The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1870-03-04

thing like it, in comfortable but modest
| little domicil, EMPOWERED among fruits
and flowers, and that was the last earthly
residence of Capt. Ohio Norris, who was
lost in the Gulf stream with the sloop-
war Hornet, in 1927, and under the roof Of
which he babe adieu for the last time to
all that he held dearest in this life | shall
never forget the first of the owners named
for the reason that he made me the first
pair OF boots ever owned; nor will evel
| forget them, for the reason that it took me
all day to draw them on and all night to
draw them off. To those boots am | in.
debted for the honor and pleasure of a first
introduction to Conscience | have pleas
ant memories of both them and their ma
ker, of course.
Nearly opposite the mansion last named,
Mr.. H. d. Farnandis has erected beauti-
full residence in grounds highly ornamen-
tal which was sterile old field in my
boyhood days, interspersed with growth of
stunted sycamore, sassafras and hickory, the
common forage ground of weeping kildeer
and hungry rabbits. Well do remember
the thick shelled and bitter fruit of the
scrubby, hickories and have often thought,
in later years, that those nuts would be
sovereign remedy for hog cholera, as no
porker could masticate them without put
ting himself in profuse perspiration from
the tip of his snout to the end of his tail.
But to return to the mansion of Mr.. Far
nandis and his beautiful grounds. 1t is a
little Eden now, but with all due Difference
to the cultivated taste Of its excellent pro-
prietor, never could exactly see the wis
dom of erecting handsome structure and
concealing it with shubbery from the pub
lie view. Quiet and retirement may be
desirable it is true. but don't think that
passing traveller could disturb or annoy
me very much by casting a hasty glance
at the walls within which | rested or re-
yelled. Should | ever build a dwelling
house, it shall be white with green win
dowshuttcrs, and occupy the summit of a
hill.
About mile beyond the residence of
Mr.. Farnandis, and on the opposite side of
the road, l noticed, in hastily passing, very
tasty dwelling, belonging, as my friend
Mr.. Sawyer informed me, to Mr.. Mansel
Morrison, with whose lady, in my boyhood
days, l had the pleasure off an acquaintance,
and regretted my inability to calllupon her.
The space occupied by the house and the
cultivated grounds about it, was an intri-
cate wildwood in the olden time, all fes-
TONED with tangled vines, the covert of
the whippoor-w and the native song
bird, and the old-tield pines made melan-
choly wall as they swayed to and fro in
the wanton breeze. In the same old woods
now standing, short distance southwest
Of Mr., Morrison's dwelling, was a Metho-
dist Camp-Ground in the by-gone years,
and well do [ remember listening to the
night-songs Of the toil-worn sons of Africa,
the imprisoned eloquence of Il Peyt ton and
the Dorseys, anil Of catchimq fyiag SQ"i,7Tls
between the sermons.
But let me hurry on. All the land in the
vicinity Of Bel Air has not been improved.
On the contrary, | was sorry to see that
one of the most beautiful and fertile fields
of the distant past has been permitted to
retrograde, and has actually been turned
out common. | allude to the once prof
table and well-cared for meadow adjoining
town, formerly, and perhaps still, the pro-
perty of the Bond family. may be mis-
taken, but | presume it belongs to bache-
lor who has enough of this worlds goods
without it, and who has generously left it
for some one of the coming generation
to exercise his taste and skill upon. Ifhe
will make me a present of it, | will let all
holds go in these mountains, return to
Hartford, cultivate choice fruits and choi-
Ger Southern principles, make that desert
blossom as the rose, help you edit the 1Bgis
without fee OF reward, and pray for his hap
pincss while we both linger on the nearer
Shore as well as for the repose of his spirit
after he shall have ferried the dark and
turbid stream.
Hoping you will rest as quietly after
reading this mutifarious mess as l hope
and expect to after writing it,
am yours, most respectfully,
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