//£? Old Time Gardens THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK BOSTON CHICAGO DALLAS SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO.. LIMITED LONDON BOMBAY CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, LTD. TORONTO OLD • TIME GARDENS Wew/y sef Jorth 6y ALICE MOILSE EAF^LL & B o o A or THE 5WELT O' THE YEAK "*Life is sweet, brother! Therms day and night. Brother.! Sotf) sweef things: sun, moon and stars, Brother faff sweef things : There is likewise a wind on the heath" NEW Y01VK THL MACMILLATS COMPANY LONDON MAC MILLAN CfCO LTD MCMXXII 'AU rifih reserved COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped November, 1901. Norwood Press J. 5. Gushing & Co.— Berwick & Smith Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. Contents I. COLONIAL GARDEN-MAKING . II. FRONT DOORYARDS III. VARIED GARDENS FAIR . ' t IV. Box EDGINGS . . . "• • . ' V. THE HERB GARDEN VI. IN LILAC TIDE . VII. OLD FLOWER FAVORITES . . VIII. COMFORT ME WITH APPLES . IX. GARDENS OF THE POETS X. THE CHARM OF COLOR XL THE BLUE FLOWER BORDER XII. PLANT NAMES . . . . XIII. TUSSY-MUSSIES ..... XIV. JOAN SILVER-PIN . . . . . XV. CHILDHOOD IN A GARDEN . . XVI. MEETIN' SEED AND SABBATH DAY POSIES XVII. SUN-DIALS ..... . . XVIII. GARDEN FURNISHINGS .... XIX. GARDEN BOUNDARIES . . . . XX. A MOONLIGHT GARDEN XXI. FLOWERS OF MYSTERY . . . . XXII. ROSES OF YESTERDAY . . ; . INDEX . . » . .. . . vii i 38 54 9i 107 132 161 192 215 233 252 280 296 309 326 34i 353 383 399 4*5 433 459 479 List of Illustrations The vignette on the title-page is re-drawn trom one in 'J'he 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 initials are from old wood- cut initials in the English Herbals of Gerarde, Parkinson, and Cole. Garden of Johnson Mansion, Germantown. Photographed by Henry Troth facing 4 Garden at Grumblethorp, Home of Charles J. Wister, Esq., Germantown, Pennsylvania 7 Garden of Bartram House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania . . 9 Garden of Abigail Adams, Quincy, Massachusetts . . .10 Garden at Mount Vernon-on-the-Potomac, Virginia. Home of George Washington facing 12 Gate and Hedge of Preston Garden, Columbia, South Carolina 1 5 Fountain Path in Preston Garden, Columbia, South Carolina . 1 8 Door in Wall of Kitchen Garden at Van Cortlandt Manor. Croton-on-Httdson, New York. Photographed by J. Horace Me Garland facing 20 Garden of Van Cortlandt Manor. Photographed by J. Horace McFarland facing 24 Garden at Prince Homestead, Flushing, Long Island . . 28 Old Dutch Garden of Bergen Homestead, Bay Ridge, Long Island facing 32 Garden at Duck Cove, Narragansett, Rhode Island . . 35 The Flowering Almond under the Window. Photographed by Eva E. Newell 39 Peter's Wreath. Photographed by Eva E. Newell 41 x List of Illustrations PAGE Peonies in Garden of John Robinson, Esq.. Salem, Massachu- setts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis . . facing 42 White Peonies. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall . . 42 Yellow Day Lilies. Photographed by Clifton Johnson . facing 48 Orange Lilies. Photographed by Eva E. Newell ... 50 Preston Garden, Columbia, South Carolina . . . facing 54 Box-edged Parterre at Hampton, County Baltimore, Maryland. Home of Mrs. John Ridgely. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot 57 Parterre and Clipped Box at Hampton, County Baltimore, Maryland. Home of Mrs. John Ridgely. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot 60 Garden of Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, Waldstein, Fairfield, Connecticut. Photographed by Mabel Osgood Wright . 63 A Shaded Walk, hi the Garden of Miss Harriet P. F. Burn- side, Worcester, Massachusetts. Photographed by Her- schel F. Da-vis facing 64 Roses and Larkspur in the Garden of Miss Harriet P. F. Burnside, Worcester, Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis .65 The Hotnely Back Yard. Photographed by Henry Troth facing 66 Covered Well at Home of Bishop Berkeley, Whitehall, New- port, Rhode Island 68 Kitchen Doorway and Porch at The Hedges, New Hope, County Bucks, Pennsylvania 70 Greenwood, Thomasville, Georgia 73 Roses and Violets in Garden of Greenwood, Thomasville, Georgia facing 74 Water Garden at Sylvester Manor, Shelter Island, New York. Home of Miss Cornelia Horsford. 75 Garden at Avonwood Court, Haver ford, Pennsylvania. Coun- try-seat of Charles E. Mather, Esq. Photographed by J. Horace McFarland facing 76 Terrace Wall at Drumthwacket, Princeton, New Jersey. Country-seat of M. Taylor Pyne, Esq 76 Garden at Drumthwacket, Princeton, New Jersey. Country- seat of M. Taylor Pyne, Esq 77 Sun-dial at Avonwood Court, Haver ford, Pennsylvania. Country-seat of Charles E. Mather, Esq. Photographed by J. Horace McFarland facing 80 List of Illustrations xi Entrance Porch and Gate to the Rose Garden at Yaddo, Sara- toga, New York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esq. Photographed by Gustave Lorey . ... .82 Pergola and Terrace Walk in Rose Garden at Yaddo, Sara- toga, New York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esq. Photographed by Gustave Lorey 83 Statue of Christ alan in Rose Garden at Yaddo, Saratoga, New York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esq. Photo- graphed by Gustave Lorey 84 Sun-dial in Rose Garden at Yaddo, Saratoga, New York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esq. Photographed by Gustave Lorey 86 Bronze Dial-face in Rose Garden at Yaddo, Saratoga, New York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esq. Photo- graphed by Gustave Lorey . ... . -87 Ancient Pine in Garden at Yaddo, Saratoga, New York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esq. Photographed by Gustave Lorey 89 House and Garden at Napanock, County Ulster, New York. Photographed by Edward Lainson Henry, N. A. .facing 92 Box Parterre at Hampton, County Baltimore, Maryland. Home of Mrs. John Ridgely. Photographed by Elizabeth IV. Trescot 95 Sun-dial in Box at Broughton Castle, Banbury, England. Garden of Lady Lennox . . . ' . . . .98 Sun-dial in Box at Ascott, near Leighton Buzzard, England. Cottntry-seat of Mr. Leopold Rothschild . . facing 100 Garden at Tudor Place, Georgetown, District of Columbia. Home of Mrs. Beverly Kennon. Photographed by Eliza- beth W. Trescot 103 Anchor-shaped Flower Beds, Kingston, Rhode Island. Photo- graphed by Sarah P. Mar chant . . . . .104 Ancient Box at Tuckahoe, Virginia 105 Herb Garden at White Birches, Elmhurst, Illinois . . .108 Garden at White Birches, Elmhurst, Illinois . . . . 