Stranica 453 [453]
MONTICELLO
=ILIE home of Thomas Jefferson is situated on a high
| (@ee¥]) hill four miles southeast of Charlottesville. It is
A skh] called Monticello (Little Mountain) and is ap¬
Lf) proached by a winding macadam road which clings
to the side of Carter’s Mountain, the adjoining
peak to Monticello and one of the Southwest range.
The steep drive offers many sources of interest to the lover of
nature. The trickling of the mountain streams was music to the
traveller in the old days, for soon one came upon a moss-covered
rocky basin, or spring, embowered in ferns, which was welcomed
as refreshment for man and beast. Native shrubs and trees frame
with artistic beauty the vistas of the valley below, where lies the
town of Charlottesville; the view extending a mile to the west em¬
braces the classic buildings of the University of Virginia, behind
which stretch in undulating lines the Blue Ridge Mountains, one
spur of which, the Ragged Mountains, was made famous in the >
writings of Edgar Allan Poe, one time student of this great seat
of learning.
At the crest of the mountain and at the point at which the county
road begins to fall to the other side into the eastern valley, there
is a gate at one’s left which is the outer entrance to Jefferson's
estate. A lodge has recently been built there by the present owner. .
The drive to the house through the woods is enchanting in early
spring, and the luxuriant growth of Scotch. broom, with its pendant
yellow blossoms, carpets the ground beneath, forming a veritable
cloth of gold.
On the right, one passes a sacred spot, the family graveyard.
Here lies interred the mortal remains of Thomas Jefferson, his
beloved wife, his children and grandchildren.
A monument is inscribed with the epitaph written by Jefterson
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