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GAZ SE la . 9)
HisTORTPE (GARDEN OR VER GINGA
———_ ———== = sm mm eS ES ESS ————————EeT ———————E—E—EEEEE S ee ee
lilac bushes on either side of the terraces; the most beloved flower
of spring. In many colonial dooryards, it was the only shrub,
known both to lettered and unlettered folk as Laylock and spelt
Laylock.
In the original Oak Hill gardens were, no doubt, scores of old¬
time favorites—flower-de-luce, peonies, dattodils, merry phlox, and
as a background, the green of massive oaks, which revealed Presi¬
dent Monroe’s love of trees.
Although the Oak Hill garden does not now bear comparison
for elaborateness with other gardens in historic Loudoun and Fau¬
quier, it has been the care of various fower-loving women from
time to time. With its changes in ownership the garden has never
lost its distinction.
During many years of her occupancy of Oak Hill, it was the
pleasure of Mrs. Henry Fairfax to see that the garden preserved
its beauty, and she welcomed into it with gracious hospitality many
discriminating guests.
Describing the garden Mrs. Fairfax says, “The Oak Hill
garden is very simple but sweet and satisfactory with a profusion
of bloom from early flowering bulbs and shrubs to the cosmos and
chrysanthemum of late autumn. It slopes to the south and the west
and comprises about one acre enclosed on three sides by a privet
hedge. The fourth or north side is bound by a wire fence almost
covered and concealed by rose vines. This gives the appearance of
a continuation of the garden as a part of the lawn. ©
‘The entrance gate is in the center of the garden and has a
rose-covered arch above it with box bushes on each side. At this
gate one looks through three rose-covered arches—one on each
terrace—down a turfed path to a white marble sundial beyond
which range the lovely Bull Run hills or mountains. Within the
gate, one finds on either side a border of roses along the fence.
A three-foot path runs with the first terrace east and west for one
hundred feet. Below this are two more terraces about thirty feet
wide which extends east and west. That on the east is flanked by a
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