Page 551 [551]
OCR
Historic: GARDENS OF ViISet nla sloping as it does to the north, the tone of the design must be cool and peaceful, tending more to grass and evergreens and massing of shrubbery, than to brilliance and bloom. It is probable that there was a flower garden here from the first occupancy of the house. But it is certain that, in 1830, Mr. Spence, a Scottish landscape gardener, was employed to embellish the existing grounds. ‘his he did in the garden proper by grading and terracing the land into three levels, though they are no longer level today. ‘The lowest of these, that farthest from the house and next the stone stables, is the kitchen garden. Upon the intermediate terrace is a pool and some fine old white pines which form a pleasant little grove of seven. The principal part of the flower garden lay then, as it does now, upon the highest of the three levels, and was entered through gates set in a picket fence that divided it from a little lawn next the house. In this part of the garden were most of the shrubs and all of the flowers, and here Mr. Spence set out a number of hemlocks, probably as ornamental bushes. They are now large trees, and two of them frame a small vista down the center of the garden to the pool. A number of other evergreens must have perished, though they can be remembered by persons still living and are described as having been of considerable size. Only the pines and hemlocks survive at the age of about ninety-three, which is youth itself compared to the oaks in the park. Some work of additional improvement was done upon the garden about 1855. But then came the war and destruction. Indeed, so far as the garden was concerned, the tragic years that followed were worse than the war itself. In the seventies, Mr. George H. Burwell, first, died; his family moved away, and the place was rented. No doubt, the garden was allowed to grow as it pleased and, being on fertile ground, it grew into a jungle. When the present owner came into possession of the property, in 1908, there were only single foot-paths through great tangled masses of shrubbery and scrub. But the trees were still there, parL338]
