iJ die ve 2. »} ; Se z so a SELES EEL GIL EE ELT OLS SES. OTE REIL SRST a Ny 5 Tal AR Can ae CRON ma y1 ares " 2) coe) : Re med a orators OD ra 4) 7 ws cen ie oY -The OLD: TIME GARDENS Newly ser forth by Ral GE MOR S38 EARLE MEB- OO K OF PE OWL Oo Tie YEAR ‘Life is sweet, brother! There’s day and night, brother! both sweet things: sun, moon and stars, brother lall sweet things : There is likewise awindon the heath” NEW YORK THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON MACMILLAN GCGO utp MCMI All rights reserved CopyriGHT, I90I, By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Bequest Albert Adsit Clemons Aug. 24, 1938 (Not available for exchange) Norwood Press F. S. Cushing G Co.—Berwick G Smith Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. CHAPTER r. lle rT. IV. Contents CoLONIAL GARDEN-MAKING Fronr DooryARDs VARIED GARDENS FAIR Box EpGINGs Tue Hers GARDEN In Litac TIDE Oxtp FLowER FAVORITES Comrort Me witH APPLES . GARDENS OF THE POETS Tue CHARM OF COLOR THE BLUE FLOWER BORDER . Pranr NAMES ‘Tussy-MUSSIES JOAN SILVER-PIN CHILDHOOD IN A GARDEN MeeEtTIN’ SEED AND SABBATH Day PoslEs SUN-DIALS GARDEN FURNISHINGS GarDEN BOUNDARIES A MooniicHT GARDEN Fiowers or Mystery . Rosres OF YESTERDAY + | . 7 Mr oe a) oe a - J » < List of Illustrations The end papers of this book bear a design of the flower Ambrosia. The vignette on the title-page is re-drawn from one in 7he Compleat Body of Husbandry, Thomas Hale, 1756. It represents “ Love laying out the surface of the earth in a garden.” The device of the dedication is an ancient garden-knot for flowers, from A New Orchard and Garden, William Lawson, 1608. The chapter initiais are from old wood-cut initials in the English Herbals of Gerarde, Parkinson, and Cole. PAGE Garden of Johnson Mansion, Germantown. Photographed by Henry Troth : é . facing Garden at Grumblethorp, one af Our: les v2 Wi Roe we Os Germantown, Pennsylvania. ; Garden of Bartram House, Philadelphia, eae : Garden of Abigail Adams, Quincy, Massachusetts : Garden at Mount Vernon-on-the-Potomac, Virginia. Home of George Washington . : . . facing Gate and Hedge of Preston Garden, Colainben. South Ci olina Fountain Path in Preston Garden, Columbia, South Carolina . Door tn Wall of Kitchen Garden at Van Cortlandt Manor. Croton-on-Hudson, New York. Photographed by /. Florace Mckarland . » : . facing Garden of Van Cortlandt Manor. Piotocraphed by J. irae McFarland : : . facing Garden at Prince ap ieae EP ome eee Old Dutch Garden of Bergen Homestead, Bay Ridge, were Lsland : : . facing Garden at Duck Ge Nai ar? ee Re (lend - The Flowering Almond under the Window. sane ge: oy Eva E. Newell . Peter's Wreath. Photographed by Pa E. Newell . . ° ix x List of Illustrations Peontes in Garden of John Robinson, Esg., Salem, Massachu- setts. Photographed by Herschel fF. Davis : . facing White Peonies.. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall : Yellow Day Lilies. Photographed by Clifton Johnson . facing Orange Lilies. Photographed by Eva E. Newell : Preston Garden, Columbia, South Carolina. ; . facing Box-edged Parterre at Hampton, County Baltimore, Maryland. ie of Mrs. John oe Photographed by Elizabeth ’. Trescot : Par aa, and Clipped Bon & Rep Geary oe e, Maryland. Home of Mrs. John Ridgely. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot . Garden of Mrs. Mabel Osgood VW Fieht 7 “alidstea, Fairfield, Connecticut. Photographed by Mabel Osgood Wright A Shaded Walk. In the Garden of Miss Harriet P. F. Burn- side, Worcester, Massachusetts. ee a by Her- scthel F. Davis . E . facing Roses and Larkspur in He Gu Pe a Miss Flarriet P. F. Burnside, Worcester, Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis The Homely Back Yard. Photogr PALE ay ep ee oe Covered Well at Home of Bishop Berkeley, Whitehall, New- port, Rhode Island Kitchen Doorway and Porch at T he Bivies New Hope, County Bucks, Pennsylvania . Greenwood, Thomasville, Georgia Roses and Violets in Garden. of Green ee Zi Fae Georgia. . facing Water Garden at S Wieser WOE Shelter Eee) en Wane Home of Miss Cornelia Horsford. Garden at Avonwood Court, Haverford, Bose Cae try-seat of Charles E. Mather, Esg. Photographed by J. Horace McFarland. : . facing Terrace Wall at Drumthwacket, Pr Pe New Jersey Country-seat of M. Taylor Pyne, Esq. : Garden at Drumthwacket, Princeton, New ae SEV. Oo fs seat of M. Taylor Pyne, Esq. Sun-dial at Avonwood Court, aver ee Paid Country-seat of Charles E. Mather, oo Photographed by J. Horace McFarland . : . facing PAGE 42 42 48 50 54 57 60 63 64 77 80 List of Illustrations x1 PAGE Entrance Porch and Gate to the Rose Garden at Vaddo, Sara- toga, New York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Be Photographed by Gustave Lorey - 82 Pergola and Terrace Walk in Rose Garden at Yaddo, Sar a- toga, New York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esq. Photographed by Gustave Lorey : 83 Statue of Christalan in Rose Garden at Yaddo, Gee ee York. Country-seat of Spencer Tr ash, Esq. Photo- graphed by Gustave Lorey : 84 Sun-dial in Rose Garden at VYaddo, Sar Sue, Ne 27) Vien. Country-seal of Spencer Trask, Esq. IEEE ae by Gustave Lor ey . 