The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1859-02-10

ty, with an abundance Of water, with
good building materials. and surroun.
ded by a farming country affording in
plenty the necessares of life. the
Board concluded that it should have
met with the locality which it's cir.
cumstances demanded.
All these things are combined in
the location which the Board has cho-
sen at Sewanec. 1t lies within the
limits to which the Board was circum-
scribed by the primary action of the
Bishops at Philadelphia, being neither
so far West as McMinnville, nor so
South as Huntsville. 1t stands upon
the elevated plateau of the Cumber.
land Mountain, about 1900 feet above
the level of the ocean, possessing a
climate equivalent to that Of Flat
Rock in North Carolina. 1t is above
the level of all intermittent disease.
and is abundantly blessed with the
purest water flowing from under the
sandstone Gaping of the Cumberland
Ridge. 1t is covered thickly with ex.
cellent timber, oak, chesnut, and wal
nut. 1t has all over it the very best
building stone and can command, by
easy approach, the limestones and
marbles in which Tennessee abounds.
1t has coal mines at its very door,
opened at great cost by wealthy
company of New York, providing fuel
at very reasonable rates. There lies
at its foot, connected with it by Rail
Road, one ofthe richest farming coun.
tries of the West. Nothing is want.
ing to render it every way suitable to
our purpose, and there can be no OBJ
jections to it except they are from its
being a mountain location, or from
inacccssibility, or from disease.
When a lowlander hears of a noun
tain location, he at once conceives of
a lofty peak, covered over withrugged
rocks, whose summit is to be reached
by severe and toilsome labor. Was
this conception of his correct, he
would be right in arguing that it was
unwise to place an University in such
a position. But the Cumberland pla.
teau does not answer in any particu-
lar to this conception. 1t is not Sc.
ries of tugged peaks, but wide ia.
bic land, having upon its summit q
level area of from two to twenty miles
in width, upon which Rail Road is
now running for fifteen miles, and
might be extended for hundred: upon
which stage roads are made as smooth
and easy grade as any in the mid
die counties Of South Carolina or
Georgia; upon which farms, county
towns and watering places are loca-
ted, and which is as we'll timbered as
any part Of the country except the
heavy river swamps. This plateau
is reached by an easy ride Of half an
hour upon Railroad built in the most
substantial manner and laid with L
rail, which traverses the whole extent
of the University lands. In addition
to this Rail Road, the citizens OF Frank
lin county, which lies at the base ofthe
lands upon which the University is to
stand, have guaranteed the building
Of a Turnpike from some point on the
Chattanooga and Nashville Rail Road
to the site of the University, so that
we shall be connected with the low
lands at our base by both Rail and
Turnpike, giving the University tho
fullest scope Tor the easv procurement
of all its supplies. When this sum.
nit has been reached, there spreads
out before the eye an area with just
enough undulation to make it pictur.
esque, covered with large timber, with
a rich underbrush of grass, and with
springs Of freestone wafer yielding
four hundred, five hundred, and in
one case one thousand gallons of wa
ter per hour. From this summit the
visitor is delighted with scenes of un.
surpassed beauty, with points of the
mountain running in fantastic shapes
into the valleys, like promontories into
the ocean, with wooded slopes stretch.
ing down into the cultivated lands
and mingling the wildness Of nature
with the improvements of man, with
! fat valleys rich in the bounties ofProv-
idence, with an almost boundless hori-
zon spreading away towards the far
West. And these views vary at
hundred points Of the University lands,
for it is tho popularity Of this sand.
stone formation to break into gorges
and to open up new scenery at every
turn. The soil too is capable of pro.
ducing the very best vegetables, spe.
cimens of which were submitted to
our inspection and which might bear
comparison with any in our City mar.