. Hitherto the house had stood detached and these walls were the
originals of the colonnades, still a noticeable feature of the building.

[6] In 1775 a Frenchman was engaged to panel the main hall and apply
stucco ornaments to the ceilings of the parlor and dining-room.

Owing to the absence of a diary of his home activities during 1784 we
can not trace in detail his work that year upon either his house or
grounds, but we know such facts as that he was ordering materials for
the house and that he had his French friend Malesherbes and others
collecting vines and plants for him.

With January 1, 1785, he began a new diary, and from it we ascertain
that on the twelfth, on a ride about his estate, he observed many trees
and shrubs suitable for transplanting. Thereafter he rarely rode out
without noticing some crab, holly, magnolia, pine or other young tree
that would serve his purpose. He was more alive to the beauties of
nature than he had once been, or at least more inclined to comment upon
them. On an April day he notes that "the flower of the Sassafras was
fully out and looked well--an intermixture of this and Red bud I
conceive would look very pretty--the latter crowned with the former or
vice versa." He was no gushing spring poet, but when the sap was
running, the flowers blooming and the birds singing he felt it all in
his heart--perhaps more deeply than do some who say more about it.

On January 19th of this year he began laying out his grounds on a new
plan. This plan, as completed, provided for sunken walls or "Haw has!"
at the ends of the mansion, and on the west front a large elliptical
lawn or bowling green such as still exists there. Along the sides of the
lawn he laid out a serpentine drive or carriage way, to be bordered with
a great variety of shade trees on each side and a "Wilderness" on the
outside. At the extreme west, where the entrance stood, the trees were
omitted so that from the house one could see down a long vista, cut
through the oaks and evergreens, the lodge gate three-quarters of a mile
away. On each side of the opening in the lawn stood a small artificial
mound, and just in front of the house a sun-dial by which each day, when
the weather was clear, he set his watch. A sun-dial stands on the same
spot now but, alas, it is not the original. That was given away or sold
by one of the subsequent owners.

This same spring our Farmer records planting ivy, limes and lindens sent
by his good fr