Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1919-11-02

HE rich odor Of box came to
the Rambler as he entered
the garden Of Montpelier, and

1ht0 tnVA0hS AaS OOhhV w yON oS ~
has often come to me. The scent Of
Jasmine. lavender and rose: of lilac,
violet and pink; Of hyacinth. hello
trope and honeysuckle will carry the
thoughts Of a woman out from the
troubles and the shadows of today
back to the merriment and sunshine
Of happy yesterday. A whiff of
flower. and the magician Memory
leads her back to dance where she
met the man she loved. The breath
Of an apple tree in bloom carries her
back to the joyous hours when she
strolled through the orchard of her
old home, wove daisies into chains,
plucked OF the white petals one by
one as she chanted HE love me, he
loves me not" and dreamed those
golden dreams which glow with celes-
tial luster in the soul of young girl.
The Rambler believes that woman
cannot breathe the perfume OF rose
without thinking of that rose which
the man Of her heart first gave her.
and that the fragrance of orange BIOS
SONS and lilies of the valley must car
~ her memory back to those precious
minutes when she wore long white
veil or a natty travel dress and kept
step to the rhythm of wedding march.
Before coming to, the garden of Mont
pelier the Rambler passed through airs
that were sweet with the odor Of pine
and ripening corn, and such scents al
ways carry him back, as they must
other men, to the beautiful days OF
youth.
There are green acres at Montpelier
that are hedged and encircled by that
variety OF box tree or box shrub
which the botanists call buxus sem
pervirens and which most of US call
English box. Its small. oval leaves,
leathery in texture and In color dark
glossy green. gave q charm to nearly
all the olden gardens. The British
immigrants to the colonies and the
descendants Of those immigrants
made box q chief ornament of their
gardens because Of its own merit
and because Of the memories 1t called
up OF their earlier homeland across
the sea. In the British Isles it had
been in general use for ages as bor-
ders for garden walks and ornament
al parterres. Perhaps 1t was q ma
. tive English shrub and perhaps it
was taken to Albion by the Romans,
who knew it as a wild thing in the
Mediterranean countries. No one can
answer that question. lockwood was
mentioned by Pliny, Virgil and Ovid,
and John Ray, in his "Historia Plan
forum wrote: 1.-THE box grows wild
on Boxhill. hence the name; also, at
Boxwell, on the Cotteswold hills, in
Gloucester. at Boxley, in Kent, and
plentifully onthe chalk hills near
Dunstable."
The front garden of Montpelier is
laid out in the form Of a cross with
circles in the arms, the trunk of the
cross being the main walk, which
leads to the white and heavily carved
doorway Of the house. The circles
and the cross are bordered with box.
Beyond the east wing of the house
is patch Of box which has grown SO
tall and branching that 1t arches the
gravel walk and forms a green-roof-
ed tunnel through which the sun
sends here and there little splash
OF light.
No one in that neighborhood can tell
where the little cuttings out of which
these venerable box bushes grew
came from. 1t Is a possibility that
they may have sprung from shrubs
whose cuttings came from that home
in Wales. whence, Richard Snowden,
soldier under Cromwell, emigrated to
Maryland. When that was is another
of the things not known. Really, it is
only a tradition that Richard Snow
den the first came from Wales, but the
tradition has the support Of facts that
may be set forth at the proper time.
1t Is known that he was in Maryland
In 1868, for there is a record that on
January II that year Richard Snow
den and Thomas Linthicombe bought
from George Yates of Anne Arundel
county, for 1900 pounds of tobacco,
. tract Of land Of 500 acres called
Iron-Mine.' at the head of South river.
on the west branch Of said river"
Thomas Linthicombe sold his part Of,
or interest in. that tract to Richard