86 Bronze Dial-face in ae Gar ie at Dadde. Cree. New York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esg. Photo- graphed by Gustave Lorey 87 Ancient Pine in Garden at aga Ge Pict en Vere, Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esq. Photographed by Gustave Lorey . c 89 Flouse and Garden at Napanee Gunes Wie New ieee Photographed by Edward Lamson Henry, N. A. . facing 92 Box Parterre at Hampton, County Baltimore, Maryland. Home of Mrs. John Ridgely. eee 2 Elizabeth W. Trescot ° 95 Sun-dial in Box at Breen ae, Bea Ae epee Garden of Lady Lennox . 98 Sun-dial in Box at Ascott, near Lewee Beer Ea Country-seat of Mr. Leopold Rothschild . ; facing 100 Garden at Tudor Place, Georgetown, District of laa Home of Mrs. Beverly Kennon. Photographed by Eliza- beth W. Trescot . - : - : ° = ine Anchor-shaped Flower Beds, ae ion Rhode Island. Photo- graphed by Sarah P. Marchant 5 : : : - 104 Ancient Box at Tuckahoe, Virginia . 5 2) 205 Flerb Garden at White Birches, phase Vinnie : Os Garden at White Birches, Elmhurst, Illinois . : i 5 guw Garden of Manning Homestead, Salem, Massachusetts facing 112 Under the Garret Eaves of Ward Homestead, Shrewsbury, Massachusetts . : 116 A Gatherer of Simples. Photogr aphed by Mar ¥y if @ Paschall , . , : facing 120 Xil List of Illustrations Sage. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall . Tansy. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall : Garden of Mrs. Abraham Lansing, Albany, New York. Vee tographed by Gustave Lorey . facing Ladies’ Delights. Photographed by Eva E. Newell : Garden House and Long Walk in Garden of Hon. W lian H. Seward, Auburn, New York . facing Sun-dial in Garden of Hon. William FH. Sear. Auburn, New York . Lilacs in Midsummer. ie Gaia of Mrs. ‘Abr Pee ae sing, Albany, New York. Photographed by Gustave Lorey ; : facing Lilacs at Craigie eae C ae dee, RST PSE the Hone of Longfellow. Photographed by Arthur N. Wilmarth Box-edged Garden at Home of Longfellow, Cambridge, Massa- chusetts. Photographed by Arthur N. Wilmarth ‘ Joepye-weed and Queen Anne’s Laces. Photogr eee by Mary F.C. Paschall ; Boneset. Photographed by Mar ry F. je Pavel < Magnolias in Garden of William Brown, Esq., Flatbush, Tone Lsland : : ¢ . : : facing Lilacs at Hopewell : Persian Lilacs and Peontes in Ga of Kimball Bip ee, Portsmouth, New Hampshire Opyn-tide, the Thought of Spring. Caren oF Mrs. pee Lansing, Albany, New York. Photographed by Pirie MacDonald : 5 facing A Thought of Winter's Snows. Gar den of Fy. ederich ye Kings- bury, Esg., Waterbury, Connecticut . : Larkspur and Phlox. Garden of Miss Frances Ga y Mor ve Worcester, Massachusetts . A Sweet William and Foxglove Plume Poppy Meadow Rue : Money-in-both-Pockets ; : 4 : ; Box Walk in Garden of Fr oder ack y Kz ingxbury Esq., Water- bury, Connecticut : Lunaria in Garden of Mrs. Mabel bsaae Wr aie, Fue - field, Connecticut. Photographed by Mabel Osgood Wright facing 162 173 174 List of Illustrations Edging of Striped Lilies in a Salem Garden. Photographed by Herschel fF. Davis : : : : 4 : Garden Seat at Avonwood Gare Photographed by J. Horace McFarland ; A facing Terraced Garden of the REGS M hore Salem: Massachusetts “4A Running Ribbon of Perfumed Snow which the Sun ws melting rapidly.” At Marchant Far m, Kingston, Rhode Island. Photographed by Sarah F. Marchant . : Fountain Garden at Sylvester Manor, Shelter Island, New York . : facing flawthorn A? EP at Holly ane Pace Dake, Rhode Island. Home of Rowland G. Hazard, Esq. . Thyme-covered Graves. Photographed by Mar *y F. e Past schall “ White Umbrellas of Elder” . Lower Garden at Sylvester Manor, ‘Shiiter ae Now. Yor z facing “ Black-heart Amorous Poppies”. Valerian. Photographed by E. C. Nichols Old War Office tn Garden at Salem, New Jersey 5 : Crown Imperial. Page from Gerarde’s Herball . facing The Children’s Garden. ; . facing foxgloves in a Narragansett Gar: “len : - - : ; flollyhocks in Garden of Kimball Homestead, Portsmouth, New Ham ps hire : : : facing Autumn View of an Old Wi or ae Bre aa c : facing FHlollyhocks at Tudor Place, Georgetown, District of Columbia. Home of Mrs. Beverly Kennon . 