1 for the road: 18th century Lamborghini

Archaeologists in Virginia are uncovering one of colonial America's most lavish displays of opulence: An ornamental garden where a wealthy politician and enslaved gardeners grew exotic plants from around the world.

• Such plots of land dotted Britain's colonies and served as status symbols for the elite. They were the 18th-century equivalent of buying a Lamborghini, AP reports.

The garden in Williamsburg belonged to John Custis IV, a tobacco plantation owner who served in Virginia's colonial legislature — and was the first father-in-law of Martha Washington, who married future President George Washington.

• "The garden may have been Custis' vision, but he wasn't the one doing the work," said Jack Gary, executive director of archaeology at Colonial Williamsburg, a living history museum that now owns the property.
• "Everything we see in the ground that's related to the garden is the work of enslaved gardeners, many of whom must have been very skilled."

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