Gay Mont

G re Cu o Vrii F l ws ad n lb f i na e o g l
GAY MONT
Penelope F. Heavner Courtney R. Hinson
Reproduction
All material contained herein is the intellectual property of The Garden Club of Virginia except where noted. Reproduction is prohibited for any other than strictly personal reasons. Permission for reproduction must be obtained from: The Restoration Committee, Chairman The Garden Club of Virginia Kent-Valentine House 12 East Franklin Street Richmond, VA 23219 http://www.gcvirginia.org
Contents
5. 6. 8. 10. Acknowledgments Preface Introduction Gay Mont Today
12. The Gay Mont Landscape Today 23. Caroline County and Port Royal 25. John Hipkins: Merchant of Port Royal 29. John Hipkins Bernard: the Young Heir 1816 to 1818 34. Gay Mont: The Years of Prosperity 1818-1861 48. The Civil War Years and Beyond 54. Conclusion
1 Entrance to Gay Mont 2005
CONTENTS
55. 56. 62.
Photo credits Notes Bibliography
APPENDICES 65. 66. Appendix 1. Hipkins/Bernard/Robb and subsequent ownership of Gay Mont. Appendix 2. Plat of Gay Mont and the out-buildings prepared by Mr. James S. Patton. Appendix 3. Plant List. Appendix 4. Fold-out.
67. 69.
2 The rear garden 2005

4 CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
First and foremost we would like to thank The Garden Club of Virginia, and especially the Restoration Committee, for making our research possible. Special thanks also go to our mentor and supervisor this summer, William D. Rieley, who has been generous with his advice and suggestions throughout the project. We would also like to thank the many others who have helped us in our research, such as Mr. and Mrs. Jim Lawrence, Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Garrett, and the staff at various Virginia libraries, historical associations, and county offices. Above all we would like to thank Mr. James S. Patton. Without Mr. Patton, future generations would probably know Gay Mont only as the name of a housing subdivision close to Fredericksburg.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
3 Front of Gay Mont 1948

6 PREFACE
Preface
In her book, American Gardens of the Nineteenth Century: For Comfort and Affluence, Ann Leighton writes that Gardens are living witnesses of those who made them, tended them, discovered new plants to go into them, and knew why each plant had to be there for meate or medicine, for use and for delight. Gardens cannot be separated from their origins or their originators. To see a garden and not be able to recognize its background or catch its figures of speech as it tells us its history is like being at a party of strangers with no one introducing guests to each other. If one is truly interested in gardens, a world is open; but one cannot come in as a stranger and enjoy oneself or the gardens. Riots of bloom, intricate design, plans so charming as to be apparent under inches of snow or in driving rainsall these take understanding.1 The Garden Club of Virginias Rudy J. Favretti Fellowship provides a wonderful opportunity for learning more about historic gardens, the people who made them, and the culture they served. For three months during the summer the fellows practice Ann Leightons words by researching and documenting a Virginia garden, immersing themselves in the garden and learning more about the people who made the garden, the history that surrounds it, and the practice of gardening and landscaping in that age. Our research and documentation of Gay Mont was undertaken in the summer of 2005. We are conscious that this research represents just a beginning, and that there is far more about Gay Mont waiting to be discovered. However, we hope that what we offer in the following pages will be of interest and use to future scholars. In addition to providing students with a unique educational experience, The Garden Club of Virginia is also performing a valuable service for future scholars. The pace of development is fast today. The beautiful old house and garden down the road may well be lost by tomorrow. The Favretti Fellowship ensures that at least some documentation regarding Virginias historical gardens will be available for the use of future scholars.
PREFACE
4 Port Royal, Virginia

8 INTRODUCTION
Introduction
The small town of Port Royal lies near the intersection of U.S. Routes 301 and 17 (fig. 4). In summer it is a busy intersection as everyday traffic is swelled by the numerous vehicles of vacationers eager to reach their holiday destination or complete the long journey home. To them Port Royal exists only as an intersection, a convenient place to stop for gas and a bite to eat on their way to or back from the Virginia or Carolina beaches. Few of these holiday travelers probably know that the old colonial port of Port Royal lies a few blocks beyond the intersection of Routes 301 and 17. In 1982, when Ralph Emmett Fall wrote a book on Port Royal, he aptly titled it, Hidden Village: Port Royal, Virginia, 1744-1981.2 Even fewer travelers are likely aware that not only is Port Royal a hidden village, but that there are also hidden treasures in the surrounding areabeautiful old houses and landscaped grounds, treasures of a bygone age, at the end of long drives or country roads that take you down towards the river or up into the gentle hills. One of these treasures is Gay Mont. In tracing the history of the gardens and grounds at Gay Mont, we can see how a way of life changed over the course of two hundred years. We begin with a fortune made in the old port town of Port Royal in the tumultuous, difficult years after the revolution. A period of expansion to the house and garden followed in the 1820s to the 1850s, with the original fortune apparently augmented by wealth from family plantations in the southern states. Then, with the destruction of the Civil War and the harsh years that followed, both Port Royal and Gay Mont slipped into a long decline. The Gay Mont estate is important because it provides an example of the landscaping that would have been considered suitable for a wealthy southern farm of the late Federal to mid-Victorian period. The estate at its height covered more than 2,000 acres. Not only were the immediate grounds around the house landscaped, but the outlying grounds also appear to have been planned and used for aesthetic and social purposes, including many acres devoted to riding trails. Close to the house the landscaping presented a typical Virginia falls garden at the front, with a late Federal to early Victorian flower garden at the rear, bordered on either side by terraced fruit and vegetable gardens. The flower garden was not an example of the later Victorian period of bedding out, of massed annuals in vibrant shades, and ribbon beds. Rather it appears to have represented a period when gardens possessed a far gentler charm; a time when flowers were important, but the flowers used were herbaceous perennials with simple, single blossoms and lovely fragrance. And, unlike todays gardens, Gay Monts gardens were not a twelve months a year garden. They were planned when people expected a garden to be dormant for many months of the year, and waited with keen anticipation for the spring and early summer to bring forth an extravagance of blossoms and heady fragrance.
INTRODUCTION 9
5 Fire damage 1959
6 Gay Mont 1977

10 GAY MONT TODAY
Gay Mont Today

Our story starts in the present, for Gay Mont has a continuity and a living presence today because of family links and the preservation efforts of todays owner and his wife. Gay Mont passed through the hands of the Bernard and then the Robb families until the mid-1950s when the family members reluctantly agreed to sell it. Before the sale, the old family possessions in the house were sold at a closed auction to family members, and it was agreed before the sale that whatever was not wanted by a family member would go to Mr. and Mrs. James S. Patton. In this way all the possessions would be kept in family hands. (Mrs. Patton was related to the Robbs through her mother, Gay Robb Upton, who was married to Edwin Upton in 1910 at Gay Mont.) The house was sold in 1958 to Mr. C. H. Martin, who died three months after purchasing the property, leaving it as part of his estate to his widow. Tragedy struck in 1959 when Gay Mont burned and the frame house was destroyed, leaving only the foundations, the columns on the portico, and the chimneys (fig. 5). This would have been the end of any story about Gay Mont except for Mr. and Mrs. Patton. When the Gay Mont lands came back on the market, they purchased the estate in 1959 and proceeded to build as close a replica as they could of the old house on the foundations that remained (fig. 6). Not only did they rebuild the old house, they tried as best they could (funds and skills allowing) to replicate the interior of the old house. How far they went in this direction can be seen in the current dining room. John Hipkins Bernard had brought wallpaper back with him from France in 1818 that he installed in the hall and dining room. In the course of his restoration efforts, Mr. Patton managed to locate some extra rolls of this wallpaper and, undaunted by the fact that he was unable to purchase it, he obtained permission to copy it, and then proceeded to hang the wallpaper himself in the dining room. The family portraits went back up on the walls of the house and the family furniture was restored to the appropriate rooms. Over the years, many more family items came back to Gay Mont from family members. Mr. and Mrs. Patton also lovingly maintained the grounds, which Mrs. Patton remembered from childhood. When plants died, they tried to plant what their predecessors would have chosen. And, equally important (and of great assistance with this project), Mr. Patton thoroughly researched many old family records to document the family and Gay Monts history. Before attempting to peel back the layers of time and change to see how the landscape was developed over the years, let us first look at the grounds today.
GAY MONT TODAY 11
7 Gay Mont Contour Map

12 THE GAY MONT LANDSCAPE TODAY
The Gay Mont Landscape Today

It is easy to miss the entrance to Gay Mont as there is only a modest sign indicating the turn-off from Route 17. The present drive curves gently to the right up a hill, but straight ahead the remains of the old drive (fig. 8) can still be discerned. At
8 Old drive 2005
9 Gate posts at Gay Mont 2005
the top of the hill the present drive curves round to the left to join the old drive, which took a more direct and sharper ascent up the hill. The flat road now winds through open fields and, after about a mile, a pair of leaning, weathered gate posts (fig. 9) mark the entrance to Gay Mont. Large hackberries (Celtis occidentalis) and Virginia cedars (Juniniperus Virginiana) line the drive, and off in a meadow to the left are clumps of magnificent old tulip poplars (Liriodendron tulipifera).
THE GAY MONT LANDSCAPE TODAY 13
The family cemetery lies approximately 300 feet to the east of the drive beyond the entrance gates on a slope down to Route 17 (figs. 10 and 12). Vinca (Vinca minor) mingles with the grass possibly indicating unmarked graves or a lost structure. Two types of iron fences surround the cemetery, a simple wrought iron fence at the front, and an ornate cast iron fence enclosing what appears to be the original cemetery (fig. 11).
10 Approach to cemetery 2005
11 Cast iron fence 2005

