Page 573 [573]
CAoi— =
HisTorRiIc GARDENS -OF “VIRGINIA
As grown women many of these children have lingered long
at the summer-house, when the moon was full, and there was one
spot in the pleached walk, where a young woman of the first
generation reared at The Meadows told her granddaughter that
‘love had first been whispered in her ears.’’ And she was barely
sixteen, but read early Victorian literature: Scott, Miss ava and
Mrs. Sherwood!
The little garden at The Meadows 1s to the left of the house,
as the old garden is to the right, and was planned a few years
later. It was laid out in four square beds, with beds at either
end shaped to conform to the road which curved here to the stables.
The box-hedge to the east was a screen for the woodyard, very
thick and over eight feet in height. ‘he other box-hedges, which
outlined the beds, were trimmed severely every spring; but, in
spite of this, they reached a height of thirty or thirty-three inches
and a breadth of twenty-five, encroaching far over the space left
for the walks. The sun-dial, with the name “F. Smith” and the
date, 1821, cut sharply into the slate, was placed where the paths
intersected.
It is this garden that later generations have filled with old¬
fashioned pinks, daily roses, geraniums, heliotropes, and hardy
annuals. The bleeding heart and deep-red peonies were crowded
in with phlox and mignonette; but, on a sultry afternoon in August,
the smell of the box mingles with and dominates them all.
(SAY ROBERTSON BLACKFORD.
1352]