1 1 1 Garden of Manning Homestead, Salem, Massachusetts facing 1 1 2 Under the Garret Eaves of Ward Homestead, Shrewsbury, Massachusetts 116 A Gatherer of Simples. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall facing 120 xii List of Illustrations PAGE Sage. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall . . . .126 Tansy. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall . . .129 Garden of Mrs. Abraham Lansing, Albany, New York. Pho- tographed by Gttstave Lorey .... facing 130 Ladies* Delights. Photographed by Eva E. Newell . . 1 33 Garden House and Long Walk in Garden of Hon. William H. Seward, Auburn, New York . . . facing 134 Sun-dial in Garden of Hon. William H. Seward, Auburn, New York 136 Lilacs in Midsummer. In Garden of Mrs. Abraham Lan- sing, Albany, New York. Photographed by Gustave Lorey facing 138 Lilacs at Craigie House, Cambridge, Massachusetts* the Home of Longfellow. Photographed by Arthur N. Wilmarth . 141 Box-edged Garden at Home of Longfellow, Cambridge, Massa- chusetts. Photographed by Arthur N. Wilmarth . .142 Joepye-weed and Queen Anne^s Laces. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall 145 Boneset. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall . . . 1 46 Magnolias in Garden of William Brown, Esq., Flatbush, Long Island facing 148 Lilacs at Hopewell 1 49 Persian Lilacs and Peonies in Garden of Kimball Homestead, Portsmouth, New Hampshire 151 Opyn-tide, the Thought of Spring. Garden of Mrs. Abraham Lansing, Albany, New York. Photographed by Pirie MacDonald ....... facing 154 A Thought of Winter's Snows. Garden of Frederick J. Kings- bury, Esq., Waterbury, Connecticut 157 Larkspur and Phlox. Garden of Miss Frances Clary Morse, Worcester, Massachusetts 162 Sweet William and Foxglove 1 63 Plume Poppy 164 Meadow Rue 167 Money-in-both-Pockets 171 Box Walk in Garden of Frederick J. Kingsbury, Esq., Water- bury, Connecticut 173 Lunaria in Garden of Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, Fair- field, Connecticut. Photographed by Mabel Osgood Wright facing 174 List of Illustrations xiii PAGE Dahlia Walk at Ravensworth, County Fairfax, Virginia. Home of Mrs. W. R. Fitzhugh Lee. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot 177 Petunias 180 Virgin's Bower, in Garden of Miss Frances Clary Morse, Worcester, Massachusetts 184 Matrimony Vine at Van Cortlandt Manor. Photographed by J. Horace Me Far land , 186 White Chinese Wistaria, in Garden of Mortimer Howell, Esq., West Hampton Beach, Long island 1 88 Spircea Van Houtteii. Photographed by J. Horace McFar- land facing 190 Old Apple Tree at Whitehall. Home of Bishop Berkeley, near Newport, Rhode Island 194 " The valley stretching below Is white with blossoming Apple trees, As if touched with lightest snow.'1'1 Photographed by T. E. M. and G. F. White . . .197 Old Hand-power Cider Mill. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall . 198 Pressing out the Cider in Old Hand Mill 200 Old Cider Mill with Horse Power. Photographed by T. E. M. and G. F. White 203 Straining off the Cider into Barrels . . . . . . 204 Drying Apples. Photographed by T. E. M. and G. F. White facing 208 Ancient Apple Picker, Apple Racks, Apple Parers, Apple Butter Kettle, Apple Butter Paddle, Apple Butter Stirrer, Apple Butter Crocks. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall 21 1 Making Apple Butter. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall facing 214 Shakespeare Border in Garden at Hillside, Menand?s, near Albany, New York. Photographed by Gustave Lorey . 216 Long Border at Hillside, Menand^s, near Albany, New York. Photographed by Gustave Lorey . . . facing 218 The Beauty of Winter Lilacs. In Garden of Mrs. Abraham Lansing, Albany, New York. Photographed by Pirie Mac- Donald 220 Garden of Mrs. Frank Robinson, Wakefteld, Rhode Island . 222 xiv List of Illustrations PAGE The Parson's Walk ......... 225 Garden of Mary Washington 228 Box and Phlox. Garden of Sylvester Manor, Shelter Island, New York 230 Within the Weeping Beech. Photographed by E. C. Nichols facing 232 Spring Snow/lake, Garden of Miss Frances Clary Morse, Worcester, Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Da-vis 234 Star of Bethlehem, in Garden of Miss Frances Clary Morse, Worcester, Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis 237 "The Pearl" Achillaa 238 Pyrethrum. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall . . . 242 Terraced Garden of the Misses Nichols, Salem, Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis 246 Arbor in a Salem Garden 250 Scilla in Garden of Miss Frances Clary Morse, Worcester, Massachusetts 254 Sweet Alyssum Edging of White Border at Indian Hill, New- bur y port, Massachusetts .256 Bachelor** Buttons in a Salem Garden. Home of Mrs. Ed- ward B. Peirson 258 A " Sweet Garden-side " in Salem, Massachusetts, Home of John Robinson, Esq. ...... facing 260 Salpiglossis in Garden at Indian Hill, Newburyport, Massa- chusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis . . .261 The Old Campanula, Garden of Miss Frances Clary Morse, Worcester, Massachusetts 263 Chinese Bellflower. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis . . 264 Garden at Tudor Place, Georgetown, District of Columbia. Home of Mrs. Beverly Kennon. Photographed by Eliza- beth W. Trescot facing 266 Light as a Loop of Larkspur, in Garden of Judge Oliver Wen- dell Holmes, Beverly, Massachusetts 269 Vipers Bugloss. Photographed by Henry Troth . . . 274 The Prim Precision of Leaf and Flower of Lupine. Photo- graphed by Henry Troth 276 The Garden's Friend. Photographed by Clifton Johnson . 281 List of Illustrations xv PAGE Edging of Striped Lilies in a Salem Garden. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis . 283 Garden Seat at Avonwood Court. Photographed by J. Horace McFarland ....... facing 286 Terraced Garden of the Misses Nichols, Salem, Massachusetts 288 "A Running Ribbon of Perfumed Snow which the Sun is melting rapidly.'1'' At Marchant Farm, Kingston, Rhode Island. Photographed by Sarah F. Marchant . . . 292 Fountain Garden at Sylvester Manor, Shelter Island, New York facing 294 Hawthorn Arch at Holly House, Peace Dale, Rhode Island. Home of Rowland G. Hazard, Esq 298 Thyme-covered Graves. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall 301 " White Umbrellas of Elder " ....... 305 Lower Garden at Sylvester Manor, Shelter Island, New York facing 308 " Black-heart Amorous Poppies v . . . . . .310 Valerian. Photographed by E. C.Nichols . •'. . . 314 Old War Office in Garden at Salem, New Jersey . . . 319 Crown Imperial. Page from Gerarde^s Herball . facing 324 The Children^ Garden . facing 330 Foxgloves in a Narragansett Garden . . . . . 