12 Cemetery 2005
A very large tulip poplar marks the point where the road makes a gentle curve to the right and approaches the house from the north side. The house is almost hidden from view by an overgown boxwood circle beside which stands an unusually large, multi-stemmed hackberry (fig. 13). A gravel path leads to the front or river side of the house, which is oriented east towards the Rappahannock River, and the gentle ascent up the drive leaves one unprepared for the view. Although Gay Mont is situated only 170 feet above sea level, the drop at the front down to Route 17 and the river beyond is steep and dramatic, and the view spreads out across the flat river valley for many miles. Front of the House The eye is led immediately to the four terraces, each approximately 300 feet long, that step down to the east toward the Rappahannock River valley. These terraces are an example of the so-called Virginia falls gardens found at many eighteenth century Virginia mansions, and that continued to be popular well into the nineteenth century.3 These gardens had terraces or falls that often dropped down to a river or body of water. The terraces were narrower at the house than at the bottom, and the flats, or the level area of the terrace, could be plain grass or decorated with garden beds. Some large trees are scattered on the terraces at Gay Mont, including a red maple (Acer rubrum), and hackberries. Old mill stones placed in a line with the front entrance serve as steps down to the second grass terrace. To the right of this terrace at the far southern end is a craterlike depression 100 feet in circumference, probably the remains of an old ice house.
13 Hackberry beside boxwood circle 2005
Farther south beyond the crater-like depression is a field of unmown grass. Beyond that is a clump of crape myrtles (Lagerstroemia indica), and behind the crape myrtle is an irregular line of trees, including flowering dogwoods (Cornus florida), Virginia cedars, and Empress trees (Paulownia tomentosa).
14 Gay Mont
In the middle of the third terrace are the remains of a sunken rose garden (fig. 15) possibly located on the spot once occupied by a summer house. There are a few surviving roses in the four fan-shaped beds arranged around a bird bath encircled by conch shells believed to have been brought back from Bermuda by John Bernard Hipkins. Rough, irregularly spaced steps lead down a steep slope to the last, or fourth, grass terrace (fig. 16). This terrace is narrow in the center but widens out to form semi-circles at either end. Below this terrace a sloping bank drops down to a meadow below. The bank has become overgown, and wild plants threaten to engulf the terrace. However, in some places, it is still possible to discern a few rose plants, such as a Cherokee rose (Rosa laevigata). Returning to the gravel drive in front of the house and walking south, there is another large overgrown boxwood circle identical to the one on the north side of the house. Growing inside this circle is a lone chestnut rose (Rosa roxburghii). Just beyond the boxwood circle is an old outbuilding, currently in poor repair. Rounding the boxwood circle one finds the traces of a deep, rutted drive which goes off to the south, past the outbuilding, and then becomes heavily overgrown. Continuing with some difficulty on the drive a little farther there is an old disintegrating frame house on the right (fig. 17) and, at this point, the drive becomes impassable. 17 Old frame house 2005
15 Sunken rose garden 2005
16 Steps to fourth terrace 2005
19 View down central east/west path 2005
20 Circular planting bed and bird bath 2005
18
THE GAY MONT LANDSCAPE TODAY
18 Rear garden at Gay Mont 2005
At the front of Gay Mont the manicured lawn, the long horizontal lines of the terraces, the large trees, and the wide vista over the Rappahannock valley all work together to create a feeling of peace and timelessness. This atmosphere of timelessness contrasts with the impression at the back of the house. Here the plethora of overgrown roses and shrubs, and paths once used but fast disappearing, generate a feeling of decay that is both sad and romantic (fig. 18). Rear Garden Immediately behind the house is a grass lawn with an overgrown hedge of mock orange (Philadelphus coronarius), weigela (Weigela florida), and althea (Hibiscus syriacus), grown so tall and dense in many places that they screen the formal garden beyond. This formal garden was characterized by straight intersecting paths and geometric beds, the remains of which can still be discerned today. The central path bisecting the formal garden leads off in a westerly direction from an elevated octagonal terrace behind the house. (The terrace is actually the foundation of an octagonal music room that was at the back of the house.) The gently sloping gravel path, lined on either side with tall mock orange, weigela, and spirea (fig. 19), runs down to a circular, concrete-edged planting bed at the bottom of the garden. An old column stands in the center of this bed with a decorative bird bath on top (fig. 20). Towards the end of 21 Arbor 2005 the path, there is a grove of crape myrtle on either side, their multiple trunks reaching high for whatever light they can get as they are now heavily shaded by the tall trees around them.
THE GAYMONT LANDSCAPE TODAY
19
A north/south path approximately three hundred feet long (the same length as the terraces in front) crosses the central east/west path about twenty feet beyond the octagonal terrace, the crossing being marked by a rustic wooden arbor with climbing roses (fig. 21). In addition to mock orange and althea, this north/south path is bordered by old trees, hackberries and pecans (Carya illinoinenses), whose roots have spread across the narrow path, almost obliterating it in places. Two paths run parallel to the central east/west path. These paths are much narrower than the main path, and the shrubs have grown so tall that the paths appear almost like tunnels. Mown grass fills the space between these three paths, thus creating two long rectangular lawns. Scattered on these lawns are what appear to be the remnants of planting beds (fig. 22) with iris (Iris germanica), daylilies (Hemerocallis), and roses (many of which appear to be the modern cultivar, the Fairy). At the bottom of these lawns are circular concrete-edged planting beds identical to the bed at the bottom of the main path (fig. 23).
22 Planting beds on lawn 2005

20 GAY MONT LANDSCAPE TODAY
23 Circular planting beds 2005
24 Old tennis court 2005
25 Trees around old well 2005
Nothing remains of the terraced fruit and vegetable gardens that were once situated on either side of the flower garden. Today the south side of the flower garden is an unkempt area with a few trees on the far south side that possibly demarcate the boundary line of the old garden. The remains of the terracing is still visible on the north side of the flower garden. The lawn here lies a foot or so below the north/south crossing path. This grass area was once used as a tennis court (fig. 24). The lawn drops again on its western edge, and becomes an unmown meadow. On the far north edge of the lawn, a few tall althea still remain that mark the boundary of the old garden. If you follow this line of althea running east toward the front of the house, the althea become more closely spaced together and are joined by hackberries, thus forming a clearer line. The remains of an old well are buried in the shrubbery at the eastern end of this line of trees (fig. 25). At the bottom or western edge of the formal garden is a road that runs south/west through a meadow. The land drops off very sharply into a deep wooded ravine on the western side of the road. Vinca grows thickly in this wooded area and a few althea have seeded themselves in the woods. The road peters out in a meadow on the south side of the house. Seated on the porch in the evening, hearing only the faint hum of traffic from Route 17 and the birds singing in the trees, Gay Mont is deeply restful. Sit quietly long enough, and rabbits will come out onto the terraces to nibble at the grass, and an amazing number of butterflies flit by, all adding to the charm of the setting.
One might think it was this way forever, but that would not be true. As anyone who has dealt with gardens knows, gardens never stand still. They are dynamic and ever-changing--plants grow and die, families have different needs for the grounds, maintenance waxes and wains, and weeds quickly take over. In trying to reconstruct the old garden and the history of Gay Mont, we must turn to family records, written comments about Gay Mont, old and aerial photographs, and try to relate what we find in the sources to what remains of the past on the ground.
22
THE GAY MONT LANDSCAPE TODAY
Caroline County and Port Royal

John Hipkins is the first person to be clearly associated with the property that was initially called Rose Hill and later renamed Gay Mont. Because there are close connections between Gay Mont and Port Royal, it is helpful to provide background information on Port Royal as this allows us to see John Hipkins, a merchant who amassed a considerable fortune there, in the context of his time and social connections. Gay Mont lies a scant three miles from the town, and not only was John Hipkins a trader in Port Royal, the Hipkins and later the Bernard families married into Port Royal families. Port Royal was established in 1744, seventeen years after Caroline County had been created in 1727 from three existing counties: Essex, King and Queen, and King William.4 But the earliest settlers arrived long before either the county or town were officially established. They came up the Mattapony and Rappahanock Rivers in the late 1660s and early 1670s, and immediately set about clearing the land for tobacco, the major cash crop of Virginia and the states main export to England. All over Virginia the harvested tobacco was received, stored, and inspected at tobacco warehouses before being loaded on ships bound for Britain. In the Rappahannock area, the warehouse owned by the Roy family gradually became the most important. More and more ships chose to use the harbor and port facilities near this warehouse because of its proximity to a ferry across the Rappahannock, the well-maintained roads along which the tobacco barrels were rolled from the plantations, another nearby chartered tobacco warehouse, and the tavern owned by Mistress Dorothy Roy. The rapidly expanding port with its tobacco warehouses soon attracted the attention of London and Glasgow trading companies, and they sent representatives or factors to manage their stores. Locating a store adjacent to a tobacco warehouse made good business sense because the planters on receiving cash or a line of credit from the warehouse for their crop would usually turn round and immediately stock up on the imported goods needed to run their plantations and homes before making the long (and often arduous) journey back home. So a community was formed which became the officially established town of Port Royal in 1744. Notwithstanding intermittent economic ups and downs brought on by bad weather, wars, and trade laws passed by the mother country, Port Royal appears to have grown and prospered over the succeeding three decades. However, by the early 1770s, talk of revolution was all around, and the 1770s and early 1780s were hard years for the community of Port Royal, as they were for the country as a whole. When the newly formed Continental Congress embargoed the importation of goods from England and prohibited merchants from
CAROLINE COUNTY AND PORT ROYAL 23
raising prices on their merchandise, the merchants of Port Royal were hard hit. The merchant class as a whole was often suspected of royalist sympathies because of their trading connections with Britain. In Port Royal it appears that the merchants were mixed in their sympathies, with some supporting the Revolution and complying with the embargo, and others not. When a Committee of Safety was organized to inspect the merchants books to ensure compliance with the embargo, some merchants refused to open their books, and there was talk in Port Royal of lynching those merchants, pillaging their stocks, and burning their places of business. After the 1776 Declaration of Independence, the Caroline magistrates ordered all foreign born residents engaged in trade to appear before the court and take the oath of allegiance to the Commonwealth. Those who did not comply were to be expelled from the Commonwealth and forfeit their property to the State. Many of the merchants, including some of the most prominent of Port Royal residents, did not take the oath, and they were ordered expelled and their holdings forfeited. It is in this difficult era of the 1770s and early 1780s that John Hipkins, who was to become a prominent merchant and the builder of Rose Hill (renamed Gay Mont by his grandson), first appears in Caroline County records.
24
CAROLINE COUNTY AND PORT ROYAL
John Hipkins: Merchant of Port Royal