6 An Old Worcester Garden. Homeof Edwin A. Pee Ee. facing Caraway Sun-dial of Jonathan ae Wp a Dedham, Massachu- setts Bronze Sun-dial on Dorey Reyer Hed ce aA West Bad Avenue, New York ; ‘ Sun-dial mounted on Boulder, Seinen je ee Buckthorn Arch in Garden of Mrs. Edward B. Peirson, Salem, Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis ; : facing Sun-dial at Emery Pla Br. pea Distr set of Columbia. Photographed by William Van Zandt Cox . . XVI List of Illustrations Sun-dial at Travellers’ Rest, Virginia. Home of Mrs. Bowie Gray. Photog ‘aphed by Elizabeth W. Trescot . : Two Old Cronies ; the Sun-dial and Beeskepe. Photographed by Eva E. Newell Portable Sun-dial from Ce of a Hagin Sun-dial in Garden of Frederick J. Kingsbury, Esq., b | re bury, Connecticut Sun-dial at Morristown, New ee Deseaed by I Ye ee Beatty, Esq. 7 : “ Ves, Toby, is Three As i pe: Day, oe TPE ce pe at Sag Harbor, Long [sland. Drawn ie Edward Lamson Figur iN zd ee Face of Dial at Sag Har We Fone ee Sun-dial in Garden of Grace Church Rector Ys New ¥ rR. Photographed by J. W. Dow : Fugio Bank-note : Sun-dial at “Washington Ee j Little Br pee Enel : Dial-face from Mount Vernon. Owned by Wiliam F. Have- THEY Chan) tae Sun-dial from Home of Mar y VW ESE Pree 2 Virginia. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot - renmore, the Home of Betty Washington Lewis, Fredericks- burg, Virginia. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot . Sun-dial in Garden of Charles T. Jenkins, Esq., ee Pennsylvania : : Sun-dial at Ophir Farm, | I hite Pape New ae Country- seat of Hon. Whitelaw Reid 3 Sun-dial at Hillside, Menand’s, near Aa New Ware Old Brass and Pewter Diat- as ee Collection of Author . Beata Beatrix . : facing The Faithful Brie : : : A Garden Lyre at Waterford, hee : “ : Heine A Virginia Lyre with Vines 2 : Old Llron Gates at Westover-on ames Ws eae Photo- gr aphed by George S. Cook ; Tronwork in Court of Colt Mansion, Br istol, Rhode Vilene! Photographed by J. W. Dow. Sharpening the Old Dutch a Photographed by Mar y F.C. Pasthall . : : facing PAGE 359 354 356 358 359 361 362 364 365 367 368 >- 369 371— 373 375 378 379 380 381 384 386 388 390 392 List of Illustrations XVil PAGE Summer-house at Ravensworth, County Fairfax, Virginia. Home of Mrs. W. H. Fitzhugh Lee. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot : : , : : : - 392 — Beehives at Waterford, eS Si Ae ies by Henry Troth - . facing 394 Beehives under the Trees. Phateer RE by He mry B Fall <. 305 Spring House at Johnson Homestead, Germantown, Pennsyl- vanta. Photographed by Henry Troth . : . facing 396 Dovecote at Shirley-on-James, Virginia. From Some Colonial Mansions and Those who lived in Them. Pxdlished by Flenry T. Coates & Co., Philadelphia : : =2 4307 The Peacock in his Pride . 3 : : 3 “EBs . 398 The Guardian of the Garden . : : 5 : : - 400 Brick Terrace Wall at Van Cortlandt Manor. Photo- graphed by J. Horace McFarland. . 5 facing 402 Rail Fence Corner . ; , : : - 403 Topiary Work at Levens Ball. . : : ‘ : - 404 Oval Pergola at Arlington, Virginia. Photographed by Eliza- beth W. Trescot . ‘ ; 5; facing 406 = French Homestead, Kingston, Rhee Tea with Old ies Terrace Wall. Photographed by Sarah F. Marchant . 407 Italian Garden at Wellesley, Massachusetts. Country-seat of Hollis H. Hunnewell, Esq. 5 5 facing 408 Marble Steps in Italian Garden at VV “ellesle Ait Mase pans = 4 410 Topiary Workin California . 412 Serpentine Brick Wall at Univer ay a Virginia, \naplettes J- ville, Virginia. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot . 413 Chestnut Path in Garden at Indian Hill, Newburyport, Mas- sachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis facing 418 Foxgloves in Lower Garden at Indian Hill, Newburyport, Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis = e42n Dame's Rocket. Photographed by Mary I. C. Paschall . Pee Snakeroot. Photographed by Mary F. G. Paschal . : - 426 Title-page of Parkinson’s Paradisi in Solis, e¢c. é facing 428 Yuccas, like White Marble against the Evergreens . ; 430 Fraxinella in Garden of Miss Frances Clar ‘y Morse, Worces- ter, Massachusetts. - : facing 432 Love-in-a-Mist. Photographed by Fearn Lh oth : 436 Spiderwort in an Old Worcester Garden. eee Ephed by by Flerschel F. Davis. : : : ; facing 438 XVill List of [llustrations PAGE Gardener's Garters at Van Cortlandt Manor. Photographed by J. Horace McFarland . : : 440 Garden Walk at The Manse, Deerfield, Maschinen Photo- graphed by Clifton Johnson : : facing 442 London Pride. Photographed by Eva E. EN eed) ; 2 aay White Fritillaria in Garden of Miss Frances Clary Morse, Worcester, Massachusetts . an: : : ? . 448 Bouncing Bet . < . : ; Se iiish Overgrown Garden at ie ae / aie fhotographed By Henry Troth : é : facing 454 Fountaim at YVaddo, Saratoga, Wen eee: (Gove y-seat of Spencer Trask, esq. . 455 Avenue of White Pines at Vv llesle ey Massuchusane Cue seat of Flollis H. Hunnewell, sg. . : : : - 456 Violets tn Silver Double Coaster : c : 461 York and Lancaster Rose at Van Cor Hana ee Photo- graphed by J. Horace McFarland. 