Stranica 406 [406]
ee or.
THE PIEDMONT SECTION
visited ex-President Madison, one of his suite laid out the garden
to please the charming Madame Dolly. ‘[radition has it that this
gentleman was Major L’Enfant, but this is extremely doubtful.
The young Frenchman took as his plan the hall of the House of
Representatives in Washington, and this amphitheater design af¬
fords wonderful opportunities for terraces and steps. When
emerging from the shadow of the overhanging box-trees, the vivid
panorama of the garden is one never to be forgotten.
For many years a French gardener (at the then fabulous price
of $400 a year) tended the elaborate parterres and clipped the
hedges and made wonderful topiary designs in the box-bushes.
But, alas, the lavish hospitality, the dissipations of the graceless
stepson, and the too great generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Madison
caused considerable financial stress, and the French gardener had
to be dismissed and his place filled by one of his black assistants.
This was but the beginning of pecuniary embarrassments which
harassed the last years of Madison’s life.
When, in 1900, Mr. William duPont took over this historical
estate, the garden was surrounded by a rail snake fence. ‘The ter¬
races had been ploughed down and were planted in vegetables, and
only the wonderful box, extending down the center of the garden,
remained; the latter so straggly and overgrown that one could
hardly walk down the path. Mrs. duPont had the terraces graded
and turfed, the flower beds laid out and planted. She had the
paths made of gravel with tiled edging. Under her direction steps
were built and garden ornaments added, but it has taken years of
patience and toil to bring the garden back to its present state of
perfection. |
I like to pass swiftly over the years of neglect and think of the
garden in all its old-time glory—as it is now in June with roses
everywhere. Ramblers drooping over the walls, tree-roses standing
about in prim precision in gay beds of larkspur and lady slippers
and brilliant phlox and the white marguerite, without which no
French garden is complete.
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