Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1860-07-04
Letter from DumfrieS, Va.


Goyyes.ondence If Commercial Adrertiser.
DUurRIEs, Virginia. June 29.-There is u
wide difference between sailing down the Po-
tomac, with fair wind before which our
little Yacht dashed along, her bows decked
with sparkling foam, and drifting up, with"
out a puff of wind TO cool the heated air. :
Between tides, we have landed and received
hospitabIe attentions from the planters,
whose hopes of an abundant harvest have
been destroyed by the ravages OF 3 hail
storm. The corn, however, will probably
recover.
The soil of all this region was exhausted
BY the early tobacco planters, but OF late
wears it has been somewhat restored by the
application of guano. lime and plaster, with
rotation of crops. Fifteen bushels Of wheat
or thirty bushels of corn, are regarded rs Il
GOOD crop Labor is scarce, rs the slave po-
puation is diminishing in numbers.
Accepting the offer Of saddlc.horses and
himself ~ Il guide, from II gentleman before
whose estate our yacht was anchored tins
morning during the ebb-tide, We came to THIS
almost deserted city. A hundred years since
it was Il hourishing commercial port, with
deep water at its wharycs on the inlet OF the
IDIDllldI now dlIltSl ciilliCIJ uliih T.
wards of hundred sail of square-rigged YES
sells were then employed i'll carrying to Europe
the tobacco collected in its ample warehouses,
and in bringing return cargoes of the manu-
features of foreign lands, not at that time pro.
duced by home industry.
An old ledger preserved in one Of the brick
mansions yet standing shows how perfectly
dependent the ''Old Dominion was on til,
mother country for every thing. Dry goods
hardware, medicines, grocerles-ndeed al
| the necessaries and comforts OF llte-Werc
ordered each year by the planters whose
invoices were sent out by the Dunltrles mer
chants separately, and the goods came back
directed to the purchaser, at whose planta
ton landing on the Potomac of Rappahan
mock they we're delivered. This enabled the
merchants here and the factors in EnslanC
to each charge a commission and they alst
charge for forwarding and selling the tobac
CO, with interest on advances, DC. One
charged against nearly every planter having
an account in the ledger now at Dumtries is
sfor rowling Tobacco" Roads were bad il
| those days, and hogslicads We're rolled Il
market, by putting iron pins through the
| centre of each head as an axle, to which
| shafts were attached.
| Dumfries was settled by "canny Scots, ,
and while they had their kirk and then
school, they also had a theatre Tor thu
amusement of their cavalier customers, which
enjoyed high histronic reputation IN Its
| time. Even now, the ladies of the place tel
how knight Of the buskin wooed and Won
| the heart of the daughter Of one OF the very
| first families.
Dumrrics was the home Of that eccentric
biographer Mr.. l.. Weems, who was at one
time settled here AS Il clergyman, and was ;
Jealous Frecmason, presiding over Lodge
No. 80.
The courthouse, built in l1j5, with no
! tel, and Il few mansion-houses, substantially
erected, defy the attacks Of time, but hun
dreds of buildings have gone to ruin, anC
several streets can be traced in Aourlshing
corn fields, by piles of brick, or by hollow<
showing where cellars once were. A large
and thickly populated graveyard, with nu
merous marble tablets, records the wcait!
and social rciinemcnts of DumtreS in the
| days of lis commercial prosperity.
| This whole region Of country is rlch il
! historical souvenirs. There are massive old
churches, surrounded by monuments which
need the care of some Old Mortality; large
manOr-halls, once the resort Ut the chlvalrit
and proud, are in ruins, or are sh0rn OF
| their former sp!eudor: and here we have n
commercial port, deserted by its merchant
prices, and almost unknown by the busy DC
cupantS OF places once its rivals.
RrurNI,S