Oldal 223 [223]
BREMO
Sze REMO, on the Upper James River, the beautiful
9) century-old home, built by General John Hartwell
Cocke, stands as a rare type of Greek-Colonial
architecture, and commands a superb view of the
3 fertile valley of the James and the Buckingham hills
Sz] beyond.
This estate with its large stone barns and outbuildings, is one
of the most notable places in its section.
Though he lived nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, General
Cocke was as fanatical a prohibitionist as any of this later day.
Believing that water—and water only—was the beverage for men
to drink, he placed on the bank of the James River and Kanawha
Canal, which ran through his property, an enormous iron pitcher
or urn. Pipes from a nearby spring supplied the water which ran
from the huge pitcher at all times except freezing weather. This
curiosity, now known as the ‘““Teapot of Bremo,”’ stands on the lawn
at the old place where it is a constant source of interest to visitors.
. On the low-lying slope below the south lawn lies the old garden,
famous in ante-bellum days for the beauty of its flowering shrubs,
and its wealth of old-time flowers which pour out their fragrance
to all who wander there.
Its broad, winding walks are shaded by semi-tropical trees, and .
the sunlight flickers through the rosy glow of the feathery mimosa
or the dark green of the coffee tree. There one might linger under
arbors and gather luscious grapes or stroll along the old serpentine
brick wall and feast on figs worthy of the Orient. Or, they may
emerge from the shaded walks to view the panorama of brilliant
beds of roses encircled by the dark, rich green of the box-hedge
which forms a gigantic star in the midst of the garden. Farther on,
myriads of flowering bulbs once rejoiced on the sloping borders of a
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