333 Hollyhocks in Garden of Kimball Homestead, Portsmouth, New Hampshire facing 334 Autumn View of an Old Worcester Garden . . facing 338 Hollyhocks at Tudor Place, Georgetown, District of Columbia. Home of Mrs. Beverly Kennon 339 An Old Worcester Garden. Home of Edwin A. Fawcett,Esq. facing 340 Caraway 342 Sun-dial of Jonathan Fairbanks, Esq., Dedham, Massachu- setts 344 Bronze Sun-dial on Dutch Reformed Church, West End Avenue, New York . . . . . . . . 346 Sun-dial mounted on Boulder, Swiftwater, Pennsylvania . 347 Buckthorn Arch in Garden of Mrs. Edward B. Peirson, Salem, Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis ,- '»...'... . .-r. i .-;... . . . facing 348 Sun-dial at Emery Place, Brightwood, District of Columbia. Photographed by William Van Zandt Cox . . . 349 xvi List of Illustrations Sun-dial at Travellers ' Rest, Virginia. Home of Mrs. Bowie Gray. Photographed by Elizabeth IV. Trescot . . -350 Two Old Cronies ; the Sun-dial and Beeskepe. Photographed by Eva E. Newell 354 Portable Sun-dial from Collection of the Author . . . 356 Sun-dial in Garden of Frederick J. Kingsbury, Esq., Water- bury, Connecticut 358 Sun-dial at Morristown, New Jersey. Designed by IV. Gedney Beatty, Esq 359 " Yes, Toby, ifs Three o^clock?'' Judge Daly and his Sun-dial at Sag Harbor, Long Island. Drawn by Edward Lamson Henry, N.A 361 Face of Dial at Sag Harbor, Long Island .... 362 Sun-dial in Garden of Grace Church Rectory, New York. Photographed by J. IV. Dow 364 Fugio Bank-note 365 Sun-dial at "Washington House," Little Brington, England . 367 Dial-face from Mount Vernon. Owned by William F. Have- meyer, Esq 368 Sun-dial from Home of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot . . 369 Kenmore, the Home of Betty Washington Lewis, Fredericks- burg, Virginia. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot . 371 Sun-dial in Garden of Charles T. Jenkins, Esq., Germantown, Pennsylvania 373 Sun-dial at Ophir Farm, White Plains, New York. Country- seat of Hon. White law Reid 375 Sun-dial at Hillside, Menand's, near Albany, New York . 378 Old Brass and Pewter Dial-faces from Collection of Author . 379 Beata Beatrix , . facing 380 The Faithful Gardener . . ... * . .381 A Garden Lyre at Waterford, Virginia . . . facing 384 A Virginia Lyre with Vines 386 Old Iron Gates at Westover-on-James, Virginia. Photo- graphed by George S. Cook 388 Ironwork in Court of Colt Mansion, Bristol, Rhode Island. Photographed by J. W.Dow 390 Sharpening the Old Dutch Scythe. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall ..*.... facing 392 List of Illustrations xvii PAGE Smntner-house at Ravensworth, County Fairfax, Virginia. Home of Mrs. W. H. Fitzhugh Lee. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot 392 Beehives at Waterford, Virginia. Photographed by Henry Troth facing 394 Beehives under the Trees. Photographed by Henry Troth . 395 Spring House at Johnson Homestead, Germantown, Pennsyl- vania. Photographed by Henry Troth . . . facing 396 Dovecote at Shirley-on-James, Virginia. From Some Colonial Mansions and Those who lived in Them. Published by Henry T. Coates &= Co., Philadelphia .... 397 The Peacock in his Pride . 398 The Guardian of the Garden 400 Brick Terrace Wall at Van Cortlandt Manor. Photo- graphed by J. Horace McFarland . . . facing 402 Rail Fence Corner 403 Topiary Work at Levens Hall ....... 404 Oval Pergola at Arlington, Virginia. Photographed by Eliza- beth W. Trescot facing 406 French Homestead, Kingston, Rhode Island, with Old Stone Terrace Wall. Photographed by Sarah F. Marchant . 407 Italian Garden at Wellesley, Massachusetts. Country-seat of Hollis H. Hunnewell, Esq facing 408 Marble Steps in Italian Garden at Wellesley, Massachusetts . 410 Topiary Work in California 412 Serpentine Brick Wall at University of Virginia, Charlottes- ville, Virginia. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot . 413 Chestnut Path in Garden at Indian Hill, Newburyporl, Mas- sachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis facing 418 Foxgloves in Lower Garden at Indian Hill, Newburyport, Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis . 42 1 Dame's Rocket. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall . . 424 Snakeroot. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall . . . 426 Title-page of Parkinson's Paradisi in Solis, etc. . facing 428 Yuccas, like White Marble against the Evergreens . . . 430 Fraxinella in Garden of Miss Frances Clary Morse, Worces- ter, Massachusetts facing 432 Love-in-a-Mist. Photographed by Henry Troth . . . 436 Spiderwort in an Old Worcester Garden. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis ...... facing 438 xviii List of Illustrations PAGE Gardeners Garters at Van Cortlandt Manor. Photographed by J. Horace McFarland . . ..-••.. • • • 44° Garden Walk at The Manse, Deerfield, Massachusetts. Photo- graphed by Clifton Johnson .... facing 442 London Pride. Photographed by Eva E. Newell . . .445 White Fritillaria in Garden of Miss Frances Clary Morse, Worcester, Massachusetts 448 Bouncing Bet . • • 451 Overgrown Garden at Llanerck, Pennsylvania. Photographed by Henry Troth facing 454 Fountain at Yaddo, Saratoga, New York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esq. . . . . • . . -455 Avenue of White Pines at Wellesley, Massachusetts. Country- seat of Hollis H. Hunneivell, Esq 456 Violets in Silver Double Coaster . . . . . .461 York and Lancaster Rose at Van Cortlandt Manor. Photo- graphed by J. Horace McFarland . . . facing 462 Cinnamon Roses. Photographed by Mabel Osgood Wright . 465 Cottage Garden with Roses. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall facing 468 Madame Plantier Rose. Photographed by Mabel Osgood Wright 474 Sun-dial and Roses at Van Cortlandt Manor. Photographed by J. Horace McFarland ..... facing 476 Old Time Gardens Old Time Gardens CHAPTER I 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 flower- 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, NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. FTER ten wearisome weeks of 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, 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. 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 Arbella 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 in a 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 homes. 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 New 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 so 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 seemed 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' sake. 