But the garden! Who can describe a garden in the Virginia of 1770? When the little children of the family were sent forth to breathe the cool air of the morning, what a paradise of sweets met their senses! The squares, crescents, stars, and circles, edged with box, over which an enchanted, glistening veil had been thrown during the night; the tall lilacs, snowballs, myrtles, and syringas, guarding like sentinels the entrance to every avenue; the glowing beds of tulips, pinks, purple iris, and hyacinths; the flowering-almond with its rosy spikes; the globes of golden passion-fruit; the figs, rimy with the early dew and bursting with scarlet sweetness! The whole world filled with bloom and beauty, fragrance and melody.
At a respectful distance from the mansion were smaller houses of brick or stone, far enough removed from "the great house" to secure the master's quiet and privacy. In one, a five-roomed building served for schoolhouse and lodging-rooms for the tutor and boys of the family. Another was "the office" for the transaction of business with agents from the other plantations of the master, or with captains of trading vessels lying at his wharf, laden with outgoing tobacco, or unloading the liquors, books, musical instruments, and fine stuffs for the family. In the rear, hidden by maple or cherry trees, were many houses: wash-house, dairy, bake-house, storehouses, and a kitchen as large as the five-roomed schoolhouse, for the sole use of the great High Priest—the cook—and her family. "All these formed a handsome street," adds Mr. Fithian (the New Jersey Presbyterian tutor, whom nothing escaped), and all were surrounded with little gardens and poultry-yards, and enlivened with swarms of chickens, ducks, pigs, and little negroes. Remote from these were the great stables, well filled and admirably regulated.
The kitchens of these later mansions were always a long distance away, because that source of comfort, the black cook, had so many satellites revolving around her and drawing sustenance, light, and warmth from her centre, that it was absolutely necessary to give her elbow-room. The satellites, however, had their uses. At dinner-time, each one with shining face, robed in a great apron to supplement various trouser deficiencies, and bearing covered dishes, formed a solemn procession back and forth to the dining room. There the frosty eye of the gray-haired butler awed them into perfect decorum; and in the kitchen the vigorous arm of the cook kept them well within bounds, along with the hounds, and, like them, devouring with hopeful eyes the delicious viands in course of preparation.
The planter felt that the time had come to concern himself with the elegancies of fine living. He went home to England to select books for his library and to have his portrait painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds; perhaps bring over his grandfather's portrait by Sir Peter Lely, or, at least, secure a copy of Sir Peter's portrait of Charles the First. A precious picture now and then found its way to the drawing-rooms of the Northern Neck; and at "Elsing Green," a little lower down in King William County, were hangings of priceless value—a set of Gobelin tapestry presented to the owner's ancestor, Gilbert Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, by William of Orange. "Race horses, drawn masterly and set in elegant frames," adorned the dining-room walls of Colonel John Tayloe of Mount Airy, owner of the great Yorick, one of the most celebrated horses of the day; and in the same dining room stood the famous punch-bowl, since celebrated in verse. The fashion of adorning the grounds with marble statues is first mentioned in describing Colonel Tayloe's beautiful garden, near Mary Washington's girlhood home.
Elsing Green.
Libraries in 1770 had been well chosen, and had attained respectable proportions. Mr. Robert Carter of Westmoreland, and other men of wealth, had collected law-books, books on divinity relating to the Established Church, a large musical library, the works of Pope, Locke, Addison, Young, Swift, Dryden, "and other works of mighty men," in the Latin tongue.