5 : facing 462 Cinnamon Roses. Photographed by Mabel Osgood Wright . 465 Cottage Garden with Races. Photographed by Mary F. C. aschall ; ; : facing 468 Madame Plantier Rose. Photogr aphed ie Mabel Osgood Wright : ; : 474 Sun-dial ied Roses at Van Cor. ieee Manor. Pyeiner ane by J. Horace McFarland . : : : : facing 476 Old lene Gardens Old Time Gardens CHAPTER. | COLONIAL GARDEN-MAKING << There is not a softer trait to be found in the character of those stern men than that they should have been sensible of these fower- roots clinging among the fibres of their rugged hearts, and felt the necessity of bringing them over sea, and making them hereditary in the new land.”’ — American Note-book, NatHanteL HAwrTuorne. 21K TER ten wearisome weeks of i} travel across an unknown sea, to an equally unknown world, the group of Puritan men and women who were the founders of Boston neared their Land of Promise ; and their noble leader, 7 John Winthrop, wrote in his Journal that “we had now fair Sunshine Weather and so pleasant a sweet Aire as did much refresh us, and there came a smell off the Shore like the Smell of a Garden.” A Smell of a Garden was the first welcome to our ancestors from their new home; and a pleasant and perfect emblem it was of the life that awaited them. B I 2 Old Time Gardens They were not to become hunters and rovers, not to be eager to explore quickly the vast wilds beyond ; they were to settle down in the most domestic of lives, as tillers of the soil, as makers of gardens. What must that sweet air from the land have been to the sea- weary Puritan women on shipboard, laden to them with its promise of a garden! for I doubt not every woman bore with her across seas some little package of seeds and bulbs from her English home garden, and perhaps a tiny slip or plant of some endeared flower; watered each day, I fear, with many tears, as well as from the surprisingly scant water supply which we know was on board that ship. And there also came flying to the dréella as to the Ark, a Dove —a bird of promise—and soon the ship came to anchor. << With hearts revived in conceit new Lands and Trees they spy, Scenting the Caedars and Sweet Fern from heat’s reflection dry,’’ wrote one colonist of that arrival, in his Good Newes from New England. I like to think that Sweet Fern, the characteristic wild perfume of New Eng- land, was wafted out to greet them. And then all went on shore in the sunshine of that ineffable time and season,—a New England day in June, —and they “gathered store of fine strawberries,” just as their Salem friends had on a June day on the pre- ceding year gathered strawberries and “sweet Single Roses” so resembling the English Eglantine that the hearts of the women must have ached within them with fresh homesickness. And ere long all had Colonial Garden-making 3 dwelling-places, were they but humble log cabins; and pasture lands and commons were portioned out; and ina short time all had garden-plots, and thus, with sheltering roof-trees, and warm firesides, and with gardens, even in this lonely new world, they had somes. The first entry in the Plymouth Records is a significant one; it is the assignment of ‘“ Meresteads and Garden-Plotes,’ not mere- steads alone, which were farm lands, but home gardens: the outlines of these can still be seen in Plymouth town. And soon all sojourners who bore news back to England of the New-Englishmen and New-Englishwomen, told of ample store of gardens. Ere a year had passed hopeful John Winthrop wrote, “ My Deare Wife, wee are here in a Para- dise.” In four years the chronicler Wood said in his Mew England’s Prospect, “There is growing here all manner of herbs for meat and medicine, and that not only in planted gardens, but in the woods, with- out the act and help of man.” Governor Endicott had by that time a very creditable garden. And by every humble dwelling the homesick goodwife or dame, trying to create a semblance of her fair English home so far away, planted in her “garden plot” seeds and roots of homely English flowers and herbs, that quickly grew and blossomed and smiled on bleak New England’s rocky shores as sturdily and happily as they had bloomed in the old gardens and by the ancient door sides in Eng- land. What good cheer they must have brought! how they must have been beloved! for these old English garden flowers are such gracious things ; 4 Old Time Gardens marvels of scent, lavish of bloom, bearing such ge- nial faces, growing so readily and hardily, spreading Ye) quickly, responding so gratefully to such little care: what pure refreshment they bore in their blos- soms, what comfort in their seeds ; they must have ened an emblem of hope, a promise