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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 L136 |
