Oldal 412 [412]
ESÉSE stee ts] ——— —— e - : — amen GK»
DES) PLE DMON hit SEC LIron
— << — — ee SS —s = tt em
and Chinguapin roses gave an individual charm remembered even
today by those whose childhood was passed in the old house.
The devastation of the war period, with the succeeding years
of neglect, had done much to destroy the substance of the garden,
- but when the present owners took possession in 1870, there were
still traces of the old planting, and a few surviving perennials gave
the main details of the former garden. The vegetable squares
lay in terraces below the flower borders; fruit trees, fig bushes, and
some flowers, were planted about their edges. Shrubs, lilacs,
trumpet creepers, grapevines, honeysuckles, yuccas, and narcissi,
whose age is unknown to persons living, still live and flourish,
though they have been divided and moved to make place for the
changing of the flower borders and the development of the present
terraced vegetable garden.
The chief beauty and pride of the whole place are the dozen or
more trees surrounding the house—oaks, gums, and hickories—all
relics of the primeval forest. ‘The oaks are estimated at between
four and five hundred years in age, and some have a spread of one
hundred and fifty-nine feet; their limbs hang high about the long,
low one-storied house, with its quaint roof, nestled below the great
branches. So tall are the trees, that the fine lawn of old bluegrass
flourishes like a green carpet, and the whole setting presents a pic¬
ture, glowing in color, and restful in its quiet, simple charm. It has
been said that the designers of the house were better Presidents than
architects—it may be so—but surely their sense of fitness and beauty
was keenly developed when they chose the site for William Madt¬
son’s home, and placed the type of house it demanded within such
hitting environment.
VIOLET NILES WALKER.
[257]