Stranica 550 [550]
OCR
‘eRe VADRLE LS OR VIRGINIA ladies by much yelling, the smashing of glass and china upon the floor, and the parading through the house with certain articles of feminine apparel waving at the end of rifle and sabre. The timely arrival of a Union officer of American birth stopped all this, and a guard was stationed by him about the house to protect the family. One other occupancy of the house by Union troops must be mentioned, because it has to do with the garden. There stands under one of the southern windows of what was then ‘‘the chamber’ a very large bush, and near it grows a trumpet vine. When the soldiers arrived this time, Mrs. Burwell, from the window above, dropped into this bush a sword that had belonged to her elder son, Nat, who had been killed at the Second Battle of Manassas. Her other son, then a boy, owned some bantam hens and, as all the large poultry had been killed or carried off, the soldiers turned their attention to the bantams. Some of these little fowls ran under the bush to escape capture and the soldiers after them. Sad to say, when the pursuers emerged they had not only the bantams, but the sword, which, of course, they carried away. This bush is one of a great many old shrubs, principally lilac and mock-orange, that are still hale and hearty. Scattered about under them and through the grass of the garden are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of daffodils, as well as a few poet’s narcissus and grape hyacinths. The ancestors of these bulbs were planted long ago—no one knows just when—and, together with the shrubs and some interesting old trees, constitute what is left of the old planting, though, of course, the terracing and general outline of the garden is still the same. And it is upon this foundation that the garden is being rebuilt, little by little, the location controlling the character; for it lies north of the house and between it and a line of old stone stables. These, in the days before the railroads came, housed the particular wagons and horses used for hauling farm products to Alexandria, sixty-five miles away, and bringing back necessary supplies for the house. Parts of the garden are much shaded by houses and trees and, [337]
