Adult Dating Online in the USA

Indeed, the abundance of the geese led a few years ago to a tragedy. The captain of a tug shot his rifle at a floating flock. And next morning before you rise, a quaint pickaninny comes in to make you a fire on the huge hearth and entertain you with the earliest news of the plantation. As the good steamer Pocahontas swings down the stream her various points of call deserve the attention of a weather eye and a hearing ear. If you care to, you can soon be on friendly terms with everybody on the boat.

Soon after the founding of Jamestown in 1607 the dissatisfied settlers moved up the river one by one and founded these huge plantations for the cultivation of tobacco. Three of them remain supreme in importance: Shirley, Westover and Brandon. Of these, Shirley is the most genial and "homey," Westover the most elegant, elaborate and imposing, Brandon the most romantic, filled most with the atmosphere of the great days gone. Landing at the Shirley wharf I presently came in sight of what seemed like a small village. But it turned out to be only the "home-acre" of a representative James River plantation, handed faithfully down from pioneer America.

In an open quadrangle stood the barns, dairy, belfried smoke-house, log granary, dove-cote, kitchen and storehouse, the two latter ivy- smothered and united by a hedge of box.

The house flanked the river-ward side of the group, which was all one mellow glow of seventeenth century brick. There I lingered, enjoying the well-balanced facade of Flemish bond, the chimneys, ample, square, with bold cornices, and the perfectly proportioned porches with their Tuscan columns.

These recalled a stoiy which a down-river planter on the boat had told me.

Weir MitchelFs going incognito to consult a Parisian nerve special ist and being counseled by him to hasten home and seek the advice of a certain eminent Philadelphia doctor named Mitch ell. Above the ancient estate of Shirley was breathed a magic atmosphere that made appropriate the presence of three or four lusty specimens — crimson with berries — of that "gentle tree" beloved by the fairies, the holly. And it was also in keeping that many of the old window panes added a decora tive note of color with an iridescence like that which the soil of Cyprus has imparted to its buried glass. And I fell in love with the round brick dove-cote, isolated in a field of its own.

Inside the house I came into even more intimate touch THE SPELL OF OLD VIRGINIA 39 with the spirit of seventeenth century aristocracy than in the quadrangle. On two sides the great hall was bordered by rooms with arabesqued transoms. They were paneled, like it self, up to the ceiling, and rich, like itself, with priceless por traits of ancestors and celebrities. Chief among the latter was the virile, full length Peale canvas of young Washington lean ing on a brass cannon. And I felt sure that this picture, if it had been better known, might have made it more difficult for miserable old biographers like Parson Weems to dry up that full-blooded hero of ours into a steel engraving. Among the canvas ancestors I found a striking resemblance to my kind hostess Mrs. For the Carters acquired Shirley less than half a century after its foundation about 1611, and have kept it ever since. The other two sides of the great hall were taken up by a lordly staircase. Dusky in far corners or sharply drawn near the fire-light, stood, in those days, chests and tables and forms and doubtless a bed too with its valance and curtains.

In a medley, typical of the times in even the great homes, were saddles, bridles, and em broidery frames, swords, guns, flute, and hand-lyre.

Upon the cloth were placed soft-lustered pewter and, probably al most from the first, some pieces of silver too.

On inquiry it developed that his father claimed that he had once read in a book the high-sound ing words Delaware Breakwater, and, captivated by their mu sic, and by their honorable inclusion between the mystic covers of literature, he decided that they would make a handsome name for the baby.

But the best part of it was that, to the certain knowledge of my hostess, the ingenious father could not read a word of print.

I heard more of the diverting naivete of the dusky servants.

Bransford told me how she had come one day not long before to eat her luncheon at the successor of the old "tabull- bord" and had found it quite innocent of food. This dialogue had then taken place between her and the waitress: MRS. We passed not far from the negro settlement called Turkey Trot. And it developed that its modern sounding name was actually a relic of colonial times when Turkey Trot was the common name of the high woods where the wild turkeys liked to hold their stately dances. Marvin had not preceded me down river with brush and palette instead of pencil. Ever since the building of Westover, early in the eighteenth century, it has been the show place of the James and, in its heyday under the ownership of the Byrd family, it was prob ably the smartest manor house in the Old Dominion. Bird, to which I was going, surpasses them all in the magnificence of the buildings, the beauty of its situation, and the pleasures of society.

Tall and haughty, its high dormer windows and chimneys lord it over the low wings and outbuildings somewhat as Colonel William Byrd, the founder of Petersburg and Richmond, must have lorded it over his fel low cavaliers in the dawn of the eighteenth century. When both main portals of the house are standing open, the sight from the river lawn is curiously impressive.