Well, very much so! From having collected bottles and bits on point by the brook from the Glen Villa. Walking up the brook to the source. Swimming in the pool where the cars were kept above the road. Playing on your front lawn and knowing the cast of characters that have inhabited it, the history of the property has deep a meaning of appreciation….sweet Virginia!
I’ll answer the last part of your question first. There is no “should” about it. We, as human beings, always bring our personal history to bear on our response to any kind of art. Anyone who thinks they can disassociate themselves from their evaluation and response to art is fooling themselves. In your review of Haseley Court you mentioned several allusions to Virginia that I would have missed, from the Confederate grey color of the furniture to the cupola on an outbuilding. But weren’t the settlers of Virginia primarily British? Virginia’s clipped boxwoods and much of its garden design, had its roots in Britain. Even the welcome, ” warm and unaffected but never effusive, and always with a little something held back” sounds to me a bit like the stereotypical “British reserve.” What I’m trying to suggest is that the associations you have with Viriginia are themselves an echo of the British settlers, reinterpreted by a Virginian settling back in Great Britain. A cultural echo chamber, or maybe reflections upon reflections, as when two mirrors face each other.
A really interesting observation, Kathy, with some good summarizing phrases — reflections upon reflections, cultural echo chambers. I know that certain elements at Haseley Court said one thing to me something else to others in our group, if they spoke to them at all. And yes, Virginia in its early years was settled primarily by the English (not even British), and their 18th century sensibilities affected the architecture, interior and garden design, the selection of plants and philosophical ideas.