Page:Southern Antiques - Burroughs - 1931.djvu/44

20  The French Huguenots in South Carolina, many of them, early in the century had long since put behind them thoughts of the penury brought with them, and were reaping the reward of their thrift along with other prosperous planters. Fine, brick houses were being built around Charles Town, from 1710 until 1760, when brick and stone gave way to houses of wood on basements of brick, but with few, however, of brick in the upland county, and not many more in the central part of the State as time progressed. The three- and four-storied houses, characteristic of the place today, follow the San Domingo idea, where single rooms were built one upon the other, as if for a tower. The finer houses of the colony opened at the side, on verandahs reaching the length of the house, facing the garden, but with easy access to the street.

The city of Charles Town, visited by fire near the end of the first half of the century, with every house on the east side of Broad Street consumed, went about rebuilding herself in brick, as the period of prosperity began to make itself felt. Fine gardens were being made, with Henry Middleton at work at Middleton Place, and Mrs. Drayton at Magnolia, on the Ashley, where today, in spring, the garden still grows, and myriad of azaleas, in blossoming pink of every tint and shade, and red of every hue, mingle their tones in such fashion as to produce an almost overwhelming sense of loveliness.

Extravagance and high living was the order of the day when Governor Glenn arrived from England, in 1743. So very lavish were the colonists in spending their substance, that he was forced to declaim against it, sending word back to England of the lengths to which they went in supplying themselves with such things as silks, plate and silver and furniture out of all reason.

Drayton Hall, with its brick walls, columns of Portland marble, and wainscoting from floor to ceiling, was built in 1740, in Saint Andrew's Parish, near the Ashley River, in a section where many cultured English people made their homes. The Corbin House, at Edenton, in the province to the north, as displayed today in the Brooklyn Museum, revealing in furniture the Chippendale form, was built in 1758. Everywhere it went on, with Belair in Maryland, built in 1741, keeping the pace, showing furnishings of such value as to bring almost a thousand pounds when sold at vendue later. Fine houses and fine furniture meant fine living, and visiting back and forth, with cards and dances that lasted for days, to enjoy. Annapolis opened her theatre in 1752. Charles Town was already filling hers to the doors. Breeding of fine horses was the business and sport of a gentleman. The thoroughbred had long since displaced the field pony in Virginia, with Virginia and Maryland the pioneers in improving the stock, and many race courses being run—the York, at Charleston, highly popular, as were those at Fredericksburg and Alexandria, and on to Marlboro and Annapolis.

Cabinetmaking, too, lifted its fine head. Stylistic development had arrived. Curves in furniture, attributed to the French, was making furniture comfortable and giving it charm. New varieties of the various types