Stranica 406 [406]
OCR
ee or. THE PIEDMONT SECTION visited ex-President Madison, one of his suite laid out the garden to please the charming Madame Dolly. ‘[radition has it that this gentleman was Major L’Enfant, but this is extremely doubtful. The young Frenchman took as his plan the hall of the House of Representatives in Washington, and this amphitheater design affords wonderful opportunities for terraces and steps. When emerging from the shadow of the overhanging box-trees, the vivid panorama of the garden is one never to be forgotten. For many years a French gardener (at the then fabulous price of $400 a year) tended the elaborate parterres and clipped the hedges and made wonderful topiary designs in the box-bushes. But, alas, the lavish hospitality, the dissipations of the graceless stepson, and the too great generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Madison caused considerable financial stress, and the French gardener had to be dismissed and his place filled by one of his black assistants. This was but the beginning of pecuniary embarrassments which harassed the last years of Madison’s life. When, in 1900, Mr. William duPont took over this historical estate, the garden was surrounded by a rail snake fence. ‘The terraces had been ploughed down and were planted in vegetables, and only the wonderful box, extending down the center of the garden, remained; the latter so straggly and overgrown that one could hardly walk down the path. Mrs. duPont had the terraces graded and turfed, the flower beds laid out and planted. She had the paths made of gravel with tiled edging. Under her direction steps were built and garden ornaments added, but it has taken years of patience and toil to bring the garden back to its present state of perfection. | I like to pass swiftly over the years of neglect and think of the garden in all its old-time glory—as it is now in June with roses everywhere. Ramblers drooping over the walls, tree-roses standing about in prim precision in gay beds of larkspur and lady slippers and brilliant phlox and the white marguerite, without which no French garden is complete. [253]
