History lesson

In the days when the Declaration of Independence was just a tickle in the back of Thomas Jefferson's mind, the upper Northern Neck was home to Great families: the Washingtons, the Lees, the Monroes and the Tayloes of Mount Airy. Ten generations later, the Tayloe family still resides in the same house. We got to wander the gardens with the 12th generation recently:


18th century plantation houses like these are as close as we come to castles in this country. I love Early American History, but what enthralls me is to see it preserved so naturally . . . by everyday living. The gardens aren't perfectly manicured. Cultivated wildness stretches its arms across brick. A rose bush moves in on the boxwoods. The boxwoods themselves are left to wildness:


The outbuildings have taken on new uses with each new generation.


I image that our toddler boys amused themselves on the grounds much the way little boys did 200 years ago.

They discovered forts in the boxwood:



They mooed at the cows. The cows mooed back:


They played in giant mud holes. Well, at least one of them did:


They hung on the split rail fences planning their next adventure: