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Old Time Gardens
[Illustration]
OLD-TIME GARDENS
_Newly set forth_
_by_
ALICE MORSE EARLE
_A BOOK OF_
THE SWEET O' THE YEAR
"_Life is sweet, brother! There's day and night, brother!
both sweet things: sun, moon and stars, brother! all
sweet things: There is likewise a wind on the heath._"
[Illustration]
NEW YORK
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
LONDON MACMILLAN & CO LTD
MCMII
_All rights reserved_
COPYRIGHT, 1901,
BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up and electrotyped November, 1901. Reprinted December, 1901;
January, 1902.
_Norwood Press_
_J. S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith_
_Norwood, Mass., U.S.A._
[Illustration: TO MY DAUGHTER
ALICE CLARY EARLE
TO WHOSE KNOWLEDGE OF FLOWERS
AND LOVE OF FLOWER LORE
I OWE MANY PAGES OF THIS BOOK....]
Contents
CHAPTER PAGE
I. COLONIAL GARDEN-MAKING 1
II. FRONT DOORYARDS 38
III. VARIED GARDENS FAIR 54
IV. BOX EDGINGS 91
V. THE HERB GARDEN 107
VI. IN LILAC TIDE 132
VII. OLD FLOWER FAVORITES 161
VIII. COMFORT ME WITH APPLES 192
IX. GARDENS OF THE POETS 215
X. THE CHARM OF COLOR 233
XI. THE BLUE FLOWER BORDER 252
XII. PLANT NAMES 280
XIII. TUSSY-MUSSIES 296
XIV. JOAN SILVER-PIN 309
XV. CHILDHOOD IN A GARDEN 326
XVI. MEETIN' SEED AND SABBATH DAY POSIES 341
XVII. SUN-DIALS 353
XVIII. GARDEN FURNISHINGS 383
XIX. GARDEN BOUNDARIES 399
XX. A MOONLIGHT GARDEN 415
XXI. FLOWERS OF MYSTERY 433
XXII. ROSES OF YESTERDAY 459
INDEX 479
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 _The 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.
PAGE
_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_ 15
_Fountain Path in Preston Garden, Columbia, South Carolina_ 18
_Door in Wall of Kitchen Garden at Van Cortlandt Manor.
Croton-on-Hudson, New York. Photographed by J.
Horace McFarland_ 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
_Peonies in Garden of John Robinson, Esq., Salem, Massachusetts.
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. In the Garden of Miss Harriet P. F. Burnside,
Worcester, Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel
F. Davis_ facing 64
_Roses and Larkspur in the Garden of Miss Harriet P. F.
Burnside, Worcester, Massachusetts. Photographed by
Herschel F. Davis_ 65
_The Homely Back Yard. Photographed by Henry Troth_ facing 66
_Covered Well at Home of Bishop Berkeley, Whitehall, Newport,
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, Haverford, Pennsylvania. Country-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, Haverford, Pennsylvania.
Country-seat of Charles E. Mather, Esq. Photographed
by J. Horace McFarland_ facing 80
_Entrance Porch and Gate to the Rose Garden at Yaddo, Saratoga,
New York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esq.
Photographed by Gustave Lorey_ 82
_Pergola and Terrace Walk in Rose Garden at Yaddo, Saratoga,
New York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esq.
Photographed by Gustave Lorey_ 83
_Statue of Christalan in Rose Garden at Yaddo, Saratoga, New
York. Country-seat of Spencer Trask, Esq. Photographed
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. Photographed
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 Lamson Henry, N. A._ facing 92
_Box Parterre at Hampton, County Baltimore, Maryland.
Home of Mrs. John Ridgely. Photographed by Elizabeth
W. 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.
Country-seat of Mr. Leopold Rothschild_ facing 100
_Garden at Tudor Place, Georgetown, District of Columbia.
Home of Mrs. Beverly Kennon. Photographed by Elizabeth
W. Trescot_ 103
_Anchor-shaped Flower Beds, Kingston, Rhode Island. Photographed
by Sarah P. Marchant_ 104
_Ancient Box at Tuckahoe, Virginia_ 105
_Herb Garden at White Birches, Elmhurst, Illinois_ 108
_Garden at White Birches, Elmhurst, Illinois_ 111
_Garden of Manning Homestead, Salem, Massachusetts_ facing 112
_Under the Garret Eaves of Ward Homestead, Shrewsbury,
Massachusetts_ 116
_A Gatherer of Simples. Photographed by Mary F. C.