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 Colonial Garden-making 5 comes from directness, and an absence of self- consciousness. He published in 1672 a book en- titled New England'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 well 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 the 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 " — a Sweetbrier, Eglantine, or English Rose — these colonial dames might well find " Patience Colonial ' Garden-making y 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 8 Old Time 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 observer. 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-vitae had been described 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 of our plants ; and all English naturalists were longing to add to the list; the ships which brought over Colonial Garden-making n 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, for 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, Esq., of Germantownj 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 9. 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, Colonial Garden-making 13 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 95. 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 i6 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 Dray tons 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-trees; mammoth Rhododen- drons; Azaleas of every Azalea 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 ; the avenue of largest Oaks was planted two centuries ago. I give no picture of this Drayton Garden, for a photograph of these many acres of solid bloom is a meaningless thing. Even an oil painting of it is Colonial Garden-making 17 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 : " OF THE FLOWERS. 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 maritoffles (a very sweet flower), several species of bell flowers, etc., to which I have not given particular attention, but amateurs i8 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 architecture. 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." A picture of the green-house of James Beekman, of New York, 1764, still exists, a primitive little affair. The first glass-house in North America is believed to be one built in Boston for Andrew Faneuil, who died in 1737. Mrs. Anne Grant, writing of her life near Albany in the middle of the eighteenth century, gives a very good description of the Schuyler garden. Skulls of domestic animals on fence posts, would seem astounding had I not read of similar decorations in old Continental gardens. Vines grew over these grisly fence-capitals and birds built their nests in them, so in time the Dutch housewife's peaceful 2O Old Time Gardens kitchen garden ceased to resemble the kraal of an African chieftain ; to this day, in South Africa, na- tives and Dutch Boers thus set up on gate posts the skulls of cattle. Mrs. Grant writes of the Dutch in Albany : — " The care of plants, such as needed peculiar care or skill to rear them, was the female province. Every one in town or country had a garden. Into this garden no foot of man intruded after it was dug in the Spring. I think I see yet what I have so often beheld — a respectable mistress of a family going out to her garden, on an April morning, with her great calash, her little painted basket of seeds, and her rake over her shoulder to her garden of labours. A woman in very easy circumstances and abundantly gentle in form and manners would sow and plant and rake in- cessantly." We have happily a beautiful example of the old Dutch manor garden, at Van Cortlandt Manor, at Croton-on-Hudson, New York, still in the posses- sion of the Van Cortlandt family. It is one of the few gardens in America that date "really to colonial days. The manor house was built in 1681 ; it is one of those fine old Dutch homesteads of which we still have many existing throughout New York, in which dignity, comfort, and fitness are so hap- pily combined. These homes are, in the words of a traveller of colonial days, " so pleasant in their building, and contrived so delightful." Above all, they are so suited to their surroundings that they seem an intrinsic part of the landscape, as they do of the old life of this Hudson River Valley. Door in Wall of Kitchen Garden at Van Cortlandt Manor. Colonial Garden-making 11 I do not doubt that this Van Cortlandt garden was laid out when the house was built ; much of it must be two centuries old. It has been extended, not altered ; and the grass-covered bank supporting the upper garden was replaced by a brick terrace wall about sixty years ago. Its present form dates to the days when New York was a province. The upper garden is laid out in formal flower beds ; the lower border is rich in old vines and shrubs, and all the beloved old-time hardy plants. There is in the manor-house an ancient portrait of the child Pierre Van Cortlandt, painted about the year 1732. He stands by a table bearing a vase filled with old gar- den flowers — Tulip, Convolvulus, Harebell, Rose, Peony, Narcissus, and Flowering Almond ; and it is the pleasure of the present mistress of the manor, to see that the garden still holds all the great-grand- father's flowers. There is a vine-embowered old door in the wall under the piazza (see opposite page 20) which opens into the kitchen and fruit garden ; a wall-door so quaint and old-timey that I always remind me of Shakespeare's lines in Measure for Measure : — " He hath a garden circummured with brick, Whose western side is with a Vineyard back'd ; And to that Vineyard is a planched gate That makes his opening with this bigger key : The other doth command a little door Which from the Vineyard to the garden leads." The long path is a beautiful feature of this gar- den (it is shown in the picture of the garden oppo- 22 Old Time Gardens site page 24) ; it dates certainly to the middle of the eighteenth century. Pierre Van Cortlandt, the son of the child with the vase of flowers, and grand- father of the present generation bearing his surname, was born in 1762. He well recalled playing along this garden path when he was a child ; and that one day he and his little sister Ann (Mrs. Philip Van Rensselaer) ran a race along this path and through the garden to see who could first " see the baby " and greet their sister, Mrs. Beekman, who came riding to the manor-house up the hill from Tarry- town, and through the avenue, which shows on the right-hand side of the garden-picture. This beauti- ful young woman was famed everywhere for her