We have only fragmentary information on John Hipkins.5 The records reveal that he became a successful and prominent merchant in Port Royal and amassed the considerable fortune of $100,000 in twenty five years. He is believed to have been the son of Samuel and Margaret Upshaw Hipkins of Essex County. His exact birth date is not known, but in 1769 he is entered without mention of a guardian (which implies he was of age at that time) into the division of twenty slaves left by his father, the slaves to be divided among the children after the death of their mother. It also appears that he married Elisabeth Pratt of Eden in King George county some time in the early 1770s.6 Four people with the name Hipkins are mentioned in the Port Royal records in the 1770s and 1780s--LeRoy, John, Samuel, and Jesse. Jesses name appears only once, in 1776, when he is listed as a member of a crew of marinesall from Port Royal-- on board the Mosquito, which was sent to the West Indies to prey on British commerce.7 LeRoy is listed as being a Captain in the militia in 1771, and John is listed as an ensign in 1773.8 LeRoy died in 1785, and the records note that John Hipkins and William Walker proved his will.9 John, LeRoy, and Samuel, were probably all merchants as the three names appear in 1783 as the registered owners of a boat, the Fanny.10 (The boat may, perhaps, have been named after John Hipkins daughter, Fanny, born about 1775.) John Hipkins is recorded as a merchant for the first time in 1781 when his name appears on a deed as John Hipkins of Caroline, a merchant of Port Royal. He is listed in the 1782 tax records as a resident of the county and the owner of eight slaves. The records also show that Hipkins applied for trading licenses in 1787, 1788, and 1790.11 From the late 1780s onwards, John Hipkins name appears in ways that suggest he was accumulating a considerable amount of wealth, and in positions that indicate he had become a leading citizen of Port Royal. For example, he served as a justice of the peace from 1789 to 1796,12 and in 1787 he was summoned to show why he did not hand in his carriage wheels (carriages were expensive, very much a status symbol, and heavily taxed).13 In 1791 the records show that he was appointed to let the repair for the rebuilding of the Lower Bridge on Peumansend Run.14 It would appear that Hipkins was an astute business man and ran his import/export business very well. His books show that he traded in all sorts of items. Purchases were charged to individual accounts until the wheat, corn, and tobacco were brought in from the farms to pay off the debts. If the debts were not paid when due, interest was charged. How successful Hipkins was can perhaps be inferred from a miniature of his daughter, Fanny, who is shown bedecked with jewels and dressed in an elaborate gown, with a feather in her hair, as if for presentation at the Court of King George. As Fanny
JOHN HIPKINS: MERCHANT OF PORT ROYAL 25
was his only child, one assumes that her marriage and the birth of subsequent heirs, would have been very important to John Hipkins. In 1789 Fanny married William Bernard, son of William and Sarah Savin Bernard of King George. She was about fourteen and the groom eighteen. In 1790 John Hipkins purchased for William and Fanny a 700-acre tract of land on the east side of the Rappahannock in Port Conway. The cost was the then considerable sum of 2,000 pounds. The couple built a home there, called it Belle Grove, and had four children, one of whom was born in 1792 and named John Hipkins Bernard in honor of his grandfather. Fanny died in 1801. In 1804 William Bernard married Elizabeth Hooe, daughter of Frances Pratt and William Hooe, and Elisabeth Hipkins niece. By 1811 William Bernard and his second wife and family have moved to Mansfield, a property closer to Fredericksburg, and in 1819 William Bernard gave Belle Grove to his son and namesake, William Bernard, Jr. Over the years John Hipkins and his son-in-law, William Bernard, formed a number of on again, off again business relationships, and the complications ensuing from one of those business partnerships formed the basis of a court case that went on for many years after Hipkins death in 1804. No copy of John Hipkins will has been found. Although we do not have a copy of his will (we know that two copies of his will were presented at court, one dated March 14, 1804, and the other December 11, 1804 by his widow, Elisabeth Hipkins), it is clear that Hipkins left his Gay Mont estate (at that time called Rose Hill) to his grandchild and namesake, John Hipkins Bernard. Until John Hipkins Bernard reached his majority, his father, William Bernard, acted as executor of the estate. When was Gay Mont built? The earliest discussion regarding the dating of Gay Mont is in an article written by Frank Conger Baldwin. 15 In this article Baldwin cites tradition as his source for asserting that the land on which Gay Mont stands was originally a tract purchased by Miller (an early patent holder in Caroline County), subsequently sold to Catlett (another early patent holder), and later sold again to John Hipkins, merchant in Port Royal. Tradition was also apparently the source for Baldwins belief that the original house was built by either Miller or Catlett in 1725. In Edith Sales 1923 book, Historic Gardens of Virginia,16 the entry for Gay Mont (written by John Bernard Robb, a descendant of John Hipkins and a previous owner of Gay Mont) states that the estate was part of an original grant to the Millers (although Robb notes that destruction of early records by Union troops made it difficult to obtain exact data). Robb follows Conger in the chain of ownership from Miller to Catlett to Hipkins, and he, too, dates the house to 1725. In her later book on Interiors of Virginia Houses of Colonial Times, Edith Sale suggests that judging from the paneling above the fireplace the house might in fact date to before 1725.17 The Historic American Building Survey (HABS) entry also cites 1725 for the original building. The Library of Congress card catalog entry for Gay Mont (fig. 26) notes that the house in addition to being once called Rose Hill was also known as Catlett House and
26 JOHN HIPKINS : MERCHANT OF PORT ROYAL
that the discovery of old papers and maps in the Essex County courthouse showed a 1670 map with a house on the present location.18 However, recent research by Mr. Patton has revealed a ledger entry on an 1806 document settling debts on the Hipkins estate. This entry is for a payment to be made out of the Hipkins estate to Yelverton and Richard Stern for 982 pounds for building a house, Rose Hill, agreeable to the contract made by the Testator, i.e., John Hipkins (fig. 27). Based on this evidence, Mr. Patton has suggested in an unpublished manuscript that John Hipkins was the first builder of the house at the Gay Mont site, thus suggesting a later date for the building of Rose Hill than had previously been proposed. Mr. Patton believes the amount paid to the Sterns is too large for it to have been for repairs to an existing house, and he concludes that it could 26 Library of Congress card catalog entry
25 Payment to Yelverton and Richard Stern 27 Payment to Yelverton and Richard Stern only have been for a new building. In his manuscript he shows how the estate that became Gay Mont was built up over the years through several purchases by John Hipkins, his son-in-law, William Bernard, and his grandson, John Hipkins Bernard. The total amount of land purchased amounted to 2,120 acres in 1819, the acreage noted in the Caroline County tax documents from that time until the time of John Hipkins Bernards death in 1858. Mr. Patton also cites a report and a map of February 1805 produced to
JOHN HIPKINS: MERCHANT OF PORT ROYAL 27
establish a road from a neighboring property across the Hipkins land to what is today Route 17. On this map Mr. Patton reports finding a notation marked Hipkins new dwelling house where the house exists today. We may ask what gardens surrounded the Rose Hill estate during those early years from the end of the eighteenth century until John Hipkins Bernard assumed ownership of the property in 1813. Unfortunately, nothing appears in the records we have searched. The name Rose Hill might suggest that John Hipkins built or intended to build a rose garden, although the name might equally suggest there were wild roses growing on the hill on which the house was built. Elizabeth Hipkins, John Hipkins Bernards grandmother, occupied the house or mansion as it is referred to while John Hipkins Bernard was schooled in Charlotte Hall Academy in Maryland and later in Alexandria. However, there is no record of her pursuing any gardening interests or making any alternations to the house. So it is to John Hipkins Bernard that we must turn our attention to learn more about the Rose Hill estate. And, as will be seen, John Hipkins Bernard had big plans for his estate.
28
JOHN HIPKINS: MERCHANT OF PORT ROYAL
John Hipkins Bernard: The Young Heir, 1816-1818

The Early Years As noted above, John Hipkins Bernard was schooled first in Maryland, and then in Alexandria where he lived with his grandmothers relatives, the Hooes. In 1815, presumably after having returned to and lived in Caroline County for a few years, John Hipkins Bernard was elected to the House of Delegates in Richmond. He probably met his wife-to-be, Jane Gay Robertson (fig. 28), while he was serving as a representative in Richmond, although it is also possible that their paths crossed earlier as the Bernards purchased a house in Richmond in 1808 called The Folly. John Hipkins Bernard and Jane Gay Robertson were married in 1816. His wifes family were the Bolling Robertsons, a wealthy, well-connected family that traced its ancestry on the Bolling side to Pocahontas and had Scots ancestry, of which they were very proud, on the Robertson side. According to family legend, John Bernard Hipkins changed the name of Rose Hill to Gay Mont in honor of his new bride. Their first child, a daughter (Gay), was born in 1817. After her birth, the couple planned a trip to Europe and began taking French lessons in preparation for their trip. But by the spring of 1818 Jane Gay was pregnant again, and it was decided that she should not risk traveling to Europe. Her husband, however, went as planned in October 1818, taking with him Jane Gays brother, Powhatan Robertson, as his traveling companion. The Grand Tour We are fortunate that John Hipkins Bernards letters home from Europe have been transcribed by Mr. Patton.19 The letters, which are still privately held, were made available to Mr. Patton and he compiled a typewritten partial transcript of these letters in journal form. It is this diary, as Mr. Patton refers to it, that provides clues to what John Hipkins Bernard might have been thinking when he set about landscaping Gay Mont on his return.
28 Jane Gay Robertson

