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BARBOURSVILLE TIIARBOURSVILLE, in Orange County, once held szc9 bal the honor ot being the loveliest home in the foot24 hills of Virginia. It was built by Governor James a Emez KS Barbour, about 1815, and was much like Frascati, a7 P| the home of his brother, Philip Pendleton Barbour. zza] Both of these houses were designed by Thomas Jefferson, who was generous with his talents in building houses while building a great republic, and left a conspicuous monument to himself in the home of his friend, James Barbour. ‘There were the characteristic red-brick and white Doric columns, but never have they been assembled with more beauty nor in more dignified proportion. To the mistress of Barboursville we give all the credit for the garden, although its surrounding serpentine wall, like that at the University of Virginia, suggests again the helping hand of Mr. Jetterson. There must have been hundreds—perhaps thousands— of box plants set out at that time, for today you may see a veritable forest of box trees both inside and outside the garden. Double avenues of box lead off to where the stables used to be, and the front lawn is entirely surrounded, except for an open vista just in front of the house through which the eye is lured to the long, green field and the meadow beyond. Here was the location of the “Riding Greens’’; and one can, in imagination, complete the picture with red-coated riders on prancing horses following the hounds into the distance. The original garden covered nearly three acres, and was entirely surrounded by the serpentine wall of red brick. Old records show that these bricks were brought in ox-carts from Fredericksburg. Truly we have not inherited the patience of our ancestors, for we try to build a garden in a day. [258]
