File:American homes and gardens (1907) (14579017490).jpg

Identifier: americanhomesgar41907newy (find matches)
Title: American homes and gardens
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors:
Subjects: Architecture, Domestic Landscape gardening
Publisher: New York : Munn and Co
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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hangs in Martins Brandon. Colonel Byrd was much more than a man of the world,for though he spent his childhood days in Virginia, his edu-cation was gained in Virginia and in England, and in schooland in trade he was possessed of that training and refine-ment which few men of his day had acquired. Whilehe was devoted to agriculture, and his plantation Mr. George Evelyn Harrison, the son of her daughter Eve-lyn, who had married Mr. Benjamin Harrison, of MartinsBrandon, and in this way they came into the possession ofthe present Harrison family of that estate. Colonel Byrd married, in 1706, Lucy Parke, the daughteror Marlboroughs aide-de-camp, who carried the news ofthe great victory of Blenheim to Queen Anne. Her eldestsister, Frances, the year before, had married Col. JohnCustis, the ancestor of Martha Washingtons first husband,and this explains why one of Sir Godfrey Knellers por-traits of Col. Daniel Parke is hanging in the drawing-roomof Martins Brandon, from whom George Washingtons
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was the object lesson of allthe country about him, hismind was turned toward in-tellectual and artistic pur-suits. Colonel Byrd was themaster of Westover forforty years, and during thattime he gratified his tastesby the collecting of worksof art for the decoration ofhis house and for the beau-tifying of his garden. Itwas one of the first estates in America to be adorned with statuary. He built elaborateconservatories, the ruins of which are now traceable, finegardens, and laid out drives and walks from the interiorhighways and from the river. His library, which was com-menced by his father, was the first private collection inAmerica. The catalogue, which is still preserved, enumer-ates 3625 volumes. The famous Westover manuscripts, which were writtenfor private perusal, and were reprinted in the last century,establish him as one of the keenest intellects of his time.They descended to his son, Col. William Byrd, who mar-ried Mary Willing, of Philadelphia; she presented them to The Dini

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