29
JOHN HIPKINS BERNARD: THE YOUNG HEIR, 1816-1818
To anyone reading it today, the diary presents a wonderful picture of two well-educated young men on their first trip abroad in the early years of the nineteenth century. Like any young tourists, they appear a little naive but eager to see everything, and filled with enthusiasm. Their trip took them first to Bordeaux, then to Paris, south to Italy, and finally to Switzerland before ending in Paris, where John Hipkins Bernard decided to return home. In his first letters home, John Hipkins Bernard is eager to recount in great detail almost everything he sees. The diary reveals an intelligent young man, open and eager to learn but also with his feet planted firmly on the ground. Even though he has recently come into a considerable fortune, he was quite realistic about how much money he hadfor example he writes about how he could develop a taste for the fine arts, but knows that becoming a collector is more than his fortune will permit. Something of the relationship that developed between John Hipkins Bernard and his wife can also be seen in these letters. A reminder of the era in which they lived, how hard it was to communicate across the oceans, and the dangers of child birth or illness is reflected in the correspondence of January, 1818. John Hipkins Bernard had been writing home faithfully but had received no letter in return from Jane Gay. His letter of January 16, 1818 is full of reproaches to her. However, when the next mail arrives and there is still no letter from her he begins to worry, and it is clear that what he is concerned about is that something terrible has happened at home. He continues to worry through the winter and into the spring until June when he arrives at Fontainebleu, finds three letters waiting him there from Jane Gay, and learns that he is the father of another baby girl. It is at this point that John Hipkins Bernard decides to cut short his European tour and make the long trip back home. His brother-in-law, Powhatan, encouraged by his father, William Robertson, continued on to England and Scotland. What can we learn from the diary? One of the important things we learn from these letters is that John Hipkins Bernard was a young man who had been thinking about his house and his landscape for some time. He states in one letter that in Europe he frequently sees realized the schemes with which I have amused my fancy when I was incapable of other enjoyment and which always affords me great pleasure by encouraging hopes which I have formed of beautifying and improving a spot endeared to me by every tie.20 At one point when writing about an aviary he has seen, he remarks that things he has seen in Europe inspire him to act on things he had been planning to do.21 John Hipkins Bernard lived at a time when in England the formal, geometric garden with its manicured boxwoods, terraces and straight garden paths was superceded in the mid-eighteenth century by the informal. From John Hipkins Bernards comments, one might assume that the more modern English style was what he preferred. In his diary he notes that the garden he likes best at
30 JOHN HIPKINS BERNARD: THE YOUNG HEIR, 1816-1818
the Chateaux de Fontainbleue is the garden laid out in the English style with serpentine walks.22 His taste for the naturalistic can be seen in a long passage where he discusses a French garden filled with examples of topiary and tromp loeil statuary and says, Indeed as a work of art as a grand metamorphosis nothing can be more admirable than this grand whole, but I cant help thinking that if half the money had been laid out in aiding and fostering nature, in merely arranging and not lopping the luxurance (sic) of her tresses in suffering her to remain in her own loose, flowing graceful robes instead of squeezing her to death in corsets and shewing (sic) her legs so as to startle her at her own image when she by chance catches a glimpse of it in her own mirror, that the effect would have been much more pleasing.23 And, again, he also seems to be attuned to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century taste for the picturesque when he writes at length about a charming scene of a shepherdess sitting in a meadow of the brightest green tending her flock of sheep and spinning, while close by is an attractive little thatched hut. He adds that he always thought these scenes existed only in the imagination of the poets.24 These statements notwithstanding, John Hipkins Bernards apparent taste for the naturalistic was tempered by a continuing attraction to the formal; he was very impressed by the formal straight avenues of majestic treespoplars and elms-- that lead to the chateaux in France. He describes the trees as being planted thick and often topped high up to form a most beautiful and majestic arch.25 As we shall see, John Hipkins Bernards trip to Europe also helped reinforce for him the American taste for French classicism that was prevalent in the early years of the nineteenth century. Todays reader may be somewhat surprised by John Hipkins Bernards frequent comments regarding the number and size of the trees in Europe. We have noted his reference to the treed allees leading to the chateaux, but another observation made when he and Powhatan were journeying from Agen in Aquitaine to Moissac in the Midi-pyrenees perhaps tells us something important about the lands around Gay Mont at that time: he finds that the country before him is from some distance as barren as the hills of Virginia.26 John Hipkins Bernard inherited a working farm, and his trip to Europe gave him the opportunity to compare American agricultural practices with those employed in Europe. Wherever he went, he commented on the farming practices. The late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries were a time of agricultural reform in Virginia, with a move away from the early practice of planting only tobacco and when that exhausted the soil simply clearing new fields and abandoning the tobacco depleted areas. The leading Virginia planters in this reform included Jefferson, Washington and Landon Carter; it seems likely that John Hipkins Bernard was aware of their efforts to discover and implement methods that preserved soil fertility. John Hipkins Bernard was impressed that the botanical gardens in France undertook agricultural research, with the results being disseminated to all the French departements. He comments that this was a practice that could be emulated to great advantage in the United States.27
JOHN HIPKINS BERNARD: THE YOUNG HEIR, 1816-1818 31
In Europe John Hipkins Bernard avidly collected seeds and plant stock, particularly at the beginning of his trip. He was always looking for new varieties with which to experiment at home. It is recorded in his diary that he sent seeds (wheat, rye, oats, barley) and plants (fruit trees, berries, and chesnuts) from Bordeaux to Port Royal. He later shipped more plants from Marseilles. We also know from his diary that the first batch of plants sent home perished en route.28 What happened to the second batch is not known. (These were the days before the Wardian case had been invented, and many a great plant explorer suffered the loss of plants shipped across the ocean in either direction.) He was also interested in animals and, along with the plants that he shipped home, he also sent french partridges, hares, rabbits, pidgeons (sic) and doves which he describes as being all superior to the American in both size and beauty.29 As this was a grand tour and the purpose not only pleasure but education, John Hipkins Bernard visited grand houses, architectural sites such as the ruins at Nimes and Pompeii, and museums such as the Louvre and the Pitti Palace. He much admired the statuary that he found in the gardens and also the French taste for integrating statuary in the landscape design. He commented in particular on the beauty of the Venus de Milo, and the Niobe statue then at the Pitti Palace (fig. 29).30 He especially liked the view of the French white chateaux on the hillsides, and disapproved of those hidden from view by tall hedges.31 One might speculate that his wife and his sister, Sally, were very much involved in the planting of the garden at Gay Mont. With the batch of plants sent from Bordeaux, he 29 Niobe, Uffizi Gallery, Florence admonishes Jane Gay to think about where she wants the gooseberries, raspberrries, trees, etc. that he is sending and says that he is sending sister Sally a french gardening book to help her in managing the collection of fruit trees and seeds.32 In another letter he tells Jane how on his return he expects to see your front battery fortified with all the skill of Vauban, with terraces, bastions, and all secondum action. I shall expect to see fowl town (sic) too display its whitewashed front a monument of your architectural skill.33 Under John Hipkins Bernard, the approach to Gay Mont became a European-style, tree-lined avenue. In fact, it was always known to the family as the Avenue in contrast to the informal, winding Lane, which approaches the house on the north side. Like the white-sided French chateaux he admired (and like many other Federal buildings of this time) Gay Mont was
32 JOHN HIPKINS BERNARD: THE YOUNG HEIR, 1816-1818
a very visible white edifice on its hill top. His admiration for European sculpture can be seen in the stone busts on his porch (fig. 30), and the statuary he included in his garden, one of which was a bust of Niobe, the statue he so admired in France. And his taste for the naturalistic is mirrored in the overall plan of the landscape, which included riding trails laid out for a variety of picturesque views, a deer park, a pond by which he entertained his guests, and multiple bridges over a meandering stream.
30 Gay Mont Front Porch c. 1940

JOHN HIPKINS BERNARD: THE YOUNG HEIR, 1816-1818 33
31 Plan of Gay Mont (taken from Frank Conger Baldwin, Early Architecture of the Rappahannock Valley, Journal of the American Institute of Architects, Vol. III, No. 8 (August, 1915)
34 GAY MONT: THE YEARS OF PROSPERITY, 1816-1861
Gay Mont: The Years of Prosperity, 1818-1861

