Evening star., 1925-05-03

last sunday, stands on Knoll
in OxoR Run Valley, two-tifths
of ~ mile south of the south
@a st boundary of the District. The
District line and the stream called
ONon pass through the fields and
woods to Colebrook
The garden of the house is green
and shady. In the grass are straw
berry blossoms and small blue flowers
OF ground ivy, which you knew when
you were a child as gillover-the
ground, and which your plant-wise
friends call ''nepeta hederaceae," and
the Rambler will risk being run out
of Washington by botanists for trans
lating the name as "a member of the
mint family which resembles ivy" In
the grass, which is rather high. are
thousands of wild white violets, small
er, sweeter and far less common than
their blue relatives. Nearly all are of
the narrow-leaf variety, the three
lower petals being veined with pur
pie. There are patches of jonquils,
descendants of ancestors planted in
Ihdt garden several generations of
men and many flower generations ago.
There are bushes of lilac, spirea, for
sythia and Japan ounce. in bloom,
and rose bushes which had not un-
rolled their blossoms when the Ram
bier saw them.
cedars, one of great age-at least
century-and close to it one not so
old, but which reached the age of dis
cretion in trees 40 or so years ago.
THESE cedars are parent and child and
1hey ftTe so close that their branches
touch. Only death will part them. AS
soft winds blow among their boughs
they talk in tender tones of the past.
of Colebrook and of the children who
played in their shade, went out into
the world and passed away-that is,
passed from men, for perhaps these
trees see the spirits of their old
friends. Near the house are locust
trees, whose age and length of resi-
dence at Colebrook qualify them for
membership in any society of old and
honest trees.
Like all old locusts. they are SCARED
by storm, and few of you have a word
TO say of beauty in locust. You have
not as keen an eye for comeliness in
trees as in some other things. When
the locust hangs out its panicles of
creamy flowers and every branch is
pendulOuS in bloom no tree excels ii.
Growing close to more old homes in
Maryland and Virginia than any other
tree, it is one which a million men
hold in tender thought.
In the Colebrook grove are also
horse chestnut and a tulip tree, and
these were there when men and wom-
en- now gray were children. Beyond
the grove you see fields which plow-
man has turned from green to tawny
shades tinged with duh red. Fields not
Yet plowed are green with many
plants, and some acres thick-grown
with wild mustard are yellow. Clus-
ters of fruit trees give to the land
scape patches of cherry blossom white,
apple blossom white and palest rose
and the pink of peach.
x :: = =
n last Sundays ramble it was
written that Colebrooll house
stands on shoulder of the south
slope of Oxon Valley. That is wrong
If you should walk to the north front
of the house and go no farther you
would see how the mistake was made.
Last Sunday the Rambler went again
TO Colebrook to get more pictures and
saw that the house stands on q knoll
that rises from the valley floor. From
the south front of the house the land
slopes steep, and between the foot of
that slope and the foot of the south
slope of the valley is a vale. At the
south front are q black walnut tree
of unusual size, a holly tree and ven
cradle black locusts on which are
four or five bird boxes.
A pair of wrens had signed the
lease for the Summer for one of these
houses, and they were busy, trilling as
they worked fitting up the home
They had just come from one of the
Gulf States and the Rambler, though
not venturesome sport, will bet a
fVe-cent cigar that this pair of wrens
passed last Summer and perhaps other
Summers in that house on the locust
tree. Very likely they sang their first
H.
ColebrOok and are descended from
generations of wrens who have spent
Summer in the Colebrook garden.
On the slope Of the hill are patches
of grape hyacinth, or globe hyacinth
Long ago this little plant, with it's
raceme of blue, urn-shaped flowers,
was called muscarium and became
DaturaliZed in the American colonies
when they We're young. Press one of
these little flowers, whose shape you
will not be able to make out with un-
aided eyes. and look at it through
strong glass. The grape likeness will
be plain. The juice will also stain
your finger as does the juice of
Concord grape.
Colebrook is part Of a tract patented
in 1871 as Brothers Joint Interest by
Thomas Dent and William Hatton,
and the grant was bought from the
patentees by John Addison. who
patented several tracts of wild land
in the OXon Run and Eastern Branch
countries, was co-patentee of other
tracts, bought tracts from patentees
and also came into a large estate in
the District by marriage with the
widow of Thomas Dent, who patented
September s. 1863, a tract of unset
tied land on the Potomac and Eastern
Branch to which he gave the name
of Gisborough.
The maiden name of Mrs. Thomas
Dent was Rebecca Wilkinson. and in
"a Granny Of the Rambler's memory is
that her father was the first Episcopal
clergyman in Maryland. The Rambler
has also heard ever since he was a
boy that the Dents of GiSborough
were ancestors of Julia T. Dent, who
was the wife of Gen. U. S. Grant. Mrs.
Grant was a daughter of Frederick
Dent, who lived in st. Louis County,
near the city of st. Louis-I believe
in the Creve Coeur Lake neighbor-