Page 128 - REALLY What A time Book IX
P. 128

REALLY                                   SO WHAT
                                              What A Time


                                   FAMILY OUTINGS


        Monticello also has it’s majestic beauty.  But, where I saw
        Washington as an administrator, Jefferson captured my
        imagination with his inventive mind.  He was the creator and
        thinker of a century.   His plantation was an example of
        himself.

        Monticello means a small mountain, and it rests on the top of
        Virginia’s foothills, outside of Charlottesville.  Charlottesville is
        the home of the University of Virginia where he designed the
        early quadrangle and invented a curved brick serpentine wall.
        Known for it’s strength, yet only one brick thick.
        His home was filled with interesting gadgets and inventions.
        He invented a contraption that made copies of everything he
        wrote.  It was like a Leroy. He invented a plow to turn the soil
        in the fields.  He had smoke houses for ham , venison and
        other meat.

        The kitchen was below the main rooms which kept the house
        warmer, as the heat rose, and made it easier to serve his many
        guests.  French doors that both opened together.  Narrow stair
        wells in back for servants and slaves to go up and down the
        stairs.  Narrow so that two couldn’t stand on them and talk or
        visit.  His stables were underground so that the weather would
        be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter.  They were
        built without nails.  All fitted together by tongue and groves.
        Yet he had a nail factory on his estate.  His gardens were
        specially prepared for year around vegetables.  Once fish had
        been caught he kept them alive in a small pond where they
        could be scooped out fresh for dinner.



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