After the early years of the nineteenth century, the country entered a time of peace and increasing affluence. In Port Royal the international trade routes of the eighteenth century gave way to regional trade routes. Steamboat lines were established which linked the Tidewater river ports to Baltimore and Norfolk, and the steamboat became the major mode of transportation for both passengers and freight.34 For the Bernard familyand for Gay Mont-- these are the golden years. John Hipkins Bernard and Jane Gay had twelve children (although five died in infancy). John Hipkins Bernard served a second term in the Virginia House of Representatives from 1822-23, and he became a state senator in 1831. The Bernard family acquired a 3,000 acre cotton farm in Alabama, and also invested in land in Texas and Arkansas, all of which presumably augmented the familys wealth. These were also successful years for the Robertson family: several of Jane Gays brothers were elected to the Virginia state house of representatives or the state senate, and two of her brothers, Wyndham and Thomas Bolling, became state governors. Wyndham was Governor of Virginia from 1836-1837, and Thomas was elected Governor of Louisiana in 1820, having previously served as that states representative in the U.S. Congress from 1812-1818.35 John Hipkins Bernard apparently began enlarging and improving his estate the moment he returned home from his trip to Europe (fig. 31). According to family tradition, the first remodeling at Gay Mont occurred in 1819 when the original four-square house was enlarged and upgraded, possibly in an effort to make the young couples home more in keeping with the current Federal style of architecture. The additions at that time included one-story brick wings on each side of the house, a colonnade of stuccoed brick columns across the east front, and probably the second story balcony that can be seen in an early photograph (fig. 32) and an 1852 sketch (fig. 35). Probably this remodeling flowed in part from the ideas John Hipkins Bernard referred to in his letters when he wrote about seeing things in France that he had thought about doing at home but it also reflects the prevailing taste in America at that time.
32 Gay Mont 1859
GAY MONT: THE YEARS OF PROSPERITY, 1818-1861
35
In 1834 a one-story octagonal music room was added to the west front (fig. 33). This room had a glass cupola with transparent paintings of flowers on the glass, windows that overlooked the garden, a fireplace to make it usable all year round, and steps leading from a door into the garden. The house was enlarged yet again, probably about 1839, when an octagonal-ended library was attached to the north wing and a matching office to the end of the south wing. The Broader Landscape Overview Family tradition and comments by contemporaries about the Gay Mont estate suggest that John Hipkins Bernards vision included far more than the house and the land immediately adjacent. By the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries more affluent families incorporated the grounds surrounding their homes into an integrated landscape design, using the land for pleasure as well as profit. By mid-century it appears that Gay Mont had an impressive entrance Avenue, a picturesque meadow below the house that offered a pleasing mid-distance view of the Rappahannock valley stretched out beyond, a riding trail that crossed and recrossed the stream that ran through the estate, a large pond created for John Hipkins Bernard to fish and entertain his friends, a deer park in an orchard, and a formal garden at the rear of the house. Sources For this paper we drew on oral tradition handed down in the family and known to the present owner, Mr. Patton; the Robb-Bernard papers; account books and diaries; old photographs; published comments on the estate, and an 1852 sketch by Jane Gay (fig. 35). All this mat- 33 Octagonal music room 1920 erial fails to present a complete or certain landscape plan. The Jane Gay sketch, unfortunately, is just that, a quick sketch. While it is an important source, details may have been left out because it was done quickly, they were not important to what was being conveyed, or because of lack of professional drawing skill.
The available early photographs mostly date to the 1890s, although there are a few earlier than that. But the quality of these early photographs and also photographic foreshortening make it difficult to precisely locate and identify trees and plants. There is no mention of landscaping activities in the account books. Receipts for purchases of plants (e.g., $70.00 to an unspecified nursery for fruit trees and vines in 1828; $3.00 to MMahon in Philadelphia in 1830; $26.50 to R. Sinclair for sugar maples, lindens, moss roses, soft peach and Spanish chesnuts; and $33.00 to Samuel Feast and Sons for shade trees, cherry trees, taxus canadeums, roses, verbenas, and flower seeds)36 tell us little about the end result, although they do suggest what plants were popular at the time. Included in the publications we have drawn on for this report is the book, Welcum Hinges.37 The author of this 1942 book was Bernard Robb (1881-1965), a member of the Robb family that owned the house. According to Robb, the purpose of the book was to publish his memories of tales told him by Woodson Jones about life at Gay Mont before, during, and after the Civil War, up to Jones death at Gay Mont in 1920. The information about Gay Mont, therefore, is second-hand, drawing first on Jones memories and then on Robbs recall of those memories as told to him more than twenty years before he wrote the book. The 1852 Sketch The earliest pictorial record we have of the house and garden is an 1852 drawing of the house which was done by Jane Gay for her eldest daughter, Gay. (The sketch is dated on the verso (fig. 34.)) The sketch (fig. 35) shows the front of the house including the terraces, some of the outbuildings around the house, and part of the present-day approach to the house (described earlier in this paper in the section on Gay Mont Today, pp. 13 et seq.)
34 1852 Sketch (verso)
37
35 1852 sketch of Gay Mont
38
Presumably the terraces depicted in the sketch are the terraces John Hipkins Bernard mentioned with reference to Vauban in his letter to Jane Gay. The sketch shows trees (the faint vertical lines depict the trunks of trees) planted in an irregular line parallel to the house on what appears to be the the second terrace. These trees are not grouped together in clusters on either side of the house as would later be advocated by the influential American landscape architect, Andrew Downing. Perhaps John Hipkins Bernard derived his inspiration for this formal planting of trees from the landscaping he saw at the great French chateaux. The structure on the third terrace is probably a summerhouse as there is a record of a payment of $40.00 in April of 1828 to a Mr. Braxton for the construction of a summerhouse.38 This summerhouse appears to be situated directly in front of the steps which are on the central axis of the house. However, the uncertain perspective used in the sketch makes it difficult to pinpoint the summerhouses exact location. The sketch also shows the left side of the house as though the drawing were made standing to the left of the house and, if this is the correct perspective, then the summerhouse is placed somewhat off-center. Locating the summerhouse on the central axis would be unusual as to some extent this would have obstructed the vista across the valley from the front of the house. However, we will see that, despite his avowed preference for English informality and serpentine lines, John Hipkins Bernard retained a taste for formal and strictly axial designs. Summerhouses, usually with vines grown over them to provide shade and privacy, had been a fixture in Virginia gardens since the early years of the colony.39 In the sketch the summerhouse is drawn quickly with only a few faint lines, but Welcum Hinges provides a more detailed description of the summerhouse. According to Woodson Jones there was a pretty, vine-covered arbor at Gay Mont with a pinnacle on top surmounted by a weathervane in the shape of a goldfish (the bottom half of which can be seen in the sketch), and a cage full of canaries was suspended inside this arbor.40 In a letter from France John Hipkins Bernard described for his wife a summerhouse combined with an aviary, which he thought a most interesting and pleasant idea and, if the summerhouse is the same one described by Woodson Jones, then perhaps the idea of combining birds with an outside sitting area did take hold, albeit as a simpler affair than the one John Hipkins Bernard saw in Europe. What is puzzling is that in Edith Sales Historic Gardens41 there is a description of a fountain on the spot that is occupied by the summerhouse in Jane Gays sketch. As this book was published in 1923 it might be assumed that the summerhouse had been dismantled to make way for the fountain with its little garden of conch shells and ivy some time after the Civil War. However, the same entry in Sales book notes that the lead in the pipe that fed the fountain was used as shot by the huntsmen in the family after the War between the States. This would indicate that the fountain was in place before the Civil War, and that theory is supported by family lore that the conch shells were brought back from Bermuda by John Hipkins Bernard, who died in 1858.
39
Further supporting this theory is a passage in Dissolving Views42 describing the ante-bellum lifestyle at Gay Mont, including sitting in the bower by the sparking (sic) fountain, and a passage in Caroline Pocahontas Bernards diary for May 1865 reads, I hasten back to the Portico and feel soothed by the lovely scene. I think Titania would scarce discover she had strayed from her own domain were she by chance to find herself in that honey suckle bower. Tis a fitting palace for spirits of the air where the fountain murmers and sparkles reminding even mortals of Fairyland. It would appear then that both arbor and fountain existed at the front of the house pre-Civil War and were located close together with, perhaps, the fountain even being situated inside the arbor. The plants along the summerhouse terrace are probably roses (Gay Mont was known for its roses), not planted as a hedge or massed together as we would do today, but planted with wide spaces between them to show off the individual plants. At the far left side of the sketch there is another building which is possibly an icehouse as there is a deep circular pit at this spot on the terrace today. On either side of the house are boxwood circles and, inside these circles are plants (again probably roses) trained up supports. Gay Mont was a self-sufficient farm and, in addition to the main dwelling, ornamental garden, grove of trees, and work yard, one would expect to find outbuildings such as slave quarters, smokehouse, icehouse, ladies necessary, laundry house, and carriage house. Jane Gays sketch shows the old kitchen on the south side of the house,43 with a small building behind it which could be the ladies necessary.44 On the north side, there is a similar arrangement of outbuildings. The approach to the house, called the Lane by the family, can be seen on the right hand side of the sketch. Beyond the gates on the right (or east) side of the lane is a large building on a hilltop, probably the stable and, beyond that, another building with what appears to be a windmill behind it. The sketch does not show the orchard and deer park described by John Bernard Hipkins in an article in The Farmers Register (vol. 5, #3, July 1, 1837). Deer parks were not uncommon in eighteenth and nineteenth century Virginia. There were deer parks at Mount Airy (1750) and at Menokin (1778) on the Northern Neck, and also at Monticello. Jane Gays sketch shows only the front of the house. Unfortunately, we do not have a pre-Civil War depiction of another important part of the landscape that we believe existed at that time, the flower garden at the rear. The garden at the rear: 1923 depiction of 1820s garden? According to family tradition, John Hipkins Bernard brought back from Europe two English gardeners, and these gardeners designed and laid out a garden at the rear of the house. While there are some pre-Civil War references to the garden and its plants in family member letters and diaries, no plan of the garden dating to the early years of the house has been discovered. However, based on
strong family tradition in the Robb-Bernard family, and the fact that there was no money for a major redesign of the garden after the Civil War and the early years of the twentieth century, we believe that the design of the garden illustrated in Edith Sales Historic Gardens of Virginia (fig. 36)45could be that of the garden originally laid out in the 1820s. If so, it would also be the one that still exists at Gay Mont, albeit in fragmentary form. The garden is placed on an axis with the house so that when the hall doors were open there would have been a view through the central hall east to the summerhouse at the front and west down the central path of the garden to a sun dial on a terrace at the bottom of the path. The Sales plan shows a well-thought out, tightly designed, geometric layout. There are two subordinate paths on either side of a central allee lined with regular rounded shapes (perhaps boxwood) on either side. Between these three paths are two major planting beds. These beds are divided in two by small diamondshaped planting beds bordered by gravel paths. Flowers are dotted throughout the beds, and peonies planted in the center of the diamond-shaped beds. Bisecting the central path is a cross path that runs approximately the same length as the terraces at the front of the house. On either side of this formal garden are plots devoted to small fruits and vegetables. These more utilitarian beds are screened from the formal central garden by shrubs. While the formal garden slopes down to a broad terrace at the bottom, the fruit and vegetable gardens are terraced in three falls. Unlike the Tidewater area farther east where the paths are made of crushed oyster shells, the paths at Gay Mont were (and still are) of gravel. Gravel pits are common in the Port Royal area but family lore holds that John Bernard Hipkins brought 36 Lila L. Williams plan in Edith Sales Historic Gardens of Virginia
GAY MONT: THE YEARS OF PROSPERITY, 1818-1861 41
the gravel from Bermuda.46 The entire area is enclosed by a hedge of althea that replaced an earlier bed of roses.47 We may ask if this design truly reflects early to mid-nineteenth century southern gardens. It is certainly possible: the southern states remained traditional in their preference for formality and geometric design, and this continued into the mid-nineteenth century. The design itself is similar to a plan found at the Battle-Friedman Garden in Alabama (fig. 37). This garden was laid out by Peter MArthur, an English gardener, in 1844, who apparently drew on an 1812 plan by J. C. Loudon for a parterre on a site of a limited size.48 The straight paths would also suggest a pre-1850 date because after that date curved and fluid lines for paths were more frequent.49 While the Edith Sale plan shows a sundial at the end of the terrace, family tradition holds that a statue of Niobethe statue so admired by Bernard on his trip to Europewas located in this place of honor. This tradition is supported by Jones story in Welcum Hinges50 in which Jones recounts a fright he got when he came upon the statue one moonlit night when walking in the garden. Barbara Sarudy in Gardens and Gardening in the Chesapeake 1700-180551 describes how statuary embellished the gardens of the Chesapeake Bay area from the early years of the eighteenth century, and she notes that by the end of the century garden statues were widely available commercially. A garden bed designed and planted in the 1820s would probably have been filled with shrubs, flowers and bulbs to create a diverse palette. According to H. Andrew Gay in 1855,52 such beds in the south were planted chiefly with roses and a few of the finer varieties of shrubs, interspersed with such herbaceous and bulbous plants that would stand the climate, viz:-Liliums, amaryllis, pancratiums, hyacinth; gladiolus; narcissus; phlox; chrysanthemum; asclepias, carnation pinks; wall flowers; stocks, sweet william; alyssum; verbenas; violets, etc. ... One can assume that many of these plants were used in Virginia along with typical plants of the time, e.g., spirea, sweet shrub, flowering quince, lilacs, althea, mock orange, snowball and tea plants, many of which were planted for both their flowers and their fragrance.
37 Battle-Friedman garden, Alabama
This type of planting is suggested in family correspondence, e.g., in April 1839 Jane Gay writes: As usual we are all as busy as bees among the flowers and the charming weather we have had has brought the buds out like magic. The greenhouse, too, still occupies much of my time agreeably and is as great a hobby as ever... I wish you would bring me a plant or two of the white phlox or any42 GAY MONT: THE YEARS OF PROSPERITY, 1818-1861
thing which we have not. In April 1842 she wrote that spring has come a month earlier than usual and there are violets, jasmine, and lilies-of-the-valley almost out, and the roses and honeysuckle are just opening. In an April 1845 letter to Jane Gay in Richmond, Lelia writes to her mother that the garden and yard are in perfect order, blooming in the former are the lilacs.... The red bud on the hill is out, and there are also a great many flowers in bloom in the greenhouse. On June 1, 1836, Mrs. Wyndham Robertson (Jane Gays sister-in-law) mentions how beautiful the roses and shrubbery appear.53 In James Keiths Boswells diary, portions of which are included in Thomas Keith Skinkers Samuel Skinker and His Descendants,54 Bosewell notes that in April of 1863 he spent an hour at Gay Mont and strolled with Pocahontas (John Hipkins Bernards daughter) into her flower garden, which is now bright with variegated flowers and redolent with perfume. The beauty and fragrance of the garden was also commented on by Woodson Jones. He described the garden as having paths that went in every direction. The paths were edged with beautiful shrubs, and filled with so many flowers that Jones thought it looked like the Garden of Eden. Jones also noted that the fragrance was so strong that you could smell it as soon as you turned into the Avenue.55 As noted above, family tradition holds that John Hipkins Bernard brought back from Europe two English gardeners and they laid out the garden in 1820. To date nothing has been found that confirms this tradition. The tradition could well be correct, though we note that John Hipkins Bernards trip did not take him to England. Of course, he may have been able to hire an English gardener in France, but he would equally have been able to hire an English gardener in this country. (According to Cothran, by the early nineteenth century there were many garden designers coming from England, Scotland, France, Ireland and other European countries and advertising their services in American newspapers, periodicals, and agricultural journals of the period.)56 Who then was the gardener in the family? When John Hipkins Bernard sent back plants from France, he noted that Jane Gay was to plan where to put the currant bushes and fruit trees, but he stated that he was sending back books in French for his sister, Sally (fig. 38), so she would know how to manage them. John Hipkins Bernards daughter, Caroline Pocahontas Bernard, wrote in her book, Dissolving Views,57 that she always enjoyed the flower talks between her father and her Aunt Lightfoot (Sally Bernard, John Hipkins Bernards sister, married Philip Lightfoot who managed the estate for John Hipkins Bernard when he was away.) In 1838 Jane Gay wrote with regard to time spent in the the greenhouse who would ever have guessed that in my old age, I should have become quite the devotee of flowers.58 Perhaps Sally Bernard
38 Sally Bernard
43
had a significant hand in planning and maintaining the garden? But, unless she copied the design from a gardening book (and John Claudius Loudons books were widely published in the States), the design appears to be too professional to have been her work. In addition to the rear garden, there are three other important elements in the Gay Mont estate that we believe existed during the time of John Hipkins Bernard and that should be discussed in this section relating to the Golden Years. These are the Avenue, the bridle trails that he laid out for his daughters, and the pond where he fished and entertained his friends. The Avenue An important feature of Gay Mont was the entrance drive, always referred to by the family as the Avenue. Family tradition maintains the Avenue was laid out by John Hipkins Bernard shortly after he returned from France. Many old Virginia plantation houses had long axial drives lined with eastern red cedar, and John Hipkins Bernard would certainly have been very familiar with this type of drive. However, the drives he admired in Europe were not only characterized by stately trees, but also by their impressive width. The Avenue at Gay Mont was later described by one family member as a wide, open space,59 and it seems likely it was significantly broader than the typically narrow coach roads of the time in America. The enormous hackberries that once lined the beginning of the drive can still be seen today from Route 17, if you know where to look. Perhaps these hackberries, which are clearly the tree of choice at Gay Mont, were planted in an attempt to find a quick-growing native tree that would imitate the stately trees John Hipkins Bernard saw in Europe. While we have no indication of what the drive looked like in the pre-Civil War period, the Avenue appears in many later old photographs. From those photographs (fig. 39) it appears the Avenue may not have been completely tree-lined in John Hipkins Bernards time, but it is quite possible that some of the trees had died by the time the photographs were taken. The Avenue was laid out on axis with the house and probably afforded approaching guests a wonderful view of the house above on the hill (fig. 40). From the photographs it appears that as the Avenue approached the slope below the house it made a small jog round a clump of trees and then went off to the south to make the ascent up the hill and approach the house from the south side. As noted earlier, the remnants of the Avenue entry to the house grounds can still be seen today just beyond the old kitchen on the south side of the house. It should be noted that the Avenue, unlike many other formal approach drives of the period, does not appear to divide at the base of the hill to permit a circular transit to and from the house. With this layout the Avenue would probably have divided at the base of the hill, with the entry branch going around to approach the house from the south and the return branch coming down from the north
and rejoining the Avenue. The cost of such a scheme may have ruled it out, but another good reason might have been the prior existence of the Lane, (the only road leading up to the house today) which allowed departure down to the main road via a longer route on the north side of the house. Other roads and paths While the Avenue was the main entrance to the house, there were also other roads on the estate, such as the Lane (see above) and a road (mentioned by Woodson Jones)60 that was accessed just beyond the Goldenvale Creek bridge on the
40 Looking from the Avenue towards the house 1943
main road. The entrance and the remnants of this road still exist today, but how or even if it went to the house is no longer evident. Bridle trails The 2,000 acre estate grounds appear to have been used extensively for pleasure. Caroline Pocahontas Bernard describes in 39 Looking from the house towards the Avenue 1920
45
Dissolving Views61 how she and her sisters would go out riding in the morning before breakfast: We take the Long Meadow ride, as it is called: one cut for us by Father within the limits of the estate, full of variety and beauty. We gallop down the Avenue, a plain, open track, then turn into an enchanted little spot of emerald green, with a sparkling stream running by, murmuring in a low voice, a play-ground for the fairies. Then on we go, into a wider space with stately trees bending on either side and cattle grazing here and there. Then crossing a rustic bridge we suddenly turn into a dark pine wood, and go singly through the narrow patch, talking in a quieter strain, for the wind sighs in the pine-tops, and one is reminded of some of Longfellows melancholy thoughts. Passing into the bright light again, we wind down the steep hillside, enter a wooded road and soon find ourselves at the upper entrance. Just then the great bell sounds for breakfast. The pond According to Woodson Jones in Welcum Hinges,62 John Hipkins Bernard dammed Goldenvale Creek to form a fishpond which he used to entertain his friends. They fished in the well-stocked lake, and the food would be cooked there and served on the spot on a table made from a big millstone. Although fishponds to stock fish were common in early America,63 this mode of entertaining is perhaps an early nineteenth century precursor of the twentieth century phenomenon, the cook-out. There was also a spring house walled up with stone slabs on the side of the high bank, and in the spring house perishable food was kept cool by the fresh spring water. Like the bridle trails, the pond has disappeared, and there are no photographs that show it. Garden versus yard, fencing, and upper and lower gates The yards and gardens around a house were usually enclosed in the nineteenth century, especially on a farm, such as Gay Mont, to prevent the livestock from wandering in and grazing on the plants, and a wide variety of fences and hedges were employed to keep the animals confined. An accurate picture of the Gay Mont estate in the early nineteenth century probably would include an assortment of fences and hedges, ranging from decorative fences or hedges around the house to utilitarian Virginia rail or post and rail fences in less visible areas.64 The description of the garden at the rear of the house in Sales Historic Gardens of Virginia notes that a hedge of roses originally surrounded that garden, and that these roses were later replaced by a hedge of althea. This old rose hedge was probably designed not so much for show as to protect the garden (especially the fruit and vegetables) from intruders, both animal and human, and the Cherokee rose (Rosa laevigata) was a popular choice for a hedge.65 The remnants of the old althea hedge (and the possible demarcation line of the outer edges of the old garden) can still be seen on the north side of the garden in the line of hackberries and altheas that lead to the
old well (see fig. 23), and there may also be a trace of the south edge of the old garden in the line of trees running west from the old kitchen. As a working farm with cows, bulls, mules, and sheep, we can assume that there was always a grazing meadow below the bottom terrace for the cattle and sheep, and that there would have been some barrier erected at the bottom of the fourth terrace to prevent them from wandering up onto the terraces. The only visual source we have for this is a 1920s photograph (fig. 41) which shows a utilitarian wire fence. However, the fact that a Cherokee rose still flourishes and blooms at the north end of the bottom terrace suggests that before wire fences were available (about mid-nineteenth century), a rose hedge might have been employed as a fence. The 1920s photograph also shows the meadow path seen at the bottom of the Edith Sale plan (see fig. 36). This path may also be the one referred to in a Woodson Jones story in Welcum Hinges66 that led to the stables and cowpen, skirting the cemetery on the way. In this story he commented that the smell of the cowpen and sheepmint that grew all around was very strong. The smell of this mint is strong even today at Gay Mont, although it is more noticeable on the edge of the terraces, not where we believe the stables and cowpen were located. If the areas adjacent to the house were enclosed to protect them, there had to be gates. A story recounted by Jones67 about a runaway horse and carriage talks about upper gates on each side of the house, and these are also mentioned in Caroline Bernards description of the bridle trail (see p. 46). A 1946 photograph shows gates hanging on the old gate posts in the Lane (fig. 42), but whether these are the upper or lower gates is unknown, and the exact location of the fencing and gates at Gay Mont remains a question.
41 Meadow 1920
42 Old Gates 1946

