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POPLAR GROVE wy aj] by water) which is now Mathews County. It was cl! here that Samuel Williams, of Northumberland County, received from George III a large grant of land which passed to his son, Thomas, who built the west wing of Poplar Grove in 1782. Ten years later it was sold to John Patterson, and he, it is said, having obtained the same architect who designed Mount Vernon, added greatly to the house. About this time, the feeling between the two parties—Whig and Tory—was very keen and Mr. Patterson, in honor of his political affiliations, called his home Poplar Grove and planted on its lawn numbers of beautiful Lombardy poplars, the symbol of the Whigs. With the lawn sloping down a few hundred feet to the water, a magnificent view is commanded of Mobjack Bay. Io the south, just fourteen miles away, is Yorktown, and it was from there that schooners, laden with corn to grind for George Washington’s army, sailed around York Spit and across the bay to the old mill at Poplar Grove. The old mill is still standing and is a continual inspiration to artists. To the west of the house, and extending almost to the water's edge, was the old garden and, across the north end, ran a serpentine brick wall. Through the influence of Thomas Jefferson, this type of wall had become the vogue in Virginia about that date. Separating the garden from the lawn, ran a low brick wall capped with old English crescent-shaped brick. A part of the serpentine wall and all of the little wall still stand. | Like so many of the old gardens, the flowers and vegetables were in the same enclosure. Along the central walk were three [161 |
