Wilmington daily commercial. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1866-1877, 1872-02-19
LITERARY.
THE CHE sAPEAKE PENINSULA,
by GEORGE ALFRED TOWNSEND.


IfRoM soRBNERs MONTHLY FOR MARon.l
Cape Cod, Long Island, and die Eastern Shore
of Maryland were our three peninsulas of the
lost aud the vague, until Thoreau, Roosevelt, and
the newspaper tourists shed light upon the form
er two. like service is yet to be rendered to
| the larger. more popuous, and in many re-
| spects more quaint and venerable strip of
| Maryland which IL inclosed between the Chesa-
peake and the ocean. In point OF water-scenery,
| 1t is the Puget-Sound country of the Atlantic,
pierced with broad, navigable, aborescent bays
and rivers almost as fruity in the salt delicaeies
of shel-tish and wild fowl as are their shores
| with orchards Of peach, and groves Of nuts and
| berries. The loamy. sometimes sandy soil is
| varied by long aslea of pond and brackish sound
| or bayou, whose humid vegetation is strong and
stately IN cypress, gum or hemlock forests.
| The dozen or twenty fishing or courthouse
| towns are larger and more characteristic
| than the Maryland settlements on the Western
Shore and several of them possess attractions
| for the traveller in old-church, manor-house,
aud mill architecture, and in picturesque group
ings of forms and angles not current in thorough
fare parts of America, bridges, broken roofs,
and queer river craft blended in atmospheres
which, at sunsets and twilight, are Of exquisite
| softness or splendor; while locked away for two
| hundred years in this forgotten nook, the peo-
| pie generally retain purity OF English blood
| and spirited natures entirely compatible with
provinciAlisms Of speech and manner, and
| amusing instances Of idiosyncrasy. The whole
| of one of the thirteen colonies and parts of two
others, are comprehended between the head and
| the Capes of the Chesapeake
The typical Delawarean is robust easy going,
| lolling compound of Swedish, Finnish, Dutch,
| Hugenot, Welsh and English stock shut ont
| from the enterprsing life Of the sea by want of
harbors and commerce, inhabitiug fiat land of
sluggish creeks, good farms, and tracts of low
| forest, and except in the northern county Of
| New Castle he seldom passes the plane of vii
lage Epicureansm and inoneneiye ''ceyerness;
John NJ. Clayton, for time President Taylor's
| Secretary OF State, and Lorenzo Thomas, for
| shorter time President Johnsons Secretary of
/ War, were Delaware types.
The two counties of Virginia east of the Ches-
| apeake, although in a high state OF productive
/ ness compared to their worn-out kinsman across
/ the bay maintain n other respects the Old Do
minion character pride Of state and opinion,
personal bearing, and the capacity OF ready dis
i cipline and public spirit From these counties
i came Henry A. Wise, and that Custis family
| whose fortunes were interviewer with Washing
| tons.
The Eastern Marylander is the Yirginian with
| out his institutions and 1ogmaism. The seed
| of Quakersm and Weseyanism successfully
fell upon kindly soil in these old and
hospitable counties, softening society, and
| intoning it to eonsonance with the sur
rounding gentle scenery the establishments OF
church and estate magistracy abated their claims
| in the presence OF 30 cordial democracy, and
| Methodism kept aristocracy at bay, not less by
| the energy Of its circuit preachers than by the
steady worldly prosperity OF its membership
| The landholders, whose roomy residences, built
| of Engsh brick-the ballast OF their returning
| produce vessels-still beautify the banks Of the
| Wye and the Choptank, have lived to see the
dssenters chapes flourish above their own de-
| cayed parish churches and armorlal graYe-htonesi
and in some cases the usurper has not only
appropriated the tithes but also the ritual. The
Methodsts of Cambridge have decorated their
pulpit with the cipher /. II 3. and the Roman
Cross and introduced choristers and responses
into the service.
