Oldal 547 [547]
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HIsTORIC GARDENS OF VIRGINIA
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This house that Colonel Burwell built extends, east and west, for
a hundred and ninety feet—an arrangement that allows the winter
sun to pour in and the summer breeze to sweep through from
south to north. To the east and to the west of the main build¬
ing are the offices; that on the west, besides having extra bed¬
rooms, was also used "befo" de war" as a school-house. Here the
tutor to the children of the Burwell family instructed, in addition,
the young people from the neighboring estates, all of whom were
cousins of one degree or another. One of the boys was William
Meade, afterwards Bishop of Virginia. The building to the east of
the main house afforded rooms for those servants who did not live,
as the others did, at the quarters; it also contained the laundry
with its flagged floor and ten-foot fireplace, its brick ovens and
its crane.
Though these offices are two stories in height, the east wing of
the main building has only one story, over which is a very low
gable. It was in this pitch-black little space above the ceiling that
the family silver was successfully hidden throughout the War Be¬
tween the States—successfully hidden in spite of the fact that the
place was not only near that center of fighting, the town of Win¬
chester, but also directly on the highway between Winchester and
Manassas. Time and again, it was used as the headquarters of
one army or the other, General Merritt, during his stay, having
slept on a sofa now standing in the hall.
Another occupancy by Union troops was more uncomfortable.
This was the visit paid the house by “Blenker’s Dutch.” It 1s be-.
lieved that they were not Dutch, but Germans. At any rate, they
could speak no English and maintained, truly or not, that they
could understand none. Unfortunately, soon after their arrival
they broke into the wine cellar, got very drunk and made things
unpleasant, if not actually dangerous, for members of the family,
who then included Mr. George H. Burwell, first, well advanced in
years and almost entirely blind, his little son, and various ladies.
The harm went no further, as it happened, than frightening the
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