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6 SE ESEK MGX EK VŐ EL OLNI ington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and even LaFayette, who was a visitor at Castle Hill when he was last in America. From her grandfather, Dr. Thomas Walker, Judith Walker inherited Castle Hill. She later became the wife of William Cabell Rives, United States Senator, and twice Minister to France. Additions were made to the old house during her life, and the present lawn was laid out under her direction. It is interesting to note that the father of Judith Walker, the eldest son of Dr. Thomas Walker, was not only a Colonel and Aide-de-Camp on the Staff of General Washington, but he was a United States Senator as well; so not only was she the daughter of a Senator of the United States, but her husband held also the same high ofhce. Dr. Thomas Walker, who married Mildred Thornton, a cousin of General Washington, completed at Castle Hill, in 1765, the house which stands today in excellent preservation. It is one of the few homes still standing on the soil of Virginia that is older than the beginning of the War of Independence. This house is still the home of the descendants of its first owner, who do honor to their lineage. For five generations, it has been a seat of hospitality and culture. In the great square hall, the youthful, music-loving Jefferson once played the violin, while the still younger Madison danced. Here the doors have opened to welcome five men who were Presidents of the United States. The wonderful box-hedges, the tallest of them all now almost hifty feet in height with its broad arches, through which one catches glimpses of the garden and the mountains standing guard beyond, tell the story of the eventful years that have passed since the building of Castle Hill and the planting of its garden. (GERTRUDE RIVES POTTs. [267]
