“Georgian Palladian” and a Dead Bullfrog

Favorite memories from your tours?

 

Bob Barker: One favorite is of two ladies from Georgia who arrived in a chauffeured Cadillac limousine and went on my tour.

 

In my introduction, I explained how Drayton Hall’s architectural style was known as “Georgian Palladian.” Soon afterward, I heard one lady say to the other, “Why you know I grew up in Georgia, but I’ve never seen anything like this!”

 

Another was of a young, attractive tour guide who loved to paint dead animals.

 

One day she picked up a dead bullfrog while returning from a tour with her silver “rice” spoon still in hand, the spoon we interpreters used as a pointer during tours. She was going to use the frog for her painting.

 

Four visitors needed help and asked for directions to the Ashley River, so she complied. As she was talking, she wondered why their mouths had dropped as they eyed her one hand and then her other. Only later did she realize she’d been giving directions, stylishly dressed, with a silver spoon in one hand and a dead frog in the other, directions at Drayton Hall they are, no doubt, still talking about.

Excerpt from Drayton Hall Stories: A Place and Its People, due out in the fall.