Paschall_ facing 120
_Sage. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall_ 126
_Tansy. Photographed by Mary F. C. Paschall_ 129
_Garden of Mrs. Abraham Lansing, Albany, New York. Photographed
by Gustave Lorey_ facing 130
_Ladies' Delights. Photographed by Eva E. Newell_ 133
_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 Lansing,
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, Massachusetts.
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_ 146
_Magnolias in Garden of William Brown, Esq., Flatbush, Long
Island_ facing 148
_Lilacs at Hopewell_ 149
_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. Kingsbury,
Esq., Waterbury, Connecticut_ 157
_Larkspur and Phlox. Garden of Miss Frances Clary Morse,
Worcester, Massachusetts_ 162
_Sweet William and Foxglove_ 163
_Plume Poppy_ 164
_Meadow Rue_ 167
_Money-in-both-Pockets_ 171
_Box Walk in Garden of Frederick J. Kingsbury, Esq., Waterbury,
Connecticut_ 173
_Lunaria in Garden of Mrs. Mabel Osgood Wright, Fairfield,
Connecticut. Photographed by Mabel Osgood Wright_
facing 174
_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 McFarland_ 186
_White Chinese Wistaria, in Garden of Mortimer Howell, Esq.,
West Hampton Beach, Long Island_ 188
_Spiraea Van Houtteii. Photographed by J. Horace McFarland_
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._"
_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_ 211
_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 MacDonald_ 220
_Garden of Mrs. Frank Robinson, Wakefield, Rhode Island_ 222
_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 Snowflake, Garden of Miss Frances Clary Morse,
Worcester, Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F.
Davis_ 234
_Star of Bethlehem, in Garden of Miss Frances Clary Morse,
Worcester, Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F.
Davis_ 237
_"The Pearl" Achillaea_ 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, Newburyport,
Massachusetts_ 256
_Bachelor's Buttons in a Salem Garden. Home of Mrs. Edward
B. Peirson_ 258
_A "Sweet Garden-side" in Salem, Massachusetts, Home of
John Robinson, Esq._ facing 260
_Salpiglossis in Garden at Indian Hill, Newburyport, Massachusetts.
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 Elizabeth
W. Trescot_ facing 266
_Light as a Loop of Larkspur, in Garden of Judge Oliver Wendell
Holmes, Beverly, Massachusetts_ 269
_Viper's Bugloss. Photographed by Henry Troth_ 274
_The Prim Precision of Leaf and Flower of Lupine. Photographed
by Henry Troth_ 276
_The Garden's Friend. Photographed by Clifton Johnson_ 281
_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." 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_" 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's 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, Massachusetts_ 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_ facing 348
_Sun-dial at Emery Place, Brightwood, District of Columbia.
Photographed by William Van Zandt Cox_ 349
_Sun-dial at Travellers' Rest, Virginia. Home of Mrs. Bowie
Gray. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot_ 350
_Two Old Cronies; the Sun-dial and Bee skepe. Photographed
by Eva E. Newell_ 354
_Portable Sun-dial from Collection of the Author_ 356
_Sun-dial in Garden of Frederick J. Kingsbury, Esq., Waterbury,
Connecticut_ 358
_Sun-dial at Morristown, New Jersey. Designed by W. Gedney
Beatty, Esq._ 359
"_Yes, Toby, it's 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. W. Dow_ 364
_Fugio Bank-note_ 365
_Sun-dial at "Washington House," Little Brington, England_ 367
_Dial-face from Mount Vernon. Owned by William F. Havemeyer,
Jr._ 368
_Sun-dial from Home of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg,
Virginia. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot_ 369
_Kenmore, the Home of Betty Washington Lewis, Fredericksburg,
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. Whitelaw 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. Photographed
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
_Summer-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, Pennsylvania.
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. Photographed
by J. Horace McFarland_ facing 402
_Rail Fence Corner_ 403
_Topiary Work at Levens Hall_ 404
_Oval Pergola at Arlington, Virginia. Photographed by Elizabeth
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, Charlottesville,
Virginia. Photographed by Elizabeth W. Trescot_ 413
_Chestnut Path in Garden at Indian Hill, Newburyport, Massachusetts.
