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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 constructed. In the latter, the walls were two feet thick and the drawing-room twenty-six feet square. Every room was finished in rich, hand-made wainscoting, but, unfortunately, this house was destroyed 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[151]
