became more beautiful as the trees attained full growth. In 1908, Mrs. Rutherfoord, for more than fifty years the mistress of Rock Castle, passed away amid the scenes she had loved so well and under the old roof tree which her kindness and hospitality had made famous. In 1910, her daughter, Mrs. George Ben Johnston, took over the estate and she and her husband, a distinguished surgeon of Richmond, made many improvements on the farm and to the dwelling. They employed a firm of Boston architects and landscapegardeners, Andrews, Jaques and Rantoul, to lay out over again the garden, as much as possible on the same lines as formerly and, with a skilled Scotch gardener to carry on the work, Rock Castle garden took on new beauties and was a joy to its owners. Dynamite was used in many of the squares and the result, as shown in the extraordinary size and yield of the vegetables and fruits, was a proof of the efficacy of this treatment of our soil. Gourds grown On a vine were so large as to be regarded as curiosities and preserved as such. During this period our country was again plunged [127]