Photographed by Herschel F. Davis_ facing 418
_Foxgloves in Lower Garden at Indian Hill, Newburyport,
Massachusetts. Photographed by Herschel F. Davis_ 421
_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, Worcester,
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
_Gardener's Garters at Van Cortlandt Manor. Photographed
by J. Horace McFarland_ 440
_Garden Walk at The Manse, Deerfield, Massachusetts. Photographed
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. Hunnewell, Esq._ 456
_Violets in Silver Double Coaster_ 461
_York and Lancaster Rose at Van Cortlandt Manor. Photographed
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
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.
After 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. 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 England, 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 preceding 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 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 meresteads 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
Paradise." 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,
without 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 England. What good cheer they must have
brought! how they must have been beloved! for these old English garden
flowers are such gracious things; marvels of scent, lavish of bloom,
bearing such genial faces, growing so readily and hardily, spreading so
quickly, responding so gratefully to such little care: what pure
refreshment they bore in their blossoms, 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 unavoidable stress were they forced to it; they came
across-seas willingly, for conscience' sake. These women were not
accustomed to the thought of emigration, 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.
[Illustration: Garden of the Johnson Mansion, Germantown, Pennsylvania.]
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 comes from
directness, and an absence of self-consciousness. He published in 1672 a
book entitled _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 thriving
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 suggestive 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
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 growing very pleasantly" in their hearts as in their
gardens.
[Illustration: Garden at Grumblethorp, Germantown, Pennsylvania.]
They had plenty of pot herbs for their accustomed savoring; and plenty
of medicinal herbs for their 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 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 garden 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 Mustard,
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.
[Illustration: Garden of the Bartram House, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.]
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 an herbalist, not of a botanist. He had some acquaintance 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 Parkinson or another botanist might have "found in 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 himself; 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 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.
[Illustration: Garden of Abigail Adams.]
When Josselyn wrote, but few of our American flowers were known to
European botanists; Indian Corn, Pitcher Plant, Columbine, Milkweed,
Everlasting, 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 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 settlement, 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 Ointments." 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 information from the study of plants and
flowers by the 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 Grumblethorp, the home of Charles J. Wister,
Esq., of 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 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 gardens in the vicinity of
Philadelphia. The example and precept of Washington also had important
influence; for he was constant in his desire and his effort to secure
every good and new plant, grain, 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.
[Illustration: Garden at Mount Vernon-on-the-Potomac. Home of George
Washington.]
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 abundance near the tropics
rendered any special gardening 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 devastations 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 provoked 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
exquisite 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 customs 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 declared 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. Charleston 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 Carolina 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 national
pride of ship captains were enlisted; even young trees of considerable
size were set in hogsheads, and transported, and cared for during the
long voyage.
[Illustration: Gate and Hedge of Preston Garden.]
The garden at Mount Vernon is probably the oldest in Virginia still in
original shape. In Maryland are several fine, formal gardens which do
not date, however, to colonial days; the beautiful one at Hampton, the
home of the Ridgelys, in Baltimore County, is shown on pages 57, 60 and
95. In both North and South Carolina the gardens were exquisite. Many
were laid out by competent landscape gardeners, and were kept in order
by skilled workmen, negro slaves, who were carefully trained from
childhood to special labor, such as topiary work. In Camden and
Charleston the gardens vied with the finest English manor-house gardens.
Remains of their beauty exist, despite devastating wars and earthquakes.
Views of the Preston Garden, Columbia, South Carolina, are shown on
pages 15 and 18 and facing page 54. They are now the grounds of the
Presbyterian College 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 Generalife, 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-trees; mammoth Rhododendrons; Azaleas of every Azalea
color,--all surrounded 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 blossoms 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 overhung 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 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 flowering 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, marigolds, 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 Netherlands. We also find there some flowers of native growth,
as, for instance, sunflowers, red and yellow lilies, mountain
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_ would hold
them in high estimation and make them widely known."
[Illustration: Fountain Path in Preston Garden, Columbia, South
Carolina.]
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--just as if they
bloomed well. Perhaps the Cornelian Rose may have been striped red and
white like cornelian stone, and like our York and Lancaster Rose.
