Stranica 458 [458]
OCR
tie! PLEDÁLONT SECTION himself, "Here lies Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom and Father of the University of Virginia." The second gate opens out on the lawn, and here the house comes into full view; on the left of the driveway are the servants guarters and on the right the garden. This garden is arranged in a chain of rectangular plots, with orass walks between. Originally, vegetables were planted here in long rows to be easily worked by horse and plow. There was a background of native shrubs and trees through which one caught olimpses of the valley below and the distant strip of the pine belt. Old-fashioned shrubs were scattered throughout the garden near the paths and inthe angles. Further on, just before one approaches the overseer’s house, there is seen a small graveyard owned by the Levy family, the present owners of the property. On the left of this driveway was once a greensward running along the side of the quarters, or southern pavilion, and in the spring it was a mass of bulbous flowers familiar to old homes, such as jonquils, single blue Roman hyacinths and Stars of Bethlehem. The blue feathered hyacinth (Muscari comosum monstrosum ) found congenial environment here. This was a rare flower in those days, and today is not generally seen here. With such evidence of remains of a garden, one readily conjectures that on this gentle slope, protected from the north by the servants’ quarters and work shops and exposed to the warm rays of the sun from the south, Jefferson must have laid out here an ornamental and terraced garden. In an old book we read that ‘“‘The nail factory, the machine shops and weaving room were on the southeast of the house, beyond which was the terraced garden in which he delighted to exhibit his horticultural products.”’ His granddaughter, Sarah Randolph, in her “Life of Thomas Jefferson,” constantly refers to his love of trees and shrubs and of their intimate walks in the garden. One pictures them strolling [281]
