The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1870-11-19
The Eastern Shore.

A correspondent of the Chicago Tribune
whose parents resided on the Eastern Shore
has been visiting the land of his birth, ant
has given an account of what he saw ant
heard OH that occasion, in aletter published
in the Tribune, which we have transferred
to Tile Wing:
THE FIRST SIGHT.
When | came on deck, as have said
with an irreverence akin to that of North
ern Goth, giving his first contemptuou'
peep at the Italy he means to reduce, saw
scene which converted ME on the spot. A
miniatu archipelago spread out before me
sometimes lake a mile broad, again strait
through which the steamboat could barely
find inlet, and all the banks were green as
emerald, and planted roomily with forest
trees-catalpa, cypress, pine, walnut, white
oak and willow-behindw which rolled ancient
lawns, adorned with rare old dwellings,
some of them jointed in frames cut out OF
mills were known; others mortised in
/ imported bricks, burnt on the banks of the
t Severn, the Dee, and the Shannon the ivy
clambering over many humid and luxuri-
GUS, as it is ever found around these old
mansions. The many barns, corn cribs,
negro quarters, and other appurtenances
of past society, were grouped in picture
esque effectiveness, so that the farms seemed
to be whole towns Along the banks of
these plantations, piles, shores, and shin
giles We're set to keep back the high tides
which rolled in every day from the Chesa-
peake, and the high water vistas were made
interesting with vessels-thc deep, thick
set PUNCHES, which carry oysters and truck e.;
the broad, shallow bay-schooners, adapted
to run up the merest ponds; periaugers,
open on deck and fitted to be run by sail
two Moorish sails; and, finally, canoes,
hewn out of the solid timber by the axe
and adze, and propelled by some Indian
looking negro or white man, who sat rigor-
ously in the stern, and played his paddle
as if it were his dining fork. 1 was so
enwrapt with this beautiful scene, very
wildly portrayed in the clear morning
atmosphere, that l scarcely needed the
Captains suggestion when he said:
Now, sir, we are passing the old estate
of Henry a. Wise, who was born right
there
l saw, as in a vision, the large, old
house, the broad lawn, the red-tinted porch,
orchard stretching behind the little wharf,
and the canoe in front, and on two sides a
salt inlet, piercing up to be lost in deep
timbers. Other fine estates were all round
about it, many clap-boarded mansions,
many houses built of thick oak and hickory
plank, with outside chimneys, and every
where light verdure, and inspiration.
ONANCOCK CREEK.
Thus the large steamer advanced into a
terra incoqnita, the prospect growing insen-
sibly narrower every rod, until we entered
the roadstead Onancock, where there was Il
whole fleet at anchor. In the fore ground
were dozen Maryland schooners, which
had been captured few days before, by
the Virginia oyster navy, for transgressing
some absurd local marine law behind
them, on the capes of three creeks, which
went still further inland was the port of
Onancock, Il ccession of wharves, ware
houses, planters abodes, tidc-mills, wind
mills and forest scenery, which made an
extraordinary grouping of forms and col
ors, the Ike of which have never seen in
any portion of the United States. 1t was
a perfectly new world, and it put to flight
in moment all my theories of barren
peninsula and a heather population. was
now in the most northerly of the two Nir-
ginia counties. detached from the continent
tai st ate, which rise east of the Chesapeake
Bay-the tail of the peninsula, between
the Chesapeake and the Atlantic. This
peninsula is nearly two hundred miles
long the Virginia tail of it is sixty miles
long, and Onancock is the largest town of
the two counties, viz: Accomac and North
ampton.
THE LAND AND FOLK OF ACCoMAC.
They were people Of slim, tall, wiry fig
ures, long jaws, sharp, but retreating chins,
which sought indictment in their lean, grist-
lynecks;a nervous temperament and mourn
full interpretive expressions their negroes
shared many of these features, and while
there was some spasmodic playfulness,
amongst the why, sandy haired young men,
who switched their boot-tops with their
riding whips, and while the boys did little
mischief amongst the sweet potatoes, and
hooked black walnuts from barrels, there
was still over all a human melancholy which
comported well with the tranquil morning
and the sylvan scene. For the rest. they
Here they lived between bay and ocean, on
a slender spit of land not more than eight
miles through at this point steamboats,
giving them escape to Baltimore four times
a week and to New York twice a week,
while daily stages traverse the peninsula
from Cape vile, near Cape Charles, to Ber-
lin, in Maryland, the nearest railway town.
The stage fares are about nine dollars for
ships deck, and almost always good
There is no country in all Eastern Va. more
fertile than Accomac, it receiving manure
from the convenient sea-weed anil she'll
fish, from wild vetch called the bay-hean,
which grows spontaneously on old fields,
and from the rich ailments in the vapors of
the populous seas. The ocean keeps the
temperature SO equal that figs and pome-
granates grow here all winter, and cotton
has been raised with profit, while the sea-
winds blow warm from the West Indies,
and the castor bean is an article of regular
expectation. Oats and Indian corn are the
staple crops, but market truck, oysters and
fish, and orchard fruits are more remuner-
ative. The soil is thin, light and mixed
with sand, but it stands upon 4 substratum
of stiff clay, and the level nature of the
landscape prevents "washes. Some mos
quitoes, more gnats, and little bilious,
intermittent fever, are the only embarrass-
ments to this soft, humid, exquisite landscape
whose advantages were observed very early
in the history of the Virginia colony, and
to,omac voc ono of tho aipbt nrip;pal