Stranica 451 [451]
x<o—— | OTL
Historic GARDENS OF > VIRGINIA
ed
before the War Between the States, the glory of this one lies even
more in the present than in the past. Its future was assured when
J. Tatnall Lea, a Northern soldier, captured and carried through
this Piedmont country as a prisoner, was so impressed by its beauty,
that he eventually returned to make his summer home among its
hills. Here, some years later, he brought the mistress of Bloom¬
held, who quickly overcame any sectional hostility by outdoing the
Virginians at their own game of impetuous and lavish hospitality,
thus proving herself utterly lacking in the ability ‘‘to calculate,”’
considered at that time to be the characteristic of all ‘‘Northerners.”’
Here, also, came the youngest daughter, the real garden-builder
or restorer, to plant her first flower beds as a little child. Later,
as a young girl, she left Philadelphia every spring, coming down
for a week in April, armed with varieties of plants and seeds.
She then proceeded to plant (with the aid of the gardener and,
often, the coachman, the carpenter and any others she could com¬
mandeer in the absence of a pretendedly irate, but over-indulgent,
father) the flowers which were to make the garden so wonderful
later in the season and indeed for all time. So it seems natural
that, after it had been the stage-setting for many romances, this
beautiful girl later on elected to be married in the garden instead
of a church. Remembering that the "God of the Open Air" sets
his altars everywhere, surely no more fitting place could have been
found for the ceremony, which transplanted the garden-builder
permanently to Virginia soil. She is now the owner of Bloomfield,
Mrs. Nancy Lea Marshall.
Although, to many people, the Bloomfield garden may look its
loveliest in the spring, when the fruit trees and lilacs are in bloom,
the first week in September is the favored time for me, and no
happiness compares to spending a morning there then. I go out
early, when the dew is sparkling over everything and the spiders’
webs are made of diamond necklaces, and take a seat in a chair
facing the mountains, underneath the oldest mimosa tree.
The flower-beds are brilliant, though their abundance does not
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