grace and loveliness, and later equally so for her intelligence and goodness, and the prominent part she bore in the War of the Revolution. She was seated on a pillion behind her husband, and she car- ried proudly in her arms her first baby (afterward Dr. Beekman) wrapped in a scarlet cloak. This is one of the home-pictures that the old garden holds. Would we could paint it ! In this garden, near the house, is a never failing spring and well. The house was purposely built near it, in those days of sudden attacks by Ind- ians ; it has proved a fountain of perpetual youth for the old Locust tree, which shades it; a tree more ancient than house or garden, serene and beauti- ful in its hearty old age. Glimpses of this manor- house garden and its flowers are shown on many pages of this book, but they cannot reveal its beauty as a whole — its fine, proportions, its noble Colonial Garden-making 23 background, its splendid trees, its turf, its beds of bloom. Oh ! how beautiful a garden can be, when for two hundred years it has been loved and cher- ished, ever nurtured, ever guarded ; how plainly it shows such care ! Another Dutch garden is pictured opposite page 32, the garden of the Bergen Homestead, at Bay Ridge, Long Island. Let me quote part of its description, written by Mrs. Tunis Bergen: — " Over the half-open Dutch door you look through the vines that climb about the stoop, as into a vista of the past. Beyond the garden is the great Quince orchard of hundreds of trees in pink and white glory. This orchard has a story which you must pause in the garden to hear. In the Library at Washington is preserved, in quaint man- uscript, ' The Battle of Brooklyn,' a farce written and said to have been performed during the British occupation. The scene is partly laid in 4 the orchard of one Bergen,' where the British hid their horses after the battle of Long Island — this is the orchard ; but the blossoming Quince trees tell no tale of past carnage. At one side of the garden is a quaint little building with moss-grown roof and climbing hop-vine — the last slave kitchen left standing in New York — on the other side are rows of homely bee- hives.' The old Locust tree overshadowing is an ancient landmark — it was standing in 1690. For some years it has worn a chain to bind its aged limbs together. All this beauty of tree and flower lived till 1890, when it was swept away by the growing city. Though now but a memory, it has the perfume of its past flowers about it." The Locust was so often a "home tree" and so fitting a one, that I have grown to associate ever 24 Old Time Gardens with these Dutch homesteads a light-leaved Locust tree, shedding its beautiful flickering shadows on the long roof. I wonder whether there was any association or tradition that made the Locust the house-friend in old New York ! The first nurseryman in the new world was stern old Governor Endicott of Salem. In 1644 he wrote to Governor Winthrop, " My children burnt mee at least 500 trees by setting the ground on fire neere them " — which was a very pretty piece of mischief for sober Puritan children. We find all thoughtful men of influence and prominence in all the colonies raising various fruits, and selling trees and plants, but they had no independent business nurseries. If tradition be true, it is to Governor Endicott we owe an indelible dye on the landscape of eastern Massachusetts in midsummer. The Dyer's-weed or Woad-waxen (Genista tinctoria], which, in July, covers hundreds of acres in Lynn, Salem, Swamp- scott, and Beverly with its solid growth and brill- iant yellow bloom, is said to have been brought to this country as the packing of some of the gov- ernor's household belongings. It is far more prob- able that he brought it here to raise it in his garden for dyeing purposes, with intent to benefit the col- ony, as he did other useful seeds and plants. Woad- waxen, or Broom, is a persistent thing ; it needs scythe, plough, hoe, and bitter labor to eradicate it. I cannot call it a weed, for it has seized only poor rock-filled land, good for naught else ; and the radiant beauty of the Salem landscape for many Colonial Garden-making 25 weeks makes us forgive its persistence, and thank Endicott for bringing it here. " The Broom, Full-flowered and visible on every steep, Along the copses runs in veins of gold." The Broom flower is the emblem of mid-summer, the hottest yellow flower I know — it seems to throw out heat. I recall the first time I saw it growing ; I was told that it was " Salem Wood-wax." I had heard of " Roxbury Waxwork," the Bitter-sweet, but this was a new name, as it was a new tint of yellow, and soon I had its history, for I find Salem people rather proud both of the flower and its story. Oxeye Daisies (Whiteweed) are also by vague tra- dition the children of Governor Endicott's planting. I think it far more probable that they were planted and cherished by the wives of the colonists, when their beloved English Daisies were found unsuited to New England's climate and soil. We note the Woad-waxen and Whiteweed as crowding usurpers, not only because they are persistent, but because their great expanses of striking bloom will not let us forget them. Many other English plants are just as determined intruders, but their modest dress permits them to slip in comparatively unobserved. It has ever been characteristic of the British colo- nist to carry with him to any new home the flowers of old England and Scotland, and characteristic of these British flowers to monopolize the earth. Sweetbrier is called " the missionary-plant," by the Maoris in New Zealand, and is there regarded 26 Old Time Gardens < as a tiresome weed, spreading and holding the ground. Some homesick missionary or his more homesick wife bore it there ; and her love of the home plant impressed even the savage native. We all know the story of the Scotch settlers who car- ried their beloved Thistles to Tasmania " to make it seem like home," and how they lived to regret it. Vancouver's Island is completely overrun with Broom and wild Roses from England. The first commercial nursery in America, in the sense of the term as we now employ it, was estab- lished about 1730 by Robert Prince, in Flushing, Long Island, a community chiefly of French Hu- guenot settlers, who brought to the new world many French fruits by seed and cuttings, and also a love of horticulture. For over a century and a quarter these Prince Nurseries were the leading ones in Amer- ica. The sale of fruit trees was increased in 1774 (as we learn from advertisements in the New York Mercury of that