GAY MONT: THE YEARS OF PROSPERITY, 1818-1861 47
43 General Stuart arriving at Gay Mont by Sydney King 48

THE CIVIL WAR YEARS AND BEYOND
The Civil War Years and Beyond

Jane Gay died in 1852, and John Hipkins Bernard died in 1858. Under the terms of his will, the Gay Mont estate passed to his six surviving children: Gay Robertson, Mary Eliza, William, Lelia Bolling, Caroline Pocahontas and Helen Struan (fig. 44). The three married sisters, Gay, Lelia, and Caroline, sold their shares in the estate to their unmarried siblings, Mary Eliza, Helen Struan, and William. Mary later sold her share of the estate to Helen and, when Helen married, she and William divided the estate, Helen taking the house and two-thirds of the land, and William the land that bordered Goldenvale Creek. There he built a new home for himself called Lonely Villa. Three years after John Hipkins Bernard death, the south seceded and the Civil War began. The Civil War and the years immediately following were a time of great hardship on the Gay Mont estate. A detailed account of this period at Gay Mont can be found in War at our Doors: The Civil War Diaries and Letters of the Bernard Sisters of Virginia. This book, based on the diaries and letters of the Bernard sisters (particularly Helen and Caroline) contains not only their account of the war literally at their door, but also their recollections of the idyllic, ante-bellum lifestyle they led on the estate before the war. In Caroline County, Union and Confederate troops faced each other across the Rappanhannock, and a number of houses in Port Royal and along the Rappahannock River were shelled by the Union troops. Control of the area went back and forth between the two opposing armies, and both sides moved troops in and around Gay Mont. In her diary for December 3, 1863, Helen Bernard68 wrote We have had a continual stream of soldiers, horse and foot since sunrise. General D. H. Hills Division has moved down. There is a large camp just at the foot of the garden and all through the woods. And the following day she noted that, A battery of artillery is now in the orchard ready at any moment to move into position on the brow of the hill. The sisters also entertained Confederate officers on a number of occasions at Gay Mont; one story recounted by Marshall Wingfield and others69 relates that Confederate officers, Major Pelham and Major Duncan McKim, while dining at the house received a summons to leave immediately because the battle of Fredericksburg had begun. The battle was so intense and so close that the big bell over the kitchen and smaller bells hung outside the house windows (to summon the servants) were 44 The Bershaken until they rang. nard Sisters
THE CIVIL WAR YEARS AND BEYOND 49
As one might expect, the Northern troops were not warmly received at Gay Mont. On May 25, 1864, Helen commented70 that we found ourselves surrounded on all sides. Long wagon trails filling every road, the Town Field white with tents and Yankees swarming everywhere. The yard, the garden, every place was filled with the horrid wretches...The Yankees departed on the 31st and we breathed freely again but in that one week they made sad havoc. Another story recounted by Wingfield71 tells how Helen and Pocahontas sat up many nights beside a low window holding by the bridles their favorite horses, Ariel and Empress, to prevent them from being stolen by the Union troops. When they were stolen by the troops, the women went to the commanding Union officer in Port Royal, General Abercrombie, to beg for their return. After meeting with them, Abercrombie had a special guard placed at the house. An important part of the Union strategy was to starve the south into submission, and to achieve that goal, crops and orchards were burned and farm implements taken. After the war there was little money to buy new farm implements to work the fields and, even if there had been, there were few able-bodied hands left to work in them. Some men never returned from the war, and others returned maimed and unable to work. Many slaves left the plantations and went north, and those that did remain often were unwilling to work for the meager wages the plantations could afford. The post- War years were undoubtedly difficult ones at Gay Mont.72 Helen married her second cousin, Philip Lightfoot, during the course of the war, and the two of them continued to live at Gay Mont after the war until their deaths, Philip in 1894 and Helen in 1901. After Helens death, the house passed to their six children: Fannie, Helen, Gay, Robert, Philip, and Bernard. The two eldest daughters, Fannie and Helen, never married, and the two maiden sisters lived on and, with the help of the Jones family, took care of the Gay Mont estate, until their respective deaths in 1950 and 1955. From the 1860s onward photographs help document changes to Gay Mont structures and the landscape. However, there appear to have been few alterations at Gay Mont, probably because of financial constraints and also because of the strong sense of tradition in the family. We know that after her husbands death in 1894, Helen hired a farm manager to help her oversee the running of the farm73, and the ruins of the frame house built for him remain on the south side of Gay Mont today (fig. 17). In an 1863 photograph (fig.32), Gay Mont has a balcony which does not appear in an 1895 photograph (fig. 45), although shutters have been added to the house. In the 1895 photograph (possibly taken standing in the little rose garden looking up at the house) we can see a mature landscape with ivy and roses climbing up the house walls, and large, spreading trees on the terraces. In a 1920 photograph (fig. 33) it appears that the statue of Niobe has been relocated from its place of honor at the end of the main garden walk to the back
50
THE CIVIL WAR YEARS AND BEYOND
wall of the octagonal music room, although we do not know exactly when or why this happened. The net for a tennis court shows in an early photograph taken in 1920 (fig. 46). If family tradition is accurate, a grass court was laid out between the north wing of the house and the garden walk in about 1890, and the grass court was replaced about 1900 by a clay court laid out to the west of the walk74. (Interestingly, in the 1923 Lila L. Williams plan in Sales Historical Gardens this area is designated small fruits. She has not recorded this change to the garden.) Photographs can also help clarify written comments that are sometimes confusing. For example, the 1943 panoramic photograph
45 Gay Mont 1898 of the river valley taken from Gay Mont (fig. 39) shows how much more open the landscape was as compared to today, and makes more understandable John Hipkins Bernards admiration for the magnificent trees and lush vegetation he saw in Europe, and his comment regarding the barren hills of Virginia. (This would be even more true if the land around Port Royal were more heavily cleared and cultivated in the early nineteenth century than in the 1940s.) The same picture helps clarify a comment by Jane Gay75 in a letter to her daughter, Helen, saying that when the sun came out after a storm the new Steeple (St. Peters in Port Royal) shone conspicuous. Today it is impossible to see Port Royal from Gay Mont. 46 Tennis Court c. 1920
THE CIVIL WAR YEARS AND BEYOND 51
By the 1920s automobile ownership had increased and more people had the leisure and money to travel, and the era of automobile tourism began. There was also an increasing interest in American history, historic properties, and historic gardens. The 1920s and 1930s are the years during which Thomas Tileston Waterman (who lived for a time at Port Royal) published his books on American and Virginia architecture, especially of the colonial period; when Arthur Shurcliffe visited historic homes (including Gay Mont) to help lay out the gardens at Williamsburg; and when Edith Sale brought out her books on Historic Gardens of Virginia and Historic Interiors. Responding to this interest in historic properties and the mobility of the American public, Gay Mont joined other historic houses in the Rappahannock River area in opening its gardens to the public, presumably in an effort to defray the not inconsiderable cost of maintaining the estate. An entry in the Virginia guide published in 194076 states that Gay Mont was open from April 15 to November 15 for admission for 50 cents. In a letter dated May 19, 1886 to her sister77, Bessie Scott notes that Gay Mont, too, is gradually losing its old landmarks - another ivy tree blew down the other day, but the garden, tho overgrown, is a mass of syringa and roses in full bloom making the air so fragrant. And the place is about the same that it was when you were here, tho something charming in its very dilapidation. The dilapadation was evidently repaired by the 1920s for in a July 9, 1920 letter, Mrs. William B. Lightfoot78 states that they say Gay Mont is a regular show place, perfectly beautiful in every way and kept up so well. Perhaps it is during this period that the Niobe statue left the garden for the back of the music room (fig. 33) and the concrete-edged circular planters were installed (fig. 47). One of the significant programs established during the Great Depression by the Public Works Project was the Historic American Building Survey (HABS), which has played a leading role in creating an archive of architectural drawings and photographs of historic buildings. Two photographers, Ralph Happel and C. O. Greene took photographs of Gay Mont for HABS, Happel in the winter of 1939, and Greene in the summer of 1940. In 1940 the Department of Defense established Fort A. P. Hill in Port Royal and for a time it appeared that the army might take over the Gay Mont estate as well. It is also at this time that Mr. Patton first visited Gay Mont as a tourist with his father. Over the years he stayed in touch with the Robb sisters, visiting them and often helping them with the upkeep and maintenance of the house, which became increasingly difficult 47 Circular planters 1920s
52 THE CIVIL WAR YEARS AND BEYOND
for them as they grew older. He also met his wife-to-be, Frances Robb Upton Patton, whom he married in 1951 in a ceremony held in the octagonal music room at Gay Mont (fig. 48). (The tradition of marriage ceremonies being performed in the music room was a longstanding one at Gay Mont with many brides in the family being married there.)
At this point we have come full circle from our beginning where we described the sale of Gay Mont out of family hands, the fire that destroyed the house, the subsequent purchase of the land by Mr. and Mrs. Patton, and their rebuilding of Gay Mont. For many years the Pattons were careful custodians of the Gay Mont estate, ever mindful of its history, restoring what they could, and replacing what had to be replaced with care for the historic context. Deeply attached to the estate, Mr. and Mrs. Patton were concerned about what would happen to Gay Mont after they died as they, and also Mrs. Pattons immediate cousins, had no heirs to take it over. Consequently in 1975 they decided to deed the land, the house, and its contents to the Association for the Preservation of Virginias Antiquities (APVA).
48 The Octagonal Music Room 1940
THE CIVL WAR YEARS AND BEYOND
53
CONCLUSION
