Oldal 250 [250]
LAWSON HALL
6 EVEN miles from Norfolk on the road leading
towards Cape Henry is Lawson Hall. The planta¬
<4]| tion originally contained over one thousand acres
ten ké and was a Crown grant to Sir Thomas Lawson of
094/3954 England in 1607. It is said this same Sir [Thomas
m4] | awson was one of the company who sailed in the
ship of Sir George Summers, which was caught in a gale off the
Bermudas, and that it was from this stirring tale Shakespeare got
the material for his ‘“Tempest.”’
Formerly ships came from the sea through Little Creek and
landed their stores near the site of the present house. Of these
merchant ships the Lawsons are said to have had many, and
brought in them, so the story goes, some of the bricks and much of
the carved grey marble of which the original dwelling was con¬
structed. In the latter, the walls were two feet thick and the draw¬
ing-room twenty-six feet square. Every room was finished in rich,
hand-made wainscoting, but, unfortunately, this house was de¬
stroyed by fire several years ago. he residence we now see was
built a few years ago by the present owner, Mr. C. F. Hodgman,
who has built with appreciation and sympathy for the older home
_and has added greatly to the restoration of Lawson Hall.
However, it is the gardens which interest us most. It is not
known just when these were laid off, but those who are familiar with
the life of trees say it must have been over two hundred years ago.
Here there are great beeches and laurel oaks with a spread of over
ninety feet and many boxwood trees in formal rows; these are
among the largest in America. The box-trees and the rows of
cedars make it a scene as if summer were here the whole year round.
One feels in looking at the old place that one of these Lawsons
brought with him the memory of some much loved garden in Eng¬
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