Tulips are on all seed and plant lists of colonial days, and they were
doubtless in every home dooryard in New Netherland. Governor Peter
Stuyvesant had a fine farm on the Bouwerie, and is said 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 intermixed 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
surveyor 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 kitchen garden ceased
to resemble the kraal of an African chieftain; to this day, in South
Africa, natives 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 incessantly."
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
possession 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 happily 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.
[Illustration: Door in Wall of Kitchen Garden at Van Cortlandt Manor.]
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 garden 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-grandfather'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 garden (it is shown in the
picture of the garden opposite 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 grandfather 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 Tarrytown, and through the avenue, which shows on the
right-hand side of the garden-picture. This beautiful 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 carried 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
Indians; 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 beautiful 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
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 cherished, 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 manuscript, 'The Battle of Brooklyn,' a farce written and
said to have been performed during the British occupation. The
scene is partly laid in '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
beehives. 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 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.
[Illustration: Garden at Van Cortlandt Manor.]
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, Swampscott, and Beverly with its solid growth and
brilliant yellow bloom, is said to have been brought to this country as
the packing of some of the governor's household belongings. It is far
more probable that he brought it here to raise it in his garden for
dyeing purposes, with intent to benefit the colony, as he did other
useful seeds and plants. Woadwaxen, 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
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 tradition 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 colonist 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 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 carried 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 established about 1730 by Robert Prince, in Flushing,
Long Island, a community chiefly of French Huguenot 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 America. 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 Revolution. It was occupied by Washington and
afterwards 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 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
Germany. 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 established the first
steamboats between Flushing and New York, built roads and bridges on
Long Island, 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 botanized 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 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 culture and the practice of its cultivation was
so universal in his neighborhood (about the year 1830), that cuttings of
the Chinese Mulberry (_Morus multicaulis_) were used as currency in all
the stores in the vicinity of Flushing, at the rate of 12-1/2 cents
each.
[Illustration: Garden at Prince Homestead, Flushing, Long Island.]
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 considerable extent, and evidences of its past dignity appear in the
hedges and edgings of Box; one symmetrical great Box tree is fifty feet
in circumference. 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 garden 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 instructing 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 earthquake; 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 illustrate what I mean by side
glimpses at the contents 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 Acceptable 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:--
"I 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."
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
memorable July day to tell his wife that he had signed the Declaration
of American Independence. Since then Catalpa trees bear everywhere in
that vicinity the name of Independence trees, and are believed to be
ever in bloom on July 4th.
[Illustration: Old Box at Prince Homestead.]
In the delightful diary and letters of Eliza Southgate 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 merchants of the
Derby family. Terraces and arches 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 apartments; 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."
[Illustration: Old Dutch Garden of Bergen Homestead.]
The shrewd and capable women of the colonies who entered so freely and
successfully into business ventures found the selling of flower seeds a
congenial 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, 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 Coxcombs.
Iceplants.
Thyme.
Sweet Marjoram.
Tree Mallows.
Everlasting.
Greek Valerian.
Tree Primrose.
Canterbury Bells.
Purple Stock.
Sweet Scabiouse.
Columbine.
Pleasant-eyed Pink.
Dwarf Mountain Pink.
Sweet Rocket.
Horn Poppy.
French Honeysuckle.
Bloody Wallflower.
Sweet William.
Honesty (to be sold in small parcels that every one may have a little).
Persicaria.
Polyanthos.
50 Different Sorts of mixed Tulip Roots.
Ranunculus.
Gladiolus.
Starry Scabiouse.
Curled Mallows.
Painted Lady topknot peas.
Colchicum.
Persian Iris.
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 Coxcombs,
Marigolds, Colchicums and Chrysanthemums yielded to New England's
frosts. I know 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,
dropping with honey; Cacalia, a sister flower; Lupine, Larkspur, Sweet
Marjoram, and Thyme--I can 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.
[Illustration: Old Garden at Duck Cove Farm in Narragansett.]
Stately plants grew from the little seed-packets; Hollyhocks, Valerian,
Canterbury Bells, Tree Primroses looked down on the low-growing herbs of
the 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 mistress 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
Revolution; and the girls who were Daughters of Liberty, 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
seedlings of the old garden is now given perpetual youth 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.