A great deal of research, preservation, and restoration has focused on the colonial and early federal period of American architecture and landscape design. Gay Mont represents a later, but no less important period in American history. It is not a Williamsburg or a Monticello, but it reflects quite directly the American experience and American taste in the years 1820 to the Civil War. In what we have called its golden years (1820-1861), Gay Mont was a good example of a late federal/early Victorian estate in the south. Gay Mont is also deserving of attention because of the Bernard/Robb families that built, expanded, and cherished it. They were prominent and succesful people in their time, and they left behind a wealth of articulate and sometimes very personal letters and diaries which the Bernard/Robb families have preserved. This is a trove of information which deserves much deeper investigation than the scope and time of our project allowed. Many historic properties do not come with this amount of documentation, especially regarding their surrounding landscape. It would appear that, while much of the larger landscape has been lost, the immediate grounds in front of and behind Gay Mont have not been altered significantly over the years. In and of itself this is quite remarkable as so many gardens of large estates underwent drastic changes in the 1930s when the colonial revival style became so popular. Unlike many historic properties the Gay Mont garden could be restored with the aid of the written documentation and the traces of the garden that still survive, thus providing a rare example of a Virginia garden of the late federal/early Victorian period. For some the fact that the building on the Gay Mont site is not the original mansion but is a recreation of the old house is a handicap. However, the present house in many ways resembles a museum as it contains much of the original furniture and portraits from the late federal/early Victorian era. These are all family items very consciously preserved and returned to Gay Mont when the house was rebuilt after the 1959 fire. On entering the house, the visitor steps back in time to the mid-19th century. Finally, mention should be made of Mr. and Mrs. Patton and their historic preservation efforts. They worked at a time (in the late 1950s) when there was not the wealth of information or funding resources that are available today to historic preservationists. That they attempted, accomplished, and maintained as much as they have is most admirable, and the existing house and garden are a tribute to these two determined people.
54
CONCLUSION
Photo Credits
All photographs are the authors, unless otherwise noted below: Jackie Luzar: Figs. 1, 2, 15, 16, 18, 19, and 22. Mr. James S. Patton: Cover, and figs. 3, 5, 6, 29, 30, 32, 33, 39, 40, 44, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, and 48.
PHOTO CREDITS
55
Notes
1. Ann Leighton, American Gardens of the Nineteenth Century: For Comfort and Affluence (Amherst, MA, 1987), 15. 2. Rev. Ralph Emmett Fall, Hidden Village: Port Royal, Virginia, 1744-1981 (Port Royal, VA, 1982).
3. More information on the falls gardens of the Chesapeake area can be found in Barbara Wells Sarudy, Gardens and Gardening on the Chesapeake, 1700-1805 (Baltimore, MD, 1998), 20-49. 4. For a detailed account of the early history of Caroline County, see Thomas Elliott Campbell, Colonial Caroline: A History of Caroline County, Virginia (Richmond, VA, 1954). 5. A summary of the problems encountered in researching Caroline County records can be found in Kimberly Curtis Campbell, Caroline County, Virginia Court Records: Probate and other records from the Court Order and Minute Books, 1781-1799 (Athens, GA, 1999). 6. James S. Patton, John Hipkins, Robb-Bernard Collection on permanent loan at the Manuscripts and Rare Books Department, Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Virginia. Unless otherwise noted, this section relies on the research presented by James S. Patton in this unpublished manuscript, and is used with his permission. 7. Thomas Campbell, Colonial Caroline, 271. 8. 9. Ibid., 370. Kimberly Campbell, Caroline County, 17.
10. Virginia State Library, Richmond, VA, High Court of Admiralty Prize Papers, SR 05480, 12. 11. Kimberly Campbell, Caroline County, 232-234. 12. Ibid., 238.
56 NOTES
13. Ibid., 227. 14. Ibid., 237. 15. Frank Conger Baldwin, Early Architecture of the Rappahannock Valley, Journal of the American Institute of Architects, August, 1915, 329-332, 334. 16. Edith Tunis Sale, Historic Gardens of Virginia, comp. The James River Garden Club (Richmond, VA, 1923), 234-238. 17. Edith Tunis Sale, Interiors of Virginia Houses of Colonial Times: from the beginnings of Virginia to the Revolution (Richmond, VA, 1927), 219-228. 18. Historic American Buildings Survey, VA17-PORO, VA, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington, D.C., 20540. 19. James S. Patton, The Diary of John Hipkins Bernard, Robb-Bernard Collection on permanent loan at the Manuscripts and Rare Books Department, Swem Library, College of William and Mary, Virginia. Material used with permission of James S. Patton. 20. Ibid., December 17, 1816. 21. Ibid., December 3, 1816. 22. Ibid., May 31, 1817. 23. Ibid., December 3, 1816. 24. Ibid., November 13, 1816. 25. Ibid., November 16, November 28, and December 3, 1816. 26. Ibid., December 17, 1816.
NOTES 57
27. Ibid., December 8, 1816. 28. Ibid., June 2, 1816. 29. Ibid., December 3, 1816. 30. Ibid., March 12, 1817. 31. Ibid., December 30, 1816, and January 16, 1817. 32. Ibid., December 3, 1816. 33. Ibid., June 2, 1817. (In his comment John Hipkins Bernard is referring to Marshal Vauban, military engineer to Louis XIV). 34. John C. Wilson, Virginias Northern Neck: A Pictorial History (Virginia Beach, VA, 1992), 49. 35. James S. Patton, The Robertson Family, Robb-Bernard Collection on permanent loan at the Manuscripts and Rare Books Department, Swem Library, College of William and Mary, VA. Material used with permission of James S. Patton. 36. James S. Patton, Gay Mont, to Junius Fishburne, Assistant Director, Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission, Richmond, Virginia, June 7, 1971, 5, Virginia Department of Historic Resources, Richmond, VA. 37. Bernard Robb, Welcum Hinges (Mount Vernon, NY, 1942). 38. Patton to Fishburne, 5. 39. Leighton, Gardens of the Nineteenth Century, 3. 40. Robb, Welcum Hinges, 26. 41. Sale, Historic Landscapes, 235.
58 NOTES
42. Patton to Fishburne, 13. 43. According to James S. Patton, the outside kitchen was moved from the south to the north side of the house, and then later the kitchen was in the house basement, and a dumb waiter connected the kitchen and dining room. 44. Ann Leighton recounts that she was told by a southern lady of her acquaintance that the outhouse at the end of the garden was for the ladies and that the men were sent the other way to conveniences near the stables. See Leighton, Gardens of the Nineteenth Century. 45. Sale, Historic Landscapes, opp. 235. 46. Ibid., 236. 47. Ibid., 236. 48. James R. Cothran, Gardens and Historic Plants of the Antebellum South (Columbia, SC, 2003), 50-51. 49. Ibid., 53. 50. Robb, Welcum Hinges, 55-56. 51. Sarudy, Gardens and Gardening in the Chesapeake, 42-48. 52. Cothran, Gardens and Historic Plants, 53. 53. Patton to Fishburne, 5-6, 8-9. 54. Ibid., 9. 55. Robb, Welcum Hinges, 26.
NOTES
59
56. Cothran, Gardens and Historic Plants, 48-50. 57. Patton to Fishburne, 6. 58. Ibid., 13. 59. War at Our Doors: The Civil War diaries of the Bernard sisters of Virginia, ed. and annotated Rebecca Campbell Light (Fred ericksburg, VA, 1998), 3. 60. Robb, Welcum Hinges, 75. 61. Light, War at Our Doors, 3-4. 62. Robb, Welcum Hinges, 26-27. 63. Sarudy, Gardens and Gardening in the Chesapeake, 61. 64. Cothran, Gardens and Historic Plants, 65 65. Ibid., 72-73. 66. Robb, Welcum Hinges, 95. 67. Ibid., 81 and Light, War at Our Doors, 4. 68. Light, War at Our Doors, 53-54. 69. Marshall Wingfield, A History of Caroline County: From its formation in 1727 to 1924 (Richmond, VA, 1924), 362. 70. Light, War at Our Doors, 104-105.
60 NOTES
71. Wingfield, History of Caroline County, 361. 72. For an account of the post-war hardship endured in the neighboring county of King George, see Elizabeth Nuckols Lee, Effects of the Civil War-King George County, Northern Neck of Virginia Historical Magazine, December, 1997, 5541-5548. 73. Robb, Welcum Hinges, 158. 74. Patton to Fishburne, 11. 75. Ibid., 8. 76. Writers Program, Virginia, Virginia: a guide to the Old Dominion. Comp. Workers of the Writers Program of the Works Project Administration in the State of Virginia, American Guide Series (New York, NY, 1940), 449. 77. Patton to Fishburne, 11. 78. Ibid., 12.
NOTES
61
Bibliography
Primary Sources Robb-Bernard Papers, 1800-1901. Manuscript and Rare Books Department, Swem Library, College of William and Mary, VA. Patton, James S. Unpublished papers (kept with, but separately from, the Robb-Bernard Papers, 1800-1901). Manuscript and Rare Books Department, Swem Library, College of William and Mary, VA. Secondary Sources Adams, Denise Wiles. Restoring American Gardens: An encylopedia of heirloom ornamental plants, 1640-1940. Portland, OR 2004. Baldwin, Frank Conger. 1915. Early American Architecture of the Rappahannock Valley. Journal of the American Institute of Architects, Vol. III, No. 8 (August 1915): 329-332, 334. Batey, Mavis. Regency Gardens. Princess Risborough, 1995. Boucher, Jonathan. Reminiscences of an American Loyalist, 1738-1789, being the autobiography of the Revd. Jonathan Boucher, Rector of Annapolis in Maryland and afterwards Vicar of Epsom, Surrey, England. 1925. Reprint, Port Washington, NY, 1967. Campbell, Kimberly Curtis. Caroline County, Virginia, court records: probate and other records from the Court Order and Minute Books, 1781-1799. Athens, GA, 1999. Campbell, Thomas Edward. Colonial Caroline: A history of Caroline county, Virginia, Richmond, VA, 1982. Cothran, James R. Gardens and Historic Plants of the Antebellum South. Columbia, SC, 2003. Fall, Ralph Emmett. Hidden Village: Port Royal, Virginia, 1744-1981. Port Royal, VA, 1982. _______________. People, Postoffices, and Communities in Caroline County, Virginia, 1727-1969. Rosewell, GA, 1989.
62 BIBLIOGRAPHY
Favretti, Rudy J. and Favrett, Joyce Putnam. Landscapes and Gardens for Historic Buildings. 2nd ed. rev. Walnut Creek, London, 1997. Gray, Mary Tod Haley. Caroline County: a pictorial history. Rev. ed., Virginia Beach, VA, 2001. Langhorne, Elizabeth; Lay, K. Edward; Rieley, William D. A Virginia Family and Its Plantation Houses. Charlottesville, VA, 1987. Leighton, Ann. American Gardens in the Eighteenth Century: For use or for delight. Boston, MA, 1976. ____________. American Gardens of the Nineteenth Century: For comfort and affluence. Amherst, MA, 1987. War at our Doors: the Civil War diaries and letters of the Bernard sisters of Virginia. Edited and annotated by Rebecca Campbell Light. Fredericksburg, VA, 1998. MMahon, Bernard. MMahons American Gardener: adapted to the climate and seasons of the United States... 11th ed., New York, NY, 1976. Martin, Clair G. 100 Old Roses for the American Garden. New York, NY, 1999. Pratt, Beverley C. Cedar Creek, Camden, Portobago in Caroline County, Virginia, 1650-1997. Fredericksburg, VA, 1997. Reps, John William. Tidewater Towns: City planning in colonial Virginia and Maryland. Williamsburg, VA, 1972. Robb, Bernard. Welcum Hinges. New York, NY, 1942. Rogers, Elizabeth Barlow. Landscape Design: A cultural and architectural history. New York, NY, 2001. Sale, Edith Tunis. Ed. Historic Gardens of Virginia. Richmond, VA, 1923. Sarudy, Barbara Wells. Gardens and Gardening in the Chesapeake, 1700-1805. Baltimore, MD, and London, 1998.
BIBLIOGRAPHY 63
Sarudy, Barbara Wells. Gardens and Gardening on the Chesapeake, 1700-1805. Baltimore, MD, 1998. Sprouse, Mark Anderson. Caroline County, Virginia: Federal Census of 1850. Transcribed. Athens, GA, 1997. Stephenson, Richard W. and McKee, Marianne, M. Eds. Virginia in Maps: Four centuries of settlement, growth, and development. Richmond, VA, 2000. Thacker, Christopher. The Genius of Gardening. London, 1994. Waterman, Thomas Tileston. Dwellings of Colonial America. Chapel Hill, NC, 1950. ________, The Mansions of Virginia, 1706-1776. Chapel Hill, NC, 1945. Wingfield, Marshall. A History of Caroline County, Virginia: From its formation in 1727 to 1924. Richmond, VA, 1924. Writers Program. Virginia. Virginia: A Guide to the Old Dominion. Compiled by workers of the Writers Program of the Works Project in the State of Virginia. American Guide Series. New York, NY, 1940.
64
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Hipkins/Bernard/Robb and Subsequent Owners of Gay Mont
APPENDIX 1
65
Plan of Gay Mont grounds and outbuildings prepared by Mr. James S. Patton
66
APPENDIX 2
Plant List
Acer rubrum Buxus sempervirens Carya illinoinensis Celtis occidentalis Cornus florida Gymnocladus dioicus Hemerocallis Hibiscus syriacus Ilex opaca Iris germanica Juniperus virginiana Lagerstroemia indica Liriodendron tulipifera Maclura pomifera Magnolia x grandiflora Magnolia x soulangiana Parthenocissus quinquefolia Paulownia tomentosa Philadelphus coronarius Rhus glabra Rosa The Fairy Rosa Gold of Ophir Rosa laevigata Rosa roxburghii Spiraea thunbergii Syringa reticulata Tilia cordata Vinca minor Weigela florida
Red maple English boxwood Pecan Common hackberry Flowering dogwood Kentucky coffeetree Daylily Althea/Rose-of-Sharon American holly Iris Eastern red cedar Crape myrtle Tulip tree Osage orange Southern magnolia Saucer magnolia Virginia creeper Empress or princess tree Mock orange/syringa Smooth sumac The Fairy rose Gold of Ophir rose Cherokee rose Chesnut rose Thunberg spirea Lilac Littleleaf linden Vinca Weigela
APPENDIX 3 67

