The Legacy
" The Garden that Love Built"
Peggy Pemberton-Carter met Prince Nicholas Abkhazi, in Paris in 1922. Prince Nicholas, the last surviving son of an ancient line of kings of Abkhazia on the Black sea, had been living there in exile since escaping the Bolshevik Revolution. They found themsleves "amiable", taking walks together, visiting galleries and conversing in their common language of French. They kept in touch through correspondence and met occasionally over the next few years. Peggy and her mother lived in various places: England, Austrialia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Eygpt and China.
At the outbreak of World War II, Prince Nicholas joined the French army and was soon captured. Peggy spent the war in captivity in Shanghai. When the war ended, though they had not seen each other since 1933, they made the decision to be together. Peggy met her prince in New York in November 1946, married him and became the Princess Nicholas Abkhazi.
The Prince and Princess settled in Victoria, began to develop their one-acre property and build their home. They continued to improve the garden throughout their forty years together. In 2000, The Land Conservancy purchased the property to preserve the Garden, the legacy of the Abkhazis.
