Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-02-10

| rested on every shelf. And, so the ira
dition runs, 40 feet away though the
kitchen was, not any food ever came
to the mansion table cold. So many
servants were there that a line was pos
sible from the kitchen to the dining
room along which the food passed hand
to hand!
The picture is not complete without a
view of the milk house, where in the
evening came the milk up from the
pastures wrapped in dusk. to be poured
out by candlelight. a foaming stream of
white, into great pans and jars. Sing
ing and laughing through the twilight,
one can envisicn the mixers coming in
with their precious life-giving burdens.
Cats are about their feet everywhere;
1rehies in the gloom, sparkling like
weird little stars.
And down by the stables are the
neighing of steeds and the Whitney Of
mother after foal. There is a dark form
racing by in the closing dark and a
muttered i~mprecation, "Yo' better get
in dai" from one who loves the pure
bred steeds of the plantation next TO
his master and mistress. One hundred
horses, it has been said, could be sta
bled at Stratford at one time. Though
this is scoffed at by some. it is not an
imposSibility: more than likely it is the
full truth, for the days that saw 1t III
its glory were days of n1agnificence.
To enjoy the fox hunts and the races.
to say nothing of guests and those
gathered for parties, horseflesh re-
ceived surprising care and attention.
Much of this olden air will be recap
tured when Stratford is restored to its
garden. with its lockwood hedges and
smiling train of flowers, will spring to
life again. It's outbuildings will rise
again as of yore, and down in the deep
forest will come again, to shut eyes, the
call of the w~hip-poor-wil at dusk. And
to those of imagination again will walk
living flesh and blood through all the
old rooms of the mansion, its yards and
environs. In the garden again will the
little children of Thomas Lee and Han
nah Lee play and walk and talk and
ponder over that mystery of tirne-the
sun-dial.
RUT as every old home has It's ro-
nance. so also every old home has
its tragedy. And that Is the story of
the Lees f~orsaking Stratford Hall.
When Robert E. Lee was 4 years old
his father, Light Horse Harry, Lee,
moved to Alexandria. The estate then,
comprising some 1900 acres, came into
the possession of his step-hrother, Maj.
Henry Lee, by his fathers first mar
riage. At the time it wa heavily in
debt and much reduced in acreage from
the first grant, some 10000 acres.
These debts accumulated and then fell
the tragedy.
Margaret Lee, little. winsome and
playful, heiress to the ancestral pile, was
playing out the front door one day.
She slipped and fell. When picked UP
at the bottom of the steep steps by the
frantic family she was dead. From the
hour of her death Mai. Lee never
crossed again the threshold Of STRAIT
ford Hail. He traveled-Algiers, Italy,
France, England, everywhere. for sur
cease Of sorrow. Soon Stratford was
sold for debts. Maj. Lee had died
Paris-1s37. The Lees Of Stratford
were nc more.
It's present owner is. or was until the
William Alexander, Jr., Chapter of the
United Daughters of the Confederacy
purchased it on Gen. Lees birthday
this year, Charles e. Stuart, attorney,
Montrose, Va.
From the battlefields Of the Old Do
minion, Christmas day, 1861, Gen. Lee