Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/96

92 of the founder of The Hedges branch of the Bolling family, since it had established the site for the sunken garden, giving an opportunity for a fountain in the lower part of the yard. This sunken garden was about two hundred feet square, enclosed by a box hedge and with box bushes set formally at the corners. Tradition asserted that this garden had been the wonder of the countryside. It had been planned by an English landscape gardener and the owner had spent a fortune on its making and upkeep.

If the charming Bolling who had taken such pleasure in his garden, with its ever-changing riot of color as the seasons advanced, could have seen the sad havoc time and neglect and stupidity had played with his treasure, no doubt he would have turned over in the grave where he was lying so peacefully in the little burying ground under the great chestnut tree on the hill beyond.

The box hedge around the sunken garden had shared a like fate with the one of mock-orange that enclosed the yard. It had grown to a great height and was thick with dead wood. Rolfe Bolling had declared it was "horse high and hog strong" and had finally turned the garden into a pigpen. There was no trace now of the pretty gravel walks. Perhaps never again would the