of a new and happy home. I rejoice over every one that I know was in those little colonial gardens, for each one added just so much measure of solace to what seems to me, as I think upon it, one of the loneliest, most fearsome things that gentlewomen ever had to do, all the harder because neither by poverty nor by un- avoidable stress were they forced to it; they came across-seas willingly, for conscience’ alee These women were not accustomed to the thought of emi- gration, as are European folk to-day ; they had no friends to greet them in the new land; they were to encounter wild animals and wild men; sea and country were unknown —they could scarce expect ever to return: they left everything, and took nothing of comfort but their Bibles and their flower seeds. So when I see one of the old English flowers, grown of those days, blooming now in my garden, from the unbroken. chain of blossom to seed of nearly three centuries, I thank the flower for all that its forbears did to comfort my forbears, and I cherish it with added tenderness. We should have scant notion of the gardens of these New England colonists in the seventeenth century were it not for a cheerful traveller named John Josselyn, a man of everyday tastes and much inquisitiveness, and the pleasing literary style which elueA[ASuUudg ‘UMOJUBUIED ‘uoIsUB] UOSUYOf a4} Jo USP1eD Colonial Garden-making 5 comes from directness, and an absence of. self- consciousness. He published in 1672 a book en- titled New Enxgland’s Rarities discovered, etc., and in 1674 another volume giving an account of his two voyages hither in 1638 and 1663. He made a very careful list of vegetables which he found thriv- ing in the new land; and since his flower list is the earliest known, I will transcribe it in full; it isn’t long, but there is enough in it to make it a sugges- tive outline which we can fill in from what we know of the plants to-day, and form a very fair picture of those gardens. “¢ Spearmint, Rew, will hardly grow Fetherfew prospereth exceedingly ; Southernwood, is no Plant for this Country, Nor Rosemary. Nor Bayes. White-Satten groweth pretty well, so doth Lavender-Cotton. But Lavender is not for the Climate. Penny Royal Smalledge. Ground Ivey, or Ale Hoof. Gilly Flowers will continue two Years. Fennel must be taken up, and kept in a Warm Cellar all Winter Horseleek prospereth notably Holly hocks Enula Canpana, in two years time the Roots rot. Comferie, with White Flowers. Coriander, and Dill, and 6 Old Time Gardens Annis thrive exceedingly, but Annis Seed, as also the seed of Fennel seldom come to maturity ; the Seed of Annis is commonly eaten with a Fly. Clary never lasts but one Summer, the Roots rot with the Frost. Sparagus thrives exceedingly, so does Garden Sorrel, and Sweet Bryer or Eglantine Bloodwort but sorrily, but Patience and English Roses very pleasantly. Celandine, by the West Country now called Kenning Wort grows but slowly. Muschater, as well as in England Dittander or Pepperwort flourisheth notably and so doth Tansie.” These lists were published fifty years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth ; from them we find that the country was just as vel stocked with vegetables as it was a hundred years later when other travellers made lists, but the flowers seem few ; still, such as they were, they formed a goodly sight. With rows of Hollyhocks glowing against hie rude stone walls and rail fences of their little yards; with clumps of Lavender Cotton and Honesty and Gillyflowers blossoming freely ; with Feverfew “prospering ’’ to sow and slip and pot and give to neighbors just as New England women have done with Feverfew every year of the centuries that have followed ; with “a Rose looking in at the window ” Fglantine, or English Rose — these colonial dames might well find “ Patience Colonial Garden-making 7 ’ growing very pleasantly ’ in their hearts as in their gardens. They had plenty of pot herbs for their accustomed savoring; and plenty of medicinal herbs for their Garden at Grumblethorp, Germantown, Pennsylvania. wonted dosing. Shakespeare’s “ nose-herbs’’ were not lacking. Doubtless they soon added to these garden flowers many of our beautiful native blooms, rejoicing if they resembled any beloved English Ser: Old Taine Gardens flowers, and quickly giving them, as we know, familiar old English plant-names. And there were other garden inhabitants, as truly English as were the cherished flowers, the old gar- den weeds, which quickly found a home and thrived in triumph in the new soil. Perhaps the weed seeds came over in the flower-pot that held a sheltered plant or cutting; perhaps a few were mixed with garden seeds; perhaps they were in the straw or other packing of household goods: no one knew the