Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1851-06-03
miscellaneous.
A NIGHT In THE PAINTED CHAMBER
By MARTHA RUSSELL.

My homo IS In quiet country village,
which, since my memory, could beast of quite
number oe large old-fashioned houses,
built far back in the colony times" beneath
whose roofs generation after generation of
old fashioned people. resembling each other
as closely in temper. HABITS and manners, as
the buttons on your sacks. were born, lived
and died Not long SINCE spent night
in one of these old houses, Watching by the
bedside of an aged woman, who bad often
borne me in her arms and rocked me in the
cradle in the days of my infancy. 1t stands
in remote corner of the township wedged
in between lodges of gray rock aud barren
locking bills, covered in some places with a
stunted growth of cedar, min gled here and
there with few beach and birch saplines.-
1t is wild, solitary spot, for the bills hide
all vestiges of the neighboring farm houses,
and the road is now seldom travelled. save
by whortleberry parties in the summer. and
such farmers as own woodland and pasture
ges below.
The house itself, composed partly of wood
and partly of stone, is in perfect keeping
with the landscape The main part dates
from before the Revolution, and, lonely as it
is now, was used as tavern in those DAYS,
when that solitary, grass-grown road was the
chief thoroughfare between this and the
neighboring town of c.. The children
OF the present proprietors have built them
selves houses in pleasanter locations and
the old people, thinking that the house would
"bide their time" have contented themselves
with making two or three rooms comfortable.
and abandoned the rest to decay.
There was little to be done for nv friend,
whose chief disease was old age; SO seated
myself III an old-fashioned arm chair, and
gazed round the room, which, often as have
been within it, always wears strange as
pect. 1t was large apartment, with mas
sive beams projecting into ir, SO as to form
an inside cornice; and that transverse beam
or summer, so common in such old bouses
running through the centre of the room,
overhead. There was no plasteriny, every
inch of wall on the sides and overhead being
ceiled in elaborate panel work Everywhere
the eye rested on panels of all dimensions
and shape. But the manner in which these
panels were painted and ornamented was
wha. gave the room its unique appearance
the mouldings were chiefly white, while the
panels were red blae. green, yellow, and
pink. From the four corners of each panel
sprang something which was intended fJr a
flower, Judging from the general outline :;
but whether the painter ever found their
originals beneath the blue heavens, is more
than can tell SO stiff, ungraceful and awS
ward they are. Poor man! | trust his sense
OF beauty has been quickened ere now, for he
has been dead many long years; even his
name is forgotten. while bis colors are still as
fresh as is desirable ON the panels of the
painted chamber" A bright fire burned in
the wide, ancient fireplace, and in its flicker
ing light and shadow, the room wore an an.
pearance even more fantastic aud grotesaue
than usual.
The night was dark and stormy the rain
poured in torrents, as il it would level every
thing, even the wind itself, fat to the earth,
only pausing occasionally to take breath and
catch the rushing murmur Of the countless
mountain brooks, which were hurrying for
ward to mingle their waters with the limpid
waves of a small sheet Of water Graded a.
mid the bills few rods distant.
| tried to read, but my thoughts seemed
possessed with strage. vagrant propensity,
constantly wandering from my book to the
strange herbarium above me, or the quaint,
old fashioned furniture around me- The
chairs were of the genuine puritan model,
high-backed and stiff jointed looking articles,
with flag bottoms; and the table was sup
ported on quantity carved claw feet. One Of
those old chairs had for me new and pecu-
liar interest--for, during the evening. before
the family retired, we had been speaking Of