Stranica 111 [111]
OCR
HISTORIC GARDENS OF VIRGINIA the house and is shaded by locust and walnut trees. The garden, which lies immediately in front on a broad terrace, though without consistent care for many years, is still rich in old-time shrubs— lilacs, crepe myrtles and mock orange—which stand _inconsequentially within its boundaries. Althea—white, rosy and purple; lilies—-white, tawny and yellow; yuccas—‘‘our Lord’s candles,” as they are called in Mexico, lift high their torches to light up the romantic spot. Scattering box bushes, gnarled and scant of leaf, show the outlines of ancient walks of romance, their pungent odor bringing a breath of days long past and dead. ‘The outlines left prove that in its early days this garden was one of pretense, but time and changed conditions have had their play at Ampthill, and now the garden follows no certain, formal lines. At its best this garden was, in many ways, like its sisters across the sea; it had the same knots of flowers in the shape of diamonds, crescents or squares, all bound by the shrub dear to us and the hearts of our ancestors—the gallant, cheerful boxwood. It was a typical Colonial garden that lay on the banks of James River, and it is still a garden to wander in, to sit in, to dream in. All is very quiet here; happily, the bustling world seems very far away. Some of the old-fashioned flowers still stand where they were set out in the old-fashioned way. The outlines of the prim circles and squares may still be hunted out by the remnants of their stiff and straggly box borders; but for so many years have shrub and plant and vine lived together that all of this formality has been done away with, and across old lines new bloom now mingles with new bloom. A snowdrop now brings the memory of a bride long gone; later in the springtime, jonquils and narcissi dance gayly in the breeze. The winsome, profligate bulbs no longer confine themselves to the garden proper, and they blend deliciously with the delicate blue hyacinths, which are very abundant and much in evtdence here. This wealth of pale spring flowers has scattered over the lawn on both fronts of the house and raced down the terrace [ 68 ]