manner of their coming, but there they were, Motherwort, Groundsel, Chickweed, and Wild Mus- tard, Mullein and Nettle, Henbane and Wormwood. Many a goodwife must have gazed in despair at the persistent Plantain, “the Englishman’s foot,” which seems to have landed in Plymouth from the Mayflower. Josselyn made other lists of plants which he found in America, under these headings : — “¢ Such plants as are common with us in England. Such plants as are proper to the Country. Such plants as are proper to the Country and have no name. Such plants as have sprung up since the English planted, and kept cattle in New England.” In these lists he gives a surprising number of English weeds which had thriven and rejoiced in their new home. Mr. Tuckerman calls Josselyn’s list of the fishes of the new world a poor makeshift; his various lists of plants are better, but they are the lists of Colonial Garden-making 9 an herbalist, not of a botanist. He had some acquain- tance with the practice of physic, of which he narrates some examples; and an interest in kitchen recipes, and included a few in his books. He said that Par- kinson or another botanist might have “found in Garden of the Bartram House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. New England a thousand, at least, of plants never heard of nor seen by any Englishman before,” and adds that he was himself an indifferent eee He certainly lost an extraordinary opportunity of distinguishing himself, indeed of immortalizing him- self; and it is surprising that he was so heedless, for Englishmen of that day were in general eager botanists. The study of plants was new, and was 10 Old Time Gardens deemed of such absorbing interest and fascination that some rigid Puritans feared they might lose their immortal souls through making their new plants their idols. When Josselyn wrote, but few of our American flowers were known to European botanists; Indian Garden of Abigail Adams. Corn, Pitcher Plant, Columbine, Milkweed, Ever- lasting, and Arbor-vite had been deserhenG in ‘printed books, and the Evening Primrose. A history of Canadian and other new plants, by Dr. Cornuti, had been printed in Europe, giving thirty- seven an our plants; and all English naturalists were longing to add to the list; the ships which brought over Colonial Garden-making II homely seeds and plants for the gardens of the colonists carried back rare American seeds and plants for English physic gardens. In Pennsylvania, from the first years of the set- tlement, William Penn encouraged his Quaker followers to plant English flowers and fruit in abundance, and to try the fruits of the new world. Father Pastorius, in his Germantown settlement, assigned to each family a garden-plot of three acres, as befitted a man who left behind him at his death a manuscript poem of many thousand words on the pleasures of gardening, the: description of flowers, and keeping of bees. George Fox, the founder of the Friends, or Quakers, died in 1690. He had travelled in the colonies; and in his will he left sixteen acres of land to the Quaker meeting in the city of Philadelphia. Of these sixteen acres, ten were for “a close to put Friends’ horses in when they came afar to the Meeting, that they may not be Lost in the Woods,” while the other six were for a site for a meeting-house and school- house, and “for a Playground for the Children of the town to Play on, and for a Garden to plant with Physical Plants, ae Lads and Lasses to know Simples, and to learn to make Oils and Oint- ments.” Few as are these words, they convey a positive picture of Fox’s intent, and a_ pleasing picture it is. He had seen what interest had been awakened and what instruction conveyed through the “ Physick-Garden” at Chelsea, England; and he promised to himself similar interest and informa- tion from the study of plants and flowers by the 12 Old Time Gardens Quaker “lads and lasses” of the new world. Though nothing came from this bequest, there was a later fulfilment of Fox’s hopes in the establishment of a successful botanic garden in Philadelphia, and, in the planting, growth, and flourishing in the province of Pennsylvania of the loveliest gardens in the new world; there floriculture reached by the time of the Revolution a very high point; and many exquisite gardens bore ample testimony to the “ pride of life,” as well as to the good taste and love of flowers of Philadelphia Friends. The garden at Grumble- thorp, ‘the home of Charles J: Wister, Esqe7em Germantown, Pennsylvania, shown on page 7, dates to colonial days and is still flourishing and beautiful. In 1728 was established, by John Bartram, in Philadelphia, the first botanic garden in America. The ground on which it was planted, and the stone dwelling-house he built thereon in 1731, are now part of the park system of Philadelphia. A view of the garden as now in cultivation is given on page g. Bartram travelled much in America, and through his constant correspondence and flower exchanges with distinguished botanists and plant growers in Europe, many native American plants became well known in foreign gardens, among them the Lady’s Slipper and Rhododendron. He was a Quaker, —a quaint and picturesque figure, —and his example helped to establish the many fine gar- dens in the vicinity of Philadelphia. The example and precept of Washington also had important in- fluence; for he was constant in his desire and his effort to secure every good and new plant, grain, ‘UO]SUIYSEA\ 981095 JO SUIOPY ‘OBWIOJOY-dU}-UO-UOUIAA JUNO Je uspIeD rea kL Colonial Garden-making 18) shrub, and tree for his home at Mount Vernon. A beautiful tribute to his good taste and that of his wife still exists in the Mount Vernon flower garden, which in shape, Box edgings, and many details is precisely as it was in their day. A view of its well-ordered charms is shown opposite page 12. Whenever I walk in this garden I am deeply grateful to the devoted women who keep it in such perfection, as an object-lesson to us of the dignity, comeliness, and beauty of a garden of the olden times. There is little evidence that a general love and cultivation of flowers was as common in humble homes in the Southern colonies as in New England and the Middle provinces. The teeming abun- dance near the tropics rendered any special garden- ing unnecessary for poor folk; flowers grew and blossomed lavishly everywhere without any coaxing or care. On splendid estates there were splendid gardens, which have nearly all suffered by the devas- tations of war—in some towns they were thrice thus scourged. So great was the beauty of these Southern gardens and so vast the love they pro- voked in their owners, that in more than one case the life of the garden’s master was merged in that of the garden. The British soldiers during the War of the Revolution wantonly destroyed the ex- quisite flowers at “The Grove,” just outside the city of Charleston, and their owner, Mr. Gibbes, dropped dead in grief at the sight of the waste. The great wealth of the Southern planters, their constant and extravagant following of English cus- 14 Old Time Gardens toms and fashions, their fertile soil and favorable climate, and their many slaves, all contributed to the successful making of elaborate gardens. Even as early as 1682 South Carolina gardens were de- clared to be “‘adorned with such Flowers as to the Smell or Eye are pleasing or agreeable, as the Rose, Tulip, Lily, Carnation, &c.” William Byrd wrote of the terraced gardens of Virginia homes. Charles- ton dames vied with each other in the beauty of their gardens, and Mrs. Logan, when seventy years old, in 1779, wrote a treatise called The Gardener's Kalendar. Eliza Lucas Pinckney of Charleston was devoted to practical floriculture and horticulture. Her introduction of indigo raising into South Caro- lina revolutionized the trade products of the state and brought to it vast wealth. Like many other women and many men of wealth and culture at that time, she kept up a constant exchange of letters, seeds, plants, and bulbs with English people of like tastes. She received from them valuable English seeds and shrubs; and in turn she sent to England what were so eagerly sought by English flower raisers, our native plants. The good will and na- tional pride of ship captains were enlisted; even young trees of considerable size were set in hogs- heads, and transported, and cared for during the long voyage. The garden at Mount Vernon is probably the oldest in Virginia still in original shape. In Mary- land are several fine, formal gardens which do not date, however, to colonial days; the beautiful one at Hampton, the home of the Ridgelys, in Balti- Colonial Garden-making 15 more County, is shown on pages 57, 60 and gos. In both North and South Carolina the gardens were exquisite. Many were laid out by compe- tent landscape gardeners, and were kept in order by skilled workmen, negro slaves, who were care- fully trained from childhood to special labor, such , Gate and Hedge of Preston Garden. as topiary work. In Camden and Charleston the gardens vied with the finest English manor-house gardens. Remains of their beauty exist, despite de- vastating wars and earthquakes. Views of the Pres- ton Garden, Columbia, South Carolina, are shown on pages 15 and 18 and facing page 54. They are now the grounds of the Presbyterian College 16 Old Time Gardens for Women. The hedges have been much reduced within a few years; but the garden still bears a surprising resemblance to the Garden of the