year), by the sale of "Carolina Magnolia flower trees, the most beautiful trees that grow in America, and 50 large Catalpa flower trees ; they are nine feet high to the under part of the top and thick as one's leg," also other flowering trees and shrubs. The fine house built on the nursery grounds by William Prince suffered little during the Revolu- tion. It was occupied by Washington and after- wards house and nursery were preserved from depredations by a guard placed by General Howe when the British took possession of Flushing. Of course, domestic nursery business waned in time of Colonial Garden-making 27 war ; but an excellent demand for American shrubs and trees sprung up among the officers of the British army, to send home to gardens in England and Ger- many. Many an English garden still has ancient plants and trees from the Prince Nurseries. The " Linnaean Botanic Garden and Nurseries " and the " Old American Nursery " thrived once more at the close of the war, and William Prince the second entered in charge ; one of his earliest ventures of importance was the introduction of Lombardy Poplars. In 1798 he advertises ten thousand trees, ten to seventeen feet in height. These became the most popular tree in America, the emblem of democracy — and a warmly hated tree as well. The eighty acres of nursery grounds were a centre of botanic and horticultural interest for the entire country ; every tree, shrub, vine, and plant known to England and America was eagerly sought for; here the important botanical treasures of Lewis and Clark found a home. William Prince wrote several notable horticultural treatises ; and even his trade catalogues were prized. He estab- lished the first steamboats between Flushing and New York, built roads and bridges on Long Isl- and, and was a public-spirited, generous citizen as well as a man of science. His son, William Robert Prince, who died in 1869, was the last to keep up the nurseries, which he did as a scientific rather than a commercial establishment. He bota- nized the entire length of the Atlantic States with Dr. Torrey, and sought for collections of trees and wild flowers in California with the same eagerness 28 Old Time Gardens that others there sought gold. He was a devoted promoter of the native silk industry, having vast plantations of Mulberries in many cities ; for one at Norfolk, Virginia, he was offered $ 100,000. It is a curious fact that the interest in Mulberry cul- ture and the practice of its cultivation was so uni- Garden at Prince Homestead, Flushing, Long Island. versal in his neighborhood (about the year 1830), that cuttings of the Chinese Mulberry (Morus multi- caulls] were used as currency in all the stores in the vicinity of Flushing, at the rate of 12^ cents each. The Prince homestead, a fine old mansion, is here shown ; it is still standing, surrounded by that forlorn sight, a forgotten garden. This is of con- siderable extent, and evidences of its past dignity Colonial Garden-making 29 appear in the hedges and edgings of Box ; one symmetrical great Box tree is fifty feet in circumfer- ence. Flowering shrubs, unkempt of shape, bloom and beautify the waste borders each spring, as do the oldest Chinese Magnolias in the United States. Gingkos, Paulownias, and weeping trees, which need no gardener's care> also flourish and are of unusual size. There are some splendid evergreens, such as Mt. Atlas Cedars ; and the oldest and finest Cedar of Lebanon in the United States. It seemed sad, as I looked at the evidences of so much past beauty and present decay, that this historic house and gar- den should not be preserved for New York, as the house and garden of John Bartram, the Philadelphia botanist, have been for his native city. While there are few direct records of American gardens in the eighteenth century, we have many in- structing side glimpses through old business letter- books. We find Sir Harry Frankland ordering Daffodils and Tulips for the garden he made for Agnes Surriage ; and it is said that the first Lilacs ever seen in Hopkinton were planted by him for her. The gay young nobleman and the lovely woman are in the dust, and of all the beautiful things belonging to them there remain a splendid Portuguese fan, which stands as a memorial of that tragic crisis in their life — the great Lisbon earth- quake ; and the Lilacs, which still mark the site of her house and blossom each spring as a memorial of the shadowed romance of her life in New England. Let me give two pages from old letters to illus- trate what I mean by side glimpses at the contents jo Old Time Gardens of colonial gardens. The fine Hancock mansion in Boston had a carefully-filled garden long previous to the Revolution. Such letters as the following were sent by Mr. Hancock to England to secure flowers for it : — " My Trees and Seeds for Capt. Bennett Came Safe to Hand and I like them very well. I Return you my hearty Thanks for the Plumb Tree and Tulip Roots you were pleased to make me a Present off, which are very Accep- table to me. I have Sent my friend Mr. Wilks a mmo. to procure for me 2 or 3 Doz. Yew Trees, Some Hollys and Jessamine Vines, and if you have Any Particular Curious Things not of a high Price, will Beautifye a flower Garden Send a Sample with the Price or a Catalogue of 'em, I do not intend to spare Any Cost or Pains in making my Gardens Beautifull or Profitable. " P.S. The Tulip Roots you were Pleased to make a present off to me are all Dead as well." We find Richard Stockton writing in 1766 from England to his wife at their beautiful home " Morven," in Princeton, New Jersey : — 11 1 am making you a charming collection of bulbous roots, which shall be sent over as soon as the prospect of freezing on your coast is over. The first of April, I believe, will be time enough for you to put them in your sweet little flower garden, which you so fondly cultivate. Suppose I inform you that I design a ride to Twickenham the latter end of next month principally to view Mr. Pope's gardens and grotto, which I am told remain nearly as he left them ; and that I shall take with me a gentleman who draws well, to lay down an exact plan of the whole." Colonial Garden-making 31 The fine line of Catalpa trees set out by Richard Stockton, along the front of his lawn, were in full flower when he rode up to his house on a memor- able July day to tell his wife that he had signed the Declaration of American Independence. Since then Catalpa trees bear everywhere in that vicinity Old Box at Prince Homestead. the name of Independence trees, and are believed to be ever in bloom on