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Historic GARDENS: OF: VIRGINIA
lish traditions which governed in the more civilized portions of the
State, he built a Georgian house and a walled-in terraced garden.
Ihe garden recalls the English formal garden, which derived some
of its inspiration from Italian models—yet its atmosphere is
typically Virginian.
George Carter started the building of the house in 1800, from
bricks made on the place by his slaves, and was, in large measure,
his own architect. He ordered the Corinthian columns from New
York, however, giving minute directions as to their size and cary¬
ing; and, old books on architecture, in the possession of his family,
and his letters, besides, show that he devoted much time to the
planning of the house and the right proportion of doors, windows,
cornices, etc. It would be interesting, if one could but look back¬
ward with clear enough vision, to see the house rising from its
foundations, black labour under white overseers, piling brick upon
brick, to the accompaniment, doubtless, of old plantation songs.
Then the arrival, after long, devious journeys, on boat and over
single track, corduroy, or deep mud roads, through the forest
wilderness, of those white columns from the North.
How self-suficing they were, the country land-owners and
planters of those days, turning to account all the resources at hand,
living on what the land could furnish, and converting it into bread,
meat, clothing, building and hard cash! The Virginians, however,
did more than this, they derived an aesthetic enjoyment from the
development of things beautiful about them, and so George Carter, |
when he had finished his house, turned to the building of his enchant¬
ing garden.
No papers remain to show where he got his ideas, nor how he
put them into execution. Sufhce it to say, that this garden was his
hobby, that he cut oak trees, on the hillside to the east of the house,
to build it; brought the soil from the meadow-lands near the creek,
to make easy the growing of the things he wished to plant, and
walled it in with home-made brick. No other gardens were being
built in Loudoun County at that time, perhaps very little interest
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