The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1909-10-03

whose unhappy love story is interviewer
in the thread of Miss Johnstone's novel;
Audrey The lovely daughter of the
great William Byrd sleeps near her faith
er in the family burying ground beyond
the fair rose garden, and, though 200
years have passed since she found the
garden a source of consolation in her
grief at her separation from her lover,
the plaintive story still lends a melan-
choly interest to the place.
Berkeley, the plantation adjoining West
over, is better known to students of civil
war history as Harrisons Landing. It
was here that Gen. Mcclellan established
his headquarters after his retreat from
Malvern Hills, during the peninsular cam
paign of 1862. For miles around, at that
time, the shore was covered with the
camps of the soldiers; anchored on the
river were hundreds of war vessels and
transports.
Obtained Grant in 1918.
The grant to the plantation was given
by the London Company in 1918. to
number of gentlemen, all of whom were
connected through the noble house of the
Berkeleys This settlement suffered seri-
ously during the Indian massacre of 1852,
and soon afterward 1t was temporarily
abandoned.
second patent was granted in 1886,
to company of London merchants, but
eventually it became the property of John
Bland, a London merchant, who be-
queathed it to his son Giles. The latter
took part in Bacon's Rebellion of 1876,
and suffered execution in consequence.
The confiscated estate was purchased
by Benjamin Harrison, the third of that
name and the father of Benjamin Har-
rison, the signer of the declaration, and
grandfather of William Henry Harrison,
ninth president of the United States. 1t
remained in the hands of the Harrisons
for eight successive generations, and only
passed to other owners about twenty-five
years ago. Its latest owner is a resident
of New York
Shirley, the home of the Carriers, is one
of the finest estates in the Old Dominion.
The manor house was erected early in the
eighteenth century and suggests a French
type of architecture rather than the Eng
fish style usually followed. 1t Is COM
mandingly situated, overlooking the river,
and the broad lawns, the beautiful gar
dens, the extensive fields, all under the
most careful cultivation, are witnesses TO
the loving care the place has enjoyed.
The plantation suffered less from Sthe
fortunes of war than some of the neigh
boring homesteads, and it is one of the
best preserved of the old Colonial res
licences.
In the Time of Pocahontas.
1t was laid out few years after the
colony was founded, by Sir Thomas Dale,
the Colonial governor who arranged the
marriage of Pocahontas and John Rolfe,
and on the site of the present manor
house, at the beginning of the settlement,
was one of the first forts erected by the
colonists.
One Of the early owners was Edward
Hill. sometimes called Sir Edward Hill.
man of much force of character and of
great prominence in the colony. He was
speaker of the kings council, command
er-in-chief of the counties of Charles
City and Surrey, judge of his majesty's
high court of admiralty, and treasurer of
Virginia.
His daughter Elizabeth, who married a
son of king" Carter one of the largest
landowners in the colony, succeeded to
ownership of the estate. The subsequent
intermarriages of the Carriers, the Byrds.
the Lees, the Harrisons, and other we'll
known families make the family connec-
ton an especially wide one. In the por-
traits with which the walls are adorned.
and in the interesting heirlooms which
enrich the stately apartments, there are
innumerable reminders of the manly men
and the fair women whose history has
been associated with that of the beauti-
full estate. The place is now owned by
Mrs. Bransford and Mrs. Oliver-formerly
the Misses Carter-and Mrs Oliver makes
her home there.
The Brandon house Is great roomy
structure, with a frontage of 30 feet, and
as Is usual in houses of this type. the
wings are Joined to the central structure
by covered corridors. The estate covers
over 1000 acres, about one-fourth of
which is under cultivation. The planta-
ton and the homestead suffered seriously
at the hands OF the Northern troops
during the civil war, and 1t was due only
to the Intervention of President Lincoln
who had learned through a kinsman of
the owner, Mrs. George Harrison of the
acts of vandalism committed there, that
the place was saved from complete de-
molition.