July 4th. In the delightful diary and letters of Eliza South- gate Bowne (A Girl's Life Eighty Years Ago], are other side glimpses of the beautiful gardens of old Salem, among them those of the wealthy mer- chants of the Derby family. Terraces and arches 32 Old Time Gardens show a formality of arrangement, for they were laid out by a Dutch gardener whose descendants still live in Salem. All had summer-houses, which were larger and more important buildings than what are to-day termed summer-houses ; these latter were known in Salem and throughout Virginia as bowers. One summer-house had an arch through it with three doors on each side which opened into little apart- ments ; one of them had a staircase by which you could ascend into a large upper room, which was the whole size of the building. This was constructed to command a fine view, and was ornamented with Chinese articles of varied interest and value ; it was used for tea-drinkings. At the end of the garden, concealed by a dense Weeping Willow, was a thatched hermitage, containing the life-size figure of a man reading a prayer-book ; a bed of straw and some broken furniture completed the picture. This was an English fashion, seen at one time in many old English gardens, and held to be most romantic. Apparently summer evenings were spent by the Derby household and their visitors wholly in the garden and summer-house. The diary keeper writes naively, " The moon shines brighter in this garden than anywhere else." The shrewd and capable women of the colonies who entered so freely and successfully into business ventures found the selling of flower seeds a con- genial occupation, and often added it to the pursuit of other callings. I think it must have been very pleasant to buy packages of flower seed at the same time and place where you bought your best bonnet, Colonial Garden-making 33 and have all sent home in a bandbox together ; each would prove a memorial of the other ; and long after the glory of the bonnet had departed, and the bonnet itself was ashes, the thriving Sweet Peas and Larkspur would recall its becoming charms. I have often seen the advertisements of these seedswomen in old newspapers ; unfortunately they seldom gave printed lists of their store of seeds. Here is one list printed in a Boston newspaper on March 30, 1760: — Lavender. Palma Christi. Cerinthe or Honeywort, loved of bees. Tricolor. Indian Pink. Scarlet Cacalia. Yellow Sultans. Lemon African Marigold. Sensitive Plants. White Lupine. Love Lies Bleeding. Patagonian Cucumber. Lobelia. Catchfly. Wing-peas. Convolvulus. Strawberry Spinage. Branching Larkspur. White Chrysanthemum. Nigaella Romano. Rose Campion. Snap Dragon. Nolana prostrata. Summer Savory. Hyssop. Red Hawkweed. Red and White Lavater. Scarlet Lupine. Large blue Lupine. Snuff flower. Caterpillars. Cape Marigold. Rose Lupine. Sweet Peas. Venus' Navelwort. Yellow Chrysanthemum. Cyanus minor. Tall Holyhock. French Marigold. Carnation Poppy. Globe Amaranthus. Yellow Lupine. Indian Branching Cox- combs. Iceplants. 34 Old Time Gardens Thyme. Sweet William. Sweet Marjoram. Honesty (to be sold in small Tree Mallows. parcels that every one may Everlasting. have a little). Greek Valerian. Persicaria. Tree Primrose. Polyanthos. Canterbury Bells. 50 Different Sorts of mixed Purple Stock. Tulip Roots. Sweet Scabiouse. Ranunculus Columbine. Gladiolus. Pleasant-eyed Pink. Starry Scabiouse. Dwarf Mountain Pink. Curled Mallows. Sweet Rocket. Painted Lady topknot peas. Horn Poppy. Colchicum. French Honeysuckle. Persian Iris. Bloody Wallflower. Star Bethlehem. This list is certainly a pleasing one. It gives opportunity for flower borders of varied growth and rich color. There is a quality of some minds which may be termed historical imagination. It is the power of shaping from a few simple words or details of the faraway past, an ample picture, full of light and life, of which these meagre details are but a framework. Having this list of the names of these sturdy old annuals and perennials, what do you perceive besides the printed words ? I see that the old mid-century garden where these seeds found a home was a cheerful place from earliest spring to autumn ; that it had many bulbs, and thereafter a constant succession of warm blooms till the Cox- combs, Marigolds, Colchicums and Chrysanthe- mums yielded to New England's frosts. I know Cojonial Garden-making 35 that the garden had beehives and that the bees were loved ; for when they sallied out of their straw bee-skepes, these happy bees found their favorite blossoms planted to welcome them : Cerinthe, drop- ping with honey; Cacalia, a sister flower; Lupine, Larkspur, Sweet Marjoram, and Thyme — I can Old Garden at Duck Cove Farm in Narragansett. taste the Thyme-scented classic honey from that garden ! There was variety of foliage as well as bloom, the dovelike Lavender, the glaucous Horned Poppy, the glistening Iceplants, the dusty Rose Campion. Stately plants grew from the little seed-packets ; Hollyhocks, Valerian, Canterbury Bells, Tree Prim- roses looked down on the low-growing herbs of the 36 Old Time Gardens border ; and there were vines of Convolvulus and Honeysuckle. It was a garden overhung by clouds of perfume from Thyme, Lavender, Sweet Peas, Pleasant-eyed Pink, and Stock. The garden's mis- tress looked well after her household ; ample store of savory pot herbs grow among the finer blossoms. It was a garden for children to play in. I can see them ; little boys with their hair tied in queues, in knee breeches and flapped coats like their stately fathers, running races down the garden path, as did the Van Cortlandt children ; and demure little girls in caps and sacques and aprons, sitting in cubby houses under the Lilac bushes. ' I know what flowers they played with and how they played, for they were my great-grandmothers and grandfathers, and they played exactly what I did, and sang what I did when I was a child in a garden. And suddenly my picture expands, as a glow of patriotic interest thrills me in the thought that in this garden were sheltered and amused the boys of one hundred and forty years ago, who became the heroes of our American Revo- lution ; and the girls who were Daughters of Lib- erty, who spun and wove and knit for their soldiers, and drank heroically their miserable Liberty tea. I fear the garden faded when bitter war scourged the land, when the women turned from their flower beds to the plough and the field, since their brothers and husbands were on the frontier. But when that winter of gloom to our country and darkness to the garden was ended, the