Stranica 464 [464]
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Time Pin DMGN Pi SECTION Ny. dl ees eS SS tt aszt — a ee SS home. The wings were added after 1890 by Mr. C. D. Langhorne, as was also the beautiful rock enclosure and handsome gateway. Hospitality at Mirador was part of its atmosphere. The Virginia woman from her earliest training knew that she was expected to be a good neighbor and a gracious hostess, however hard and inconvenient it might often be, and from old letters and diaries it would appear that Mirador was continually having what today we would call a house party. The University of Virginia is only seventeen miles away—yjust the distance to cover on horseback, reaching Mirador in time for tea or to spend the night, or it might be several nights when there was “special company.” At that time, when some of the belles and beaux of that day were guests in this charming home, there would be dancing each evening, and the negro fiddlers would call the figures as the young people would turn their partners and swing corners in the picturesque dances and the popular Sir Roger de Coverly. } Prominent among the guests in the early days at Mirador was Colonel Crozet, the distinguished French engineer: in charge of the extension of the Virginia Central Railroad, which at that time only ran to the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, but which, under Colonel Crozet, after eight years of hard work, crossed the mountains and opened up the great Valley of Virginia, and the greater West, to modern transportation. During these years (1850-58) the distinguished engineer spent much time at Mirador. With all its air of stability and gracious dignity the real charm of Mirador lay in its grounds. ‘The lawn, or yard, to use the less pretentious term of that day, was terraced, making a falling garden." Stone steps led from terrace to terrace, and brick walks, flanked by low-growing box, made a background for the lovely monthly roses—the roses of Provence—that filled these and the two long borders that ran from the hospitable front door to the lower terrace. Under the windows there were lilacs, crepe myrtles, and jasmines, where the robins found their first resting places in [285 ]
