Stranica 557 [557]
OCR
SARATOGA = aA N 1772, General Daniel Morgan purchased land in 2) PSH] what is now Clarke County, Virginia, and five years pe z ; . e [szil later built the house upon this estate, naming it Baye Saratoga in honor of the second battle of Saratoga, October 19, 1777, in which he had so honorably served. At the second battle of Saratoga a large number of Hessian prisoners had been captured by the Continental Army, and these prisoners had been sent to Winchester, not many miles distant. Among them were many skilled workmen, especially stone masons, so he employed a large number of them to build for him a house of stone, which stands today in excellent preservation. The estate of Saratoga came into the possession of the family which now owns it through Nathaniel Burwell, who purchased it in 1809. He married Elizabeth Nelson, known as “Pretty Betsy’’ Nelson, of Yorktown. The place was bequeathed to Mrs. Robert Powell Page, of "The Briars," and from her passed to her son, R. Powell Page, who still owns it. From the porch one looks down on a bold spring, the overflow of which forms a pond sufficiently enticing to bring the ducks from far and near. Fine oaks formerly covered the slope, and a row stood in front of the house, but the last of these were destroyed in the storm of 1922, and now one looks across the grassy slopes where the sheep are grazing, to the Blue Ridge Mountains, which stretch as far as the eye can see. Flowers have always bloomed here, but not in a formal garden. There were roses and shrubs in the vegetable garden at the back of the house. I can remember the servants bringing in baskets of rose leaves to scatter among the linen. ‘The greenhouse was eighteen by twenty-five feet, heated by a brick flue which encircled [342]
