Martinsburg gazette. [volume] (Martinsburg, Va. [W. Va.]) 1833-1855, 1854-06-21

W4
Mr.. EDIroa lin passing recently, through
your town aud county, ! was greatly gratifed
at the evidences Of prosperity on every hand
Verify. sold Martinsburg'' is bristIing up and
breaking forth, old Berkeley, too, gives demon
STATIONS Of improvement, in the price of Land,
in the establishment Of a Bank and various other
ways. I am always disposed to murmur to my
self the words Of Moore, when I enter the Valley
Of Virginia,
eThere is not in this wide world q Valley 80 50 sweet"
The skies no where else seem SO bright; the
clouds seem to arrange themselves into the richest
forms the landscape rolls out in brilliant beauty
You who are always there, do not see or prize
these things, as one whose eyes early gazed on
them with enthusiasm, but seldom sees them now.
stThe lines have fallen to you in pleasant places
and yeu have a goodly heritage" 1t was very
pleasant to see some of the sons of old Berkeley
after wandering elsewhere, coming home to rest
and be centcnted.
Among the pleasant symptoms Of improve
ment, the enlargement and proper protection of
the old church graveyard, was peculiarly CRATE
ful though | could have cried over the dilapi-
dated walls ofthe old church, the first my youth
full feet ever entered, yet it was some comfort
that the stones were to be consecrated to the con-
s~ervation Of the resting places Of the dead and
not built into barns or stables.
| visited, also, Old Tusearora Church, conse-
Grated by many pleasant memories of ''life's
morning march when my bosom was young"
/ could have wishedthe chiscl of "old Mortality"
to have frightened the inscription on the mon
ument Of Rev. HUGH VANcE-indeed, q pious
hand might be employed to supply some bricks
understand the Saviour as blaming the men of
his generation for building the tombs of the
prophets, but for doing so, in the place of imi-
tating their virtues.
One thing, married greatly my pleasure, in
wandering through the graveyard. / found not
a stone or any memorial to mark the resting
place of one of the ~lovliest of men, j.. BLAIR
HoGE. Why and how is this Can it be that
the christians and Presbyterians Of Tuscarora,
Falling Waters and Berkeley generally, have so
soon forgotten one who devoted his earliest en-
ergies so faithfully to their spiritual good? Do
the rich christian merchants of Shochoe Hill
Church, in Richmond, really know, that their
Pastors grave lies undistinguishedi IN that church
yard? that he who fed them, like the Pelican
her young, with his lifes blood, sleeps without
a line to tell the passing stranger where?
These things, amidst the monotony of business
and daily cares, do not occur probably to the
good people of my native county, but they come
home with deep and sad reality to the heart OF
one who loved him dearly-isdecply indebted to
him and cherishes his memory among his price
less jewels. May | not hope that when Proyi-
dence again allows my feet to tread that loved
Valley and that old graveyard, there may be
some monument-simple as was his character,
and strong as was his intellect, to show Here
lies one of the most gifted sons of Virginia-ons
of the most eloquent Of her ministers-one of the
lamented of her dead" yIATOR.