Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1872-02-28
The Chesapeake Peninsula.

Ine reverence IN which this Old reg ioT
is held by those who have wandered from
it is exemplifed BY late remark Of WI.
I liam Hooper, delegate inCOngress from Utah,
and Mormon, though not = polygamist
( He was describing the virtues Of Eastern
Shore cooking. when one said
Captain Hooper, when were You last
on the Old peninsula ?''
Never, Madame since left it thirty
/ five years ago"
Why, sir, from your frequent mention
of the place, | should think you would
want to slip over there at least once every
session OF Congress"
" Never, Madame! l never wish TO see
it again for | might be disappointed l
always want TO remember it as it tappeared
to ne las; in the days Of my youth the
most beautiful spot under the eyes of
Providence"
Similar testimony was that of John
Gusts, tather-in-law by her first marriage
of Mrs. George Washington. The Custis
family had descended, in America, from
John Gusts, q Hollander in name and
origin, who received the appointment of
Collector of Customs on the Eastern Shore
of Virginia in 1857, and whose great es-
tate Of Arlington there, and relative for
tune in money, attested either the richness
OF the Eastern Shore at that time, or the
antiquity Of the Collector of the Customs
as we know him, q ROYAL officer to this
day. The estate of Arlington, near Wash
ington City, perpetuates the name of the
elder manor of the Custis family near
fF,r., I7,,~Ias = o,,fho14Sa bs-k-v,-
that the son of the Collector married the
daughter of Daniel Parke, who carried the
dispatches of Marlborough to Queen Anne,
announcing the victory of Blenheim
This second Custis, living unhappily with
his wife, left this tribute to the Eastern
Shore on his tombstone -
" Under this marble tomb lies the body
of the Hon. John Custis, Esq, of the city
of Williamsburgh and parish of Burton,
formerly of Hungars parish on the East
ern Shore of Virginia and County Of North
hampton, aged SeUenty-0ne gears, and yet
liced bit Seren gears lchich lcas the space
Of time he kept bachelors home at Ar-
Iington, on the Eastern Shore Of Vir-
iyaia."
These attestations, however, revive the
"
Tom Corwin, who used to tell it on the
a stump" \ very old man, with long
jaws and high cheek bones, came once up
on a time to the witness-box of an Ohio
court
What is your age ?' asked Corwin.
" Twenty-Five"
You probably mistake the question. |
The years of your life,-I wish to know
the number of them"
twenty-five ~
Have you spent all your life in
Ohio?"
Oh, no! l did live forty year on the
Eastern Sho' of Maryland, but hope the
Lord amt counted them agin me -
The queer phrases and pronunciation of
this reigon are of habit, and no longer of
ignorance.
" do'no but is mild form of afir-
nation. a DANCED sight good deal " is
an ambiguous estimate of quantity
'' Won't 'mung ye come to see me - is a
somewhat querulous renewal OF an invi- |
tation. What for sort of man . is |
hardly indigenous, but sounds suspicious
ly like an imitation of ." Fildelfy or
a BaItmer . business talk. Who can de-
fine an " ill-commeoned day" except upon
the theory of natural volubility unrelieved
by dictionary? An else " is trans
position of unless. Right smart" is of
universal currency it applies to man of
to quantity, and to distance
the word "peart' takes the
place of smart, to signify animation.