To visit the Peninsula most expeditiously
before the reforming era has quite remodeled 1t,
one must leave the great southern railway line
at Wilmington, the metropolis OF the Peninsula
a rattling town Of mills and ship-yards, now
nearly Of the population OF Philadelphia at the
Revolution, and possessing the only daily news
papers of the whole region. Hero, IN the cleit
between two small rivers --one of fine water
| power and the other navigable,-was the capital
| OF Swedish America, kept in green remembrance
to this day by one picturesque church which
obtained its pastors from the Bishop OF Upaala,
| nearly to the date Of our Independence.
| In the environs is the College of Newark, the
| alma mater of the Peninsula, with preparatory
department of above centurys uninterrupted
usefulness and at New Castle il one OF the three
whipping-posts and pilloIies which remainln the
United States, where the State OF Delaware il
hogged and egged in the esteem oil the nation
| after every term OF court.
The creeks which rise in the Pennsylvania
hills come dashing down by many a mill dam,
and the Brandywine ceases it's active lie Just at
Wilmington, by feeding one OF the most pictnr-
esque and elderly series of grist-mills IN tue
|, country. They are built Of stone, IN the Old
stye, with bent roofs and many tiers OF win
. dows, and packet-vessels ascend in deep water
I to take cargo beneath their caves, within SOUND
i | of the tnmbling rapids which move then
, | wheels Even in Washington's administration
: these toiling houses ground 400, bushelt
of grain a year, when the town Wat
a half a century old. Wilmington is now
Z rich city almost monopolizng iron shipbuilding
and turning out prodigious quantities OF car
| riages, railway-cars, machinery and leather II
the vicinity are the largest powder mills in the
| world, founded by the Huguenot family o
| DUPONT, and papers mills, and woolen and cot
g ton mills admirable in capacity and construction
The Swedish church is an exquisite obJect Dur
led up in ivy and gravestones, and the traditlon
of the place go back to the daughter OF GustaVu
Adolphus and the conquests of Petrus StuyVe
SAINT Marcus Hook, few miles up the river
was originally a Finnish settlement, ana TN
II descendants Of Swede and Finn are numerou
round about
$ "Their old names writ in English, ways,
4 In English prayers their Swedish PRAISE
The monument to Cunning Bedford, command
20 er in the Delaware line in the Revolution, an
Nd | the Welsh Tract Westinghouse of what ar
le called ''Hard-she Baptists" in the vicinity, CIV
some idea of the mingled refinement and mar
simplicity of these North Delaware elements,
Between Wilmington and the head OF til
Chesapeake the ground is the historic scene {
Washngtons maneuvres to arrest the march {
re Howe upon Philadelphia, and the eminence
n which force apart the waters Of the Chesapeak
and Delaware were picket and signal posts, NJ
he only in that campaign, but when at later dat
ss the armies moved southwark in pursuit OF A
Ia | mold and CORVALLIS. The HudsOns palisae
N scenery is not stronger than the Susquehanna
at Port Deposit, where its deep and rocl
35 | breadth congresses that numbering mart to
ill narrow beach at the foot of precpice expose
to annual freshets and the view from Hayi
de Grace of the broad Chesapeake and the BIT
so tables of the distant mountains of Elk Neck
of such soft nobility that some have lament'
90 the Federal capitol was not set there. Here,
80 the limpid nights, hundred lamps often d
the surface of the bay, where shad and herrll
fleet row with their seines and gill-nets and
.75 dawn the focks of the North recall the apostr
'OO phe =
"Wise is the wild duck, winging straight to thee
90 hiyer of Summer! from the cold Arctic sea;
90 Coming Ike his fathers for centuries, 10 seek
90 The sweet salt pastures Of the far Chesapeake
.00 At Elkton, the home of Postmaster-Genel
'uO Creswell.-a very old town of large brick hous
~ on the edge Of marshes and under hills,-t
''0 peninsula tourist may choose his route, either
desceud the roads of Delaware or the paral
highway system of Maryland.
The towns OF Delaware are sometimes qua
but seldom busy, and are often inhabited by
socia! life superior to their apparent resourc
l w If sOirit and vOunp men of gentle mi