Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1841-10-07
ua yAy puaryIN RETIRgNEyr

MR. van, DuHEN IN RETIREMENT.
Some Of our readers will be interested
in the following, from correspondent oil
the New York Post.
LEBANON, Sept. 10, 164i.
"The crowd of summer company which
was collected at the Springs has flown,
and have these beautiful yallies to my
self, and these woody hills, with the go.
fious views they command. ! ramble Tor
hours on the SUBMITS, and do not tail I'd
with living creature. -.
The other day was led by curiosity
to VISIT Undertook, which | had never
seen before. /, is one Of the pieasantes'
villages / know, situated amid country
Of swelling uplsnds and fresh meadows
that skirt the winding siream5. On one
oftbess uplani swells, just high enough
to make The elevation perceptible, stands
the village; its broad streets enb)wered
with elms. and It's clean comfortable
dwellings, hall hidden with fruit trees and
shrubbery. Il is just such spot as
like. prosperous enough TO keep up the
appearance ofthrift--forchande be-
lieye they call il 10 New England but
not prosperous enough to have that raw,
unfinished, uncomfortable look that we
fni in villages which they tell you are
improving very fast, and which for that
very reason are disgreeable to live in.
4" About two miles south Of the village
is the dwelling Of the Ex-President Van
Buren,. tits plain, substantial, commo-
dious house, built in the year 1877, of the
best materials, ani with more regard TO
comfort than show, by General Van Ness,
fdher of the late Mayor Of Washington.
Ii stands at a li.tle distance from the road,
in the midst of grounds planted with trees
and shrubbery. Mr.. Van Bnren's farm
consists of one hundred and thirty seven
acres, part of which lies in forest, and
soma portion is tie rich moist meadow Of
Kinderbook RIVER.
IS Here Mr.. Van Buren, employs him
self ia the cultivation Of his newly pur.
chased acres, which, before he came into
possession of them, were much neglected
There was garden to be made, for the
fine old garden of General Van Ness had
gone to decay there were fences to be
set up, and paths 10 be laid out, and de
cayed fruit trees to be replaced there
were shade trees which had grown up in
wild luxuriance to be cleared away, and
meadow lands overgrown with dwaIf, al
dcrs to be reclaimed.
THUS lar the state of the farm does
credit to his skilful administration. A
large garden has been laid out, with n
green house, and long wall for espallers
and for the protection Of fruit trees; a
copious spring has been made TO supply a
succession of fish ponds, and the process
of making into good the moist lands COW
cred with useless bushes, is going on with
great activity. remember that the Eve
ming Post said something not long since
about Mr.. Van Buren's cabbages, but
looked for them in vain there were ear
~ cabbages, the earliest and finest in the
whole country, but they went to the ktch.
en- long ago. saw a great variety OF
young pear trees, ordered from Hamburg
eight weeks before, and now in the ground,
healthy and flourishing and they were
of those fine kinds lately introduced by
the improyers of the pear, who are max
ing it the mos, delicious of all table fruits,
and table fruit Of all seasons.
"The Ex-Presdent begins the day with
ride Of ten or fifteen miles on horseback;
after breakfast he IS engaged among his
workmen till he is tired, and he then be-
takes himself to his library, which he is
constantly enarging. 10 these occupa-
TONS, and in friendly intercourse with his
old friends and neghbors, the farmers of
kinderhook, he passes his time. sup
pose he must like, now and then,
-" through the loop holes Of retreat,
To peep at the grea, Babel OF the world.
and to speculate on what they are doing
at Washington since he left.