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high, oaks and other trees remain. Ihe grounds consisted of twenty
acres, surrounded by a stone wall, with a lilac hedge on the inside.
The garden of ten acres required a trained gardener, and some¬
times forty men were brought in to keep it in order.
Mrs. James Coles Bruce, grandmother of the owner, was a
great lover of flowers, and she collected foreign as well as native
flowers and shrubs for her garden.
Gravel walks sixteen feet wide led through the garden and
separated from each other grass plots sixty feet square. [hese
were bordered with flowers to a width of six feet. A large, round
bed marked the center of the garden and roses bloomed all through
it—the moss and the cluster, Giant of Battles, Shamrock, micro¬
phylla, the Harrison and the Blush.
Leading to the grounds was an Ailanthus avenue one-half mile
long. his Ailanthus, or Tree of Heaven as it was then called, was
an imported tree, not indigenous to the United States, and was con¬
sidered very rare.
The pictures give a better idea of the house than I can, and
show the beauty of proportion, lines, and extreme simplicity. One
wonders at the result from a home architect. I think my grand¬
parents had a great deal to do with the building and no doubt
received help from an intimate friend of theirs, John E. Johnson,
who was noted for his good taste.
The names of many faithful servants were associated with
Berry Hill. “Uncle” Aleck, the butler, was noted for his honesty
and strength, and never told an untruth. During the War Between
the States, he asked not to be told where the silver was buried,
as he could not be unfaithful to his master, nor could he lie. And
when one of the enemy stole his master’s watch, this faithful servant
took it from him. There were three generations of butlers and
three of cooks at this house. The cook during my father’s life was
very black and claimed his ancestor was a king.
My grandfather, though a Union man at the beginning, had
four sons in the Confederate service, losing two of them, so he felt
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