Stranica 561 [561]
OCR
ANNEFIELD mvaey|N 1790, Matthew Page, Esq., of Broadneck, Han2) Dy over County, Virginia, came to Clarke County and took possession of a tract of twenty-two hundred and eighty acres inherited by him. He began the erection of a beautiful stone house that year, which he named Annefield, after his wife, a sister of Bishop Meade. Mrs. Page was a lover of flowers and a garden was laid out for her in the rear of the residence. Part of the estate, with the house, was purchased by [homas Nelson Carter, of Pampatike, in 1840, and his wife, “Sweet Anne Page,” who was also a great lover of flowers, made many additions to the garden. The central part was reserved for flowers only. Surrounding this on three sides and separated by a lilac walk formed by a double row of lilacs twelve feet in height, plantings of box-bushes, that are now fifteen feet high, were made. Syringa and mock-orange were also set out, as well as arbor vitae. One of these, near the entrance to the garden, was pronounced by Professor Charles 5. Sargeant, of the Boston Arboretum, as the finest specimen he had ever seen. After Mr. Carter’s death in 1866, the estate was bought by his son-in-law, Robert H. Renshaw, and again a flower lover wielded the fortunes of the Annefield gardens. Mrs. Renshaw was Annie Wickham, of Hickory Hill. In speaking of her second home, she said: “T have rarely seen such lilac bushes or such blooms. The big clumps of syringa, mock-orange and snowball had taken entire possession, and I fear I slashed too heavily. ‘The syringa by the main walk as you enter was the most wonderful I ever saw. It climbed up into the evergreens and seemed dazzlingly white when [344]