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G re Cu o Vrii F l ws ad n lb f i na e o g l

1 Entrance to Gay Mont 2005

55. 56. 62.

Photo credits Notes Bibliography

2 The rear garden 2005

3 Front of Gay Mont 1948

4 Port Royal, Virginia

5 Fire damage 1959

6 Gay Mont 1977

Gay Mont Today

7 Gay Mont Contour Map

The Gay Mont Landscape Today

8 Old drive 2005

9 Gate posts at Gay Mont 2005

10 Approach to cemetery 2005

11 Cast iron fence 2005

13 Hackberry beside boxwood circle 2005

15 Sunken rose garden 2005

16 Steps to fourth terrace 2005

19 View down central east/west path 2005

20 Circular planting bed and bird bath 2005

THE GAY MONT LANDSCAPE TODAY

18 Rear garden at Gay Mont 2005

THE GAYMONT LANDSCAPE TODAY

22 Planting beds on lawn 2005

23 Circular planting beds 2005

24 Old tennis court 2005

25 Trees around old well 2005

THE GAY MONT LANDSCAPE TODAY

Caroline County and Port Royal

CAROLINE COUNTY AND PORT ROYAL

John Hipkins: Merchant of Port Royal

JOHN HIPKINS: MERCHANT OF PORT ROYAL

John Hipkins Bernard: The Young Heir, 1816-1818

28 Jane Gay Robertson

JOHN HIPKINS BERNARD: THE YOUNG HEIR, 1816-1818

30 Gay Mont Front Porch c. 1940

Gay Mont: The Years of Prosperity, 1818-1861

32 Gay Mont 1859

GAY MONT: THE YEARS OF PROSPERITY, 1818-1861

34 1852 Sketch (verso)

GAY MONT: THE YEARS OF PROSPERITY, 1818-1861

35 1852 sketch of Gay Mont

GAY MONT: THE YEARS OF PROSPERITY, 1818-1861

GAY MONT: THE YEARS OF PROSPERITY, 1818-1861

37 Battle-Friedman garden, Alabama

GAY MONT: THE YEARS OF PROSPERITY, 1818-1861

40 Looking from the Avenue towards the house 1943

GAY MONT: THE YEARS OF PROSPERITY, 1818-1861

42 Old Gates 1946

43 General Stuart arriving at Gay Mont by Sydney King 48

The Civil War Years and Beyond

THE CIVIL WAR YEARS AND BEYOND

48 The Octagonal Music Room 1940

THE CIVL WAR YEARS AND BEYOND

Hipkins/Bernard/Robb and Subsequent Owners of Gay Mont

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