Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1851-07-16
Fron The Knlokerbooker Magazine Tor Jolly.

4fom The knoke Tbooker Magazine Tor Jolly.
Bisih places Of he Revolutionary Heroes Of Viz
ginia.
We make the following extr; CT from letter recent.
y received from old may byf lady, not old, but
"vene rable !") and esteemed friend who dates at
Locust Farm, Wes-moreland county, Virginia"
MY DEAR kNrcK: twas only few VS. ago that
shook hands with you in New York. am now away
down here, the northern neck Of Virginia, and
far rom the spot on which Washing born. and
scattered here and there and all ound me the birh
Francis Lightfoot Lee, &c, &c. Yesterday was on
the ground up,n which the ruins of the former
residence OF Richard Henry Lee. All that stands
upright OF this imposing mansion is the knchen
chimney 10 front, scarcely half mile distant is the
shore OF the lordy Potomac, here about nine miles
across, upon whose beach roll its bows Lee gone;
his house is in the dust, his garden Wild but here are
the same sky, the lands, the same Potomac, and
the same dige that oil yore broke in murmus on the
shore. The remains of Lee lie in the midst of a corn
field, some five miles distant, over which, am told is
small stone, with his name engraven upon it. What
leveller is lime Talk of that ancient parsonage as
you may, his foot prints, although soft down. crum-
bic The hardest substances and bury all things "here
is Cdrfhdge@
My friend to when am indebted for many civil
ties in returning from ride the grounds cul
tiValed by Lee, took the road home by the old Yeo
comco church. This relic OF the past had seen few
days before. wish could send you drawing of it,
inside as well out. 1t built Ammo Domini l7O6
some twenty years before the birth Of Washington
Think Tor moment, ofthe events that have happened
since the sounds OF the hammer the and the rowe
heard al the building of this church, one hun
dred and fory-five years cid; of the themes that have
been handled In this ancient pulpit OF the hearts that
have pulsated within these walls; of the eyes that have
shone in hope been dimmed by despair Of the trains
of sorrowing that have followed in sad sep
one after the other, The beloved ones OF whom death
had bereit them of the pighed that altar; of
the uspsms in that fonts and what crowds OF images
| stand before one And yet, Ike sound in the still
ness o! the midnight hour, vision of the dream
ing fancy, all, al are past all is vacant and still
and forever vanished! What ruin is this church,
| 1t would seem, to look at its glazed and unglazed
bricks its massey tmbers and its brick floor and passage
ways, that lime could not in thousand years. have
worked mighty change in it. But it has required
only the years have named to effect so signal ruin
How true 1t Is, as Cowper sings:
"'We build with what we deem eternal brass
A distant age asks where the fabric STOOD;
But sted, alas, and searched 10 vain
The undiscoverable secret sleeps
81 forgot to mention that few tombsones mark the
spot where the dead lie; and those which remain are
broken up and scattered, and have the inscriptions
efiaced to render them useless The name of
Garter the tha has suffered least Nor are
the graves raised 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 may be buried in our sur
vIvors."
*Ths front, am told was long used BY Mr. Tur-
berve punch bowl. Many hundreds of lips have
been RECALLED by the beverage once prepared in this
now sacred appendage otthe church.