Stranica 213 [213]
OCR
AGNES His TORTLCG | (A RRR OT RECN PA hydrangea otaksa huddling against the steps which lead to the serpentine brick walk. Many and pleasing pictures have come down to us in the traditions of this old place. As court days, races, social or business appointments took the people along the saftron-colored road up and down the country, they found few inns. Instead of a tavern in this locality, hospitality was always sought, and found, beneath the spreading roof and ever-open doors at Elk Hill. The spirit of welcome has always stood at the gate here to lay hands upon the passing stranger and draw him into the green-shuttered house. This has been noteworthy even in a State renowned for good cheer and social graces. Neighbors, friends and strangers have always found a royal welcome in this fine old Virginia home. The interior of the house, with its paneled door casements and wainscoat moulding carved in a design of classic detail; the pure Grecian carving in the drawing-room showing the egg and dart motif, and the remarkably high-pitched ceilings, place the building among the best of its type in the country. A large livingroom occupies the width and depth of the house on the south end at the rear of the entrance hall. Here the most interesting object is the mantel of Pavanazzo marble. Most of the doors are opened by silver knobs; slat inner doors, that interesting detail of the best Southern houses of the early period, lend coolness in the summer and ventilation all the year. The first-floor halls and rooms are lighted by beautiful chandeliers of bronze which once hung in a famous old house in Richmond. | The lawn is studded with many elm trees. These, in May, look as if some fairy had touched their brown branches with a shimmer of green and gold. Other trees are here, too—birch, poplar and ash, chestnut, pecan and mahogany. Beneath the shade of one of the poplars—which boasts a circumference of twenty-one feet—General LaFayette is said to have made his camp. ‘Scattered in clumps about the broad lawn, between skyward[130]