Gen- eralife, Granada. The Spanish garden: has fewer flowers and more fountains, yet I think it must have been the model for the Preston Garden. The climax of magnificence in Southern gardens has been for years, at Magnolia-on-the-Ashley, the ancestral home of the Draytons since 1671. It is impossible to describe the affluence of color in this garden in springtime; masses of unbroken bloom on giant Magnolias; vast Camellia Japonicas, looking, leaf and flower, thoroughly artificial, as if made of solid wax; splendid Crape Myrtles, those strange flower- frees mammoth Rhododen- drons; Azaleas of every Aealea color, —all sur- rounded by walls of the golden Banksia Roses, and hedges covered with Jasmine and Honeysuckle. The Azaleas are the special glory of the garden ; the bushes are fifteen to twenty feet in height, and fifty or sixty feet in circumference, with rich blos- soms running over and crowding down on the ground as if color had been poured over the bushes ; they extend in vistas of vivid hues as far as the eye can reach. All this gay and brilliant color is over- hung by a startling contrast, the most sombre and gloomy thing in nature, great Live-oaks heavily draped with gray Moss ; he avenue of largest Oaks was planted two ean ago. I give no picture of this Drayton Garden, for a photograph of these many acres of solid bioane is a meaningless thing. Even an oil painting of it is Colonial Garden-making 7 confused and disappointing. In the garden itself the excess of color is as cloying as its surfeit of scent pouring from the thousands of open flower cups; we long for green hedges, even for scanter bloom and for fainter fragrance. It is not a garden to live in, as are our box-bordered gardens of the North, our cheerful cottage borders, and our well- balanced Italian gardens, so restful to the eye; it is a garden to look at and wonder at. The Dutch settlers brought their love of flower- ing bulbs, and the bulbs also, to the new world. Adrian Van der Donck, a gossiping visitor to New Netherland when the little town of New Amsterdam had about a thousand inhabitants, described the fine kitchen gardens, the vegetables and fruits, and gave an interesting list of garden flowers which he found under cultivation by the Dutch vrouws. He says: “ Or THE FLrowers. ‘The flowers in general which the Netherlanders have introduced there are the white and red roses of different kinds, the cornelian roses, and stock roses; and those of which there were none before in the country, such as eglantine, several kinds of gillyflowers, jenoffelins, different varieties of fine tulips, crown imperials, white lilies, the lily frutularia, anemones, baredames, violets, mari- golds, summer sots, etc. The clove tree has also been introduced, and there are various indigenous trees that bear handsome flowers, which are unknown in the Nether- lands. We also find there some flowers of native growth, as, for instance, sunflowers, red and yellow lilies, moun- tain lilies, morning stars, red, white, and yellow maritoflles (a very sweet flower), several species of bell flowers, etc., to which [ have not given particular attention, but amateurs Cc 18 Old Time Gardens would hold them in high estimation and make them widely known.” I wish I knew what a Cornelian Rose was, and Jenoffelins, Baredames, and Summer Sots; and what the Lilies were and the Maritoffles and Bell Flowers. They all sound so cheerful and homelike Fountain Path in Preston Garden, Columbia, South Carolina. —just as if they bloomed well. Perhaps the Cor- nelian Rose may have been striped red and white like cornelian stone, and like our York and Lan- caster Rose. Tulips are on all seed and plant lists of colonial days, and they were doubtless in every home door- yard in New Netherland. Governor Peter Stuy- vesant had a fine farm on the Bouwerie, and is said Colonial Garden-making 19 to have had a flower garden there and at his home, White Hall, at the Battery, for he had forty or fifty negro slaves who were kept at work on his estate. In the city of New York many fine formal gardens lingered, on what are now our most crowded streets, till within the memory of persons now living. One is described as full of “ Paus bloemen of all hues, Laylocks, and tall May Roses and Snowballs inter- mixed with choice vegetables and herbs all bounded and hemmed in by huge rows of neatly-clipped Box- edgings.” An evidence of increase in garden luxury in New York is found in the advertisement of one Theophilus Hardenbrook, in 1750, a practical sur- veyor and architect, who had an evening school for teaching Pehiveceuce. He designed pavilions, summer-houses, and garden seats, and “‘ Green-houses for the preservation of Herbs with winding Funnels through the walls so as to keep them warm.”