flowers bloomed still more brightly, and to the cheerful seed- lings of the old garden is now given perpetual youth Colonial Garden-making 37 and beauty ; they are fated never to grow faded or neglected or sad, but to live and blossom and smile forever in the sunshine of our hearts through the magic power of a few printed words in a time-worn old news-sheet. CHAPTER II FRONT DOORYARDS " There are few of us who cannot remember a front yard garden which seemed to us a very paradise in childhood. Whether the house was a fine one and the enclosure spacious, or whether it was a small house with only a narrow bit of ground in front, the yard was kept with care, and was different from the rest of the land altogether. . . . People do not know what they lose when they make way with the reserve, the separateness, the sanctity, of the front yard of their grandmothers. It is like writing down family secrets for any one to read ; it is like having everybody call you by your first name, or sitting in any pew in church." — Country Byways, SARAH ORNE JEWETT, 1881. LD New England villages and small towns and well-kept New England farms had universally a simple and pleasing -form of garden called the front yard or front dooryard. A few still may be seen in conservative communities in the New England states and in New York or Pennsylvania. I saw flourishing ones this summer in Gloucester, Marblehead, and Ipswich. Even where the front yard was but a narrow strip of land before a tiny cottage, it was carefully fenced in, with a gate that was kept rigidly closed and latched. There seemed to be a law 38 Front Dooryards 39 which shaped and bounded the front yard ; the side fences extended from the corners of the house to the front fence on the edge of the road, and thus formed naturally the guarded parallelogram. Often the fence around the front yard was the only one on the farm ; everywhere else were boun- daries of great stone walls ; or if there were rail The Flowering Almond under the Window. fences, the front yard fence was the only painted I cannot doubt that the first gardens that one. our foremothers had, which were wholly of flower- ing plants, were front yards, little enclosures hard won from the forest. The word yard, not generally applied now to any enclosure of elegant cultivation, comes from the same root as the word garden. Garth is another 40 Old Time Gardens derivative, and the word exists much disguised in orchard. In the sixteenth century yard was used in formal literature instead of garden ; and later Burns writes of" Eden's bonnie yard, Where yeuth- ful lovers first were pair'd." This front yard was an English fashion derived from the forecourt so strongly advised by Gervayse Markham (an interesting old English writer on flori- culture and husbandry), and found in front of many a yeoman's house, and many a more pretentious house as well in Markham's day. Forecourts were common in England until the middle of the eigh- teenth century, and may still be seen. The fore- court gave privacy to the house even when in the centre of a town. Its readoption is advised with handsome dwellings in England, where ground-space is limited, — and why not in America, too? The front yard was sacred to the best beloved, or at any rate the most honored, garden flowers of the house mistress, and was preserved by its fences from inroads of cattle, which then wandered at their will and were not housed, or even enclosed at night. The flowers were often of scant variety, but were those deemed the gentlefolk of the flower world. There was a clump of Daffodils and of the Poet's Narcissus in early spring, and stately Crown Impe- rial; usually, too, a few scarlet and yellow single Tulips, and Grape Hyacinths. Later came Phlox in abundance — the only native American plant, — Canterbury Bells, and ample and glowing London Pride. Of course there were great plants of white and blue Day Lilies, with their beautiful and decora- Front Dooryards 41 tive leaves, and purple and yellow Flower de Luce. A few old-fashioned shrubs always were seen. By inflexible law there must be a Lilac, which might be the aristocratic Persian Lilac. A Syringa, a flow- ering Currant, or Strawberry bush made sweet the front, yard in spring, and sent wafts of fragrance into Peter's Wreath. the house-windows. Spindling, rusty Snowberry bushes were by the gate, and Snowballs also, or our native Viburnums. Old as they seem, the Spiraeas and Deutzias came to us in the nineteenth century from Japan ; as did the flowering Quinces and Cherries. The pink Flowering Almond dates back to the oldest front yards (see page 39), and Peter's Wreath certainly seems an old settler and is found 42 Old Time Gardens now in many front yards that remain. The lovely full-flowered shrub of Peter's Wreath, on page 41, which was photographed for this book, was all that remained of a once-loved front yard. The glory of the front yard was the old-fashioned early red " Piny," cultivated since the days of Pliny. I hear people speaking of it with contempt as a vulgar flower, — flaunting is the conventional derogatory adjective, — but I glory in its flaunting. The modern varieties, of every tint from white through flesh color, coral, pink, ruby color, salmon, and even yellow, to deep red, are as beautiful as Roses. Some are sweet-scented; and they have no thorns, and their foliage is ever perfect, so I am sure the Rose is jealous. I am as fond of the Peony as are the Chinese, among whom it is flower queen. It is by them re- garded as an aristocratic flower; and in old New Eng- land towns fine Peony plants in an old garden are a pretty good indication of the residence of what Dr. Holmes called New England Brahmins. In Salem and Portsmouth are old " Pinys " that have a hun- dred blossoms at a time — a glorious sight. A Japanese name is " Flower-of-prosperity " ; another name, " Plant-of-twenty-days," because its glories last during that period of time. Rhododendrons are to the modern garden what the Peony was in the old-fashioned flower border ; and I am glad the modern flower cannot drive the old one out. They are equally varied in coloring, but the Peony is a much hardier plant, and I like it far better. It has no blights, no bugs, no dis- Front Dooryards 43 eases, no running out, no funguses ; it doesn't have to be covered in winter, and it will bloom in the shade. No old-time or modern garden is to me fully furnished without Peonies ; see how fair they are in this Salem garden. I would grow them in some corner of the garden for their splendid healthy foliage if they hadn't a blossom. The P