Stranica 351 [351]
OCR
e — ye HISTORIC: GARDE MS (OF iY LR GINTA garden, an excellent example of Colonial gardens at their best. Fortunate in never having passed out of the family, this garden is beautifully cared for and still in perfect preservation. Practically unchanged since it was laid off about 1730 by English gardeners, presumably brought to this country for that purpose, it bears witness to the skill and good taste of former days. The garden has a series of six terraces. Upon the upper a broad, level walk leads from the porch to its outer edge; on each side of this and running the length of the terrace, are grass plots, their green unbroken except in the center where clumps of crepe myrtle give a touch of color by their wealth of pink blossoms. At the edge of this terrace are wide borders beside which run gravel walks several feet in width. These borders are filled with a variety of rose bushes and yellow jasmine. At the far end clumps of hollyhock, weigela and stately white yuccas are massed. In addition to these, pink and blue columbine, Oriental poppies, peonies of different hues, golden coriopsis, delphiniums, sweet william, bleeding hearts, chrysanthemums and other flowers give a continuous succession of bloom and a riot of color. To the right this terrace slopes to a portion of the lawn where the sides of a little ravine are covered with thousands of narcissi, and to the left it slopes to a lower level on which are the oldfashioned toolhouse, dairy, and smokehouse almost completely enveloped in ivy, wistaria and climbing roses. One walks from the first terrace down a grassy ramp to the second. Here is the real flower garden, bounded on the left by an unbroken box-hedge, about eight feet tall, which extends the breadth | of the terrace. In the far corners are clumps of lilac, althea, mockorange, and smoke tree. Here, too, Japanese quince or cydonia japonica, calycanthus, Persian lilacs, snowballs, hardy white hydrangeas, hollyhocks, bridal wreath, and syringa growing on irregularly shaped turf beds form a background for the smaller flowers. Still more to the right is a magnificent English broadnut [218 ]
