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HISTORPC (GARD EMS OP TYRRGTINIA
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through the stair hall one finds a graceful spiral stairway which
ascends upon the right to the upper floor.
The house possesses at least one unique—and strictly Southern—
feature. Upon the second floor, each room has large slat doors
used both for ventilation and as screens. It is significant of both
the material and design of this dwelling that it has never been
remodeled. Modern luxuries have been permitted to keep pace
with the times, and certain innovations have been allowed. Up to
the present, however, none of its owners has been willing to sacrifice
one line of the original structure for a more modern idea.
In olden days, the inconspicuous service door at one end of the
hall gave access to the out-door kitchen. It must not be forgotten
that in colonial as well as ante-bellum times, the great families
lived in the manner of their English ancestors. Their houses were
not planned to permit the quick passage of food from kitchen to
dining-room. Today, a modern kitchen stands as an addition at
Horseshoe, though the old one still remains as an interesting and
historic landmark.
A quaint little side entrance opens out of the stair hall on one
side of the house, and it is through this that the visitor is led to
make a tour of the garden which lies in the rear. Here, after
leaving many roses, one sees long, prim borders stretching, perhaps
a hundred feet, to reach a stone bench nestling among white and
purple lilacs. Again, we are reminded of William Byrd, for we
wonder if the present bench stands in the self-same spot as that
where, this Genial Seigneur tells us, “‘Miss Thecky,’’ Lady Spots¬
wood’s sister, “sat and bewail’d her virginity.”’
This garden, a survival, is said to have had its beginning in
1815, and is intersected by wide turfed walks between borders of
flowers and shrubbery. Any search for box gardens would not be
complete without a visit to Horseshoe, where the garden plan fol¬
lows the line of the estate and both explain the place name. A
grassy pleasaunce, studded at intervals by six-foot trees of semper¬
virens boxwood, forms its controlling note. While not so tall as
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