The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1869-08-03
Correspondence of the Richmond Dispatch 3,
The white Sulphur Sixty Years Ago.
GREESBRIER WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS,
J,Ilv Al 1860.

1
! GREgsBRIER WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, }
July 81, 1869. !
| AS the demand for news from this place
cannot always be gratiied, since amid all
it's delights the present sometimes lacks
| incident, your correspondent supposes few
memories of the past may not be without
interest. He accordingly furnishes the fol-
lowing details, communicated to him by q
tlady Ia former Aabituee of the springs), by
whom he is permitted to give them substan-
tally in her own words:
! uThe first visit remember making to
| the White Sulphur was in the summer OF
1911, NV father resided in Eastern Vir-
cinia. and, as was the custom of many gen.
| tlemen of that day, visited the springs
every season with his family in heavy
travelling carriage, with led horses, SER
| wants, etc. The journey, now so readily
! performed in o day, then not unfrequently
| REQUIRED ten, and was rendered peculiarly
irksome by the necessity of stopping at
| night at inns of the primitive description
then common even on highways.
The wildncss Of the country about the
| springs sixty years ago presented consldc-
rable contrast to its present condition.
| Gentlemen returned often in the evening
from hunting with such trophies as bears,
deer, and wildcat, and the dismal barking
of wolves in the neighboring forests made
nipht hideous and disturbed the SAUNDERS
| of bellies after the ball scarcely less than
| tho civilized shrek of the locomotive that
draws the early eastward-bound train IN
our more favored time. The buildings,
generally, then were Of logs, and, as | well
remember, the cabins we're elevated on
blocks SO high as to furnish q favorable
shelter for the hogs that roamed at large,
and whose proximity was anything but
agreeable to the occupants. The rudeness
OF the accommodations was fifty repre-
scented (not to say atoncd for) by the
charges of that period, which, if my mem
DRY is not at fault, did not exceed toe DOT
lars per aceek ... ~.
As VIC journeyed homcward my father
stopped near Charlottesville on q visit to
| Colonel James Monroe afterwards Presi-
dent) then Just returned from his mission
to the court of the great Napoleon. Colo
mel Monroe lived in the house which is now
! the residence of Professor Venable, and
still, with its surroundings, known at the
University as "Monroe Hill" The site of
| rotunda and lawn was at that time covered
with native woods, and the design Of the
University still slumbered in the brain of
it's great founder, with whom, | remember,
before leaving Albemarle. we dined at Mon
ticello. In Richmond, too, we tarried some
time, the guests Of Mr.. Benjamin Bolts, the
father of John M. Bolts, widely known as
counsel for the defence in the celebrated
Burr trial, then fresh in the minds of his
countrymen. This unfortunate gentleman
and his wife o few weeks latcrlost their
lives in the ever-memorable conhagration
of the Richmond Theatre.
Among the visitors ut the springs in the
season of 1911 were William Wirt-already
giving promise of the eminence afterwards
| attained-and the late venerable William
c. Rives, then q youth fresh from William
and Mary College. Two of the reigninG
bellies were Miss Mayo, subsequently the
wife of General Winfield Scott. and The
lovely Miss Conyers, whose tragic death in
the burning of the theatre before referred
to, almost in the arms of the lover who
persisted in the attempt to save her, is still
invested with romantic interest. .-