The republic., 1851-07-14
From dls Knieksrboeka Magazine for July.
BirthplaceE OF the Revolutionary Heroes o
VirQlnla

1 virginia.
| We make the following extract from letter re-
Gently received from an old (nay, by r lady, moi
cd, but "venerable!') and esteemed friend, who
dates at Locust Farm, Westmoreland county,
Virginia p
"MY DEAR KsIoK.; II was only few days ago
that shook hands with you in New York. am
now away down here, on the northern neck OF Vir-
ginia, and not far from the spot on which Washing
| ton born, and scattered here and there and all
around me are the birlhplaces of Madison Mon
| roe, Richard Henry Lee, Francis Lightioot Lee
/ &c., &c. Yesterday was on the ground upon
which resis the ruins of the former residence OF
Richard Henry Lee. All that stands upright OF
| this once-imposing mansion is the kitchen Chin
ney. In front, scarcely half mile distant, is the
shore OF the lordly Potomac here about nine miles
across. upon whose beach roll its hillows. Lee Is
gomez his house is in the dust, his garden wild !;
but here are the same sky, the same lands, the
same Potomac, and the same dirge that OF yore
| broke In murnurs on the shore. The remains OF
Lee lie In the midst OF corn field, some hye miles
distant, over which, am told, Is small stones
with his name engraven upon it. What leveler
| is TINE! Talk OF that ancient parsonage as you
may, his foot prints, although soft down, crum
bic the hardest substances, and bury all things.
| 'JVhere is Carthage?
MY friend, to whom am indebted for many
'ciyitiea, in returning from ride over the grounds
once cultivated by Lee, took the road home by the
old Yeocomico church. This relic of the past had
seen few days before. / wish could send you a
drawing OF il, inside as well as out. IL was built
Ammo DoSINI 1906 some twenty six years before
! the birth Of Washington. Think for moment, of
the events that have happened since the sounds Of
the hammer the saw, and the trowe were heard
at the building of this church. one hum
dred and forty five years old; of the themes that
have been handled in this ancient pulpit; OF the
hearts that have pusaed within these walla Of the
eyes that have shown in hope, or been dimmed by
despair OF the trains Of sorrowing mournerB that
have followed, in sad step after the other, the
beloved ones of whom death had bereft them of
the pghted at that altar; OF the baptisms in
fore one And yet, like somc sound in the stiffness
of the midnight hour, some vision of the dream
ing fancy, all, all past-all ID now vacant and
STILL and forever vanished What ruin is this
church! II would seem, to look at its glazed and
unglazed bricks, its massy timbers, and its brick
floor and passage ways, that TIME could not, in a
thousand years, have worked mighty a change
in it. But it has required only the years have
named to effect signal ruin. How true it is, as
Cowper sings:
'"s We build with what deem eternal brass-
| distant age asks where the fabric stood
But sifted, alas, and searched in vain,
The undiscoyerable secret sleeps.'
| al forgot to mention that few tombstones mark
the spot where the dead lie; and those which re-
main 30 broken up and scattered, and have the
inscriptions 80 effaced to render them useless.
The name of CARTER is on the stone that has suf-
fered least. Nor are tA graves raised or sodded.
How melancholy is all this, friend c., and what
lesson it teaches Our fathers find their graves
in short memories, and sadly tell US how we
may be buried in our survivors,"
*This font, / am told, was long used by Mr..
| Turberville punch bowl. Many hundreds OF
| lips have been regaled by the beverage once pre-
pared in this now sacred appendage OF the church.