The native Virginian. [volume] (Orange Court House, Va.) 1867-187?, 1868-11-06
BLACKBERRIEs AND HUCKLEBERRIES
An Old Virginia Sketch.
BY ALEX NDER 2osELEY.

These, since Cuff went up. are the
surviving institutions old Virginia.
The blackberry bush Gfany one there
be who never saw it) is a bold and Wig
orous grower. and as well fortified with
weapons or defence as though it had the
guardianship of a fruit as precious as
the apples of the Hesperides. 1t Is
amenahle to the laws of culture, and
.the higher civilization" has sue eeded
in getting the blind side of it and re-
ducing it to thradom and profit. Here,
however, it is bold, enterprising and
aggressive; needs no help from man,
and uninvitel (often, in spite of many
grubbing hoe protes'atiOns), invades
every unoccupied foot of land. AS a
fruit, though not of highest flavor, it has
it's uses and merits. 1t makes a good
lam, For Yankee pies and Virginia
dumplings and other indigestibles, it
has its partisans. But ITS greatest ex.
cellenee consists in its juice. That
makes a beverage healthful and refresh
ing in warm weather, and tar prefara-
Bile to most of the medicated wines
brought from abroad or fabricated at
home. But the circumstances which I'M
parts to it special value, is that it
blooms too late to be affected by any
frost, and consequently never fails. 1t
is a certain crop every year. Some
eighteen or twenty years ago, when, for
the first time in our memory. there was
a total failure of all fruits in Virginia,
blackberries proved their pre-eminence
--thev we're abundant, and worth their
weight in gold.
AS to the huckleberry, it can never
be too much eXtOlled and admircd.-
Whatever be its merit, it is indebted for
it to itself alone. Unaded by the art
of man, it comes from its Creator, un-
stained by sweat in all its plenitude and
perfection. CiviliZation-.even "the
hi9her"-dwarfs it. Like wild animals
of noblest instincts, it ever asserts It's
independence; is untamed and untama-
BILE, and pines under the hand of care
and culture, however tender and caress-
ing. Like thlstles and brambles, and
other noxiOus weeds, it is endowed with
a wonderful capacity for self-preserva-
ton; but, unlike them, it has no enc
lies. Every creature is its friend
Old and young cherish 1.-THE first from
association, the last from Instinct. 1t
is an es. ecial idol of children; later from
Heaven, and with all the pure tastes of
Paradise y ct fresh about them. They
devour il by the hamper to their own in
finite satisfaction, and often to the MN
gled wonder and dismay OF mama:-
Bless the child" Perhaps a harsher
crit ic might eXcusab3y fancy he could
descrv in this juvenile predilection somt
trace OF Original Sin-for sweet to all
the sons and daughters of Eve is the
SAVIOR of forbidden fruit.
None of the older citizens of Rich
mond but associate Huchs with the mem
ory ofthe late BenjaminW Watkins Leigh,
who was wont to eat OF them to reple-
ton every day of thcir season, as an an
nual tribute Of affection and gratitude
to his native county OF Chesterfield,
where they flourish, Uong may they
flourish y III great perfection and vast
profuslon. In the act of repletion, he
was boy again. No man could per-
SlI;lde him that mother earth produced
Il more luscious fruit. He was wont to
speak of them, halfin jest and half in
earnest, pretty much us old Isaac Wal
ton spoke of Strawberries: "D0ubtless
God could have made a better berry, but
doubtless he never did, Truly might
the Hucks exclaim, (if they used the
vulgate): laus est laudari te laudatO uiro
-(praiSe indeed it is to be praised by
greatest wOrks-perfect in all his parts:
In Sc ipso totus, ,.teres atque rotundus.
Physically endowed with the massive
lineaments OF the great man, his mind
blaze of light, his soul heaving with eve
ry grand and ennobling emotion.-
Though lie may never have turned
couplet, the divine afilatuS pervaded his
being, and he might have sat for the pic
ture ofthe poet:
Ingenium cui Sit cui mems divinior atque os
Magma sonaturum.
Well may Hucks cock their hats on a
co Npliment from such source; and the
people who cherish the memory aud
worth OF such I man and follow his
tastes, can never become wholly degcn-
crate.
1t might be pleasing speculation to
trace the connCXion between genius
and huckleberries, and that blending of
the loftiest conception of the statesman
and iurist with the boyiSh rapture, which
loses itself in sweet familiarity with the
pet:iest thcmes-5ut we for5ear ut pre-
sent, and refer the subject to the inge
nious author of "BacOn and Green's
The season OF these obscure and un-
pretending fruits is over for the present
year.. Many poor soul has been re-
treshed and cheered by them, without
money and without price. Ne do not
know that they were ever subjected to
the test Of the chemist to ascertain their
food-yielding qualities; but, i'll the case