The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1872-04-12

ilOAh tAAO
him. Mr.. John Esten Cooke make
it abundantly evident that he die
! from broken heart. But in Ords
that the virtues of singularly pun
aad noble character may not be ur
recorded in England, we desire to 70
low Mr.. Cooke through some of til
most notable passages of his hero
life, and to do what in us lies to max
|, Robert e. lees memory a preciOu
possession wherever the English tol
J que is spoken. #
} 1.-The Lees of Virginia." says th
volume before us, "spring from a
ancient and respectable family {
Essex in England" whose ancesto
came over to the fast-anchored isl
with William the Conqueror. On
member of. this family, Lionel Lee
accompanied Richard Caur de Lilo
to the Holy Land, and displaye,
special gallantry at the siege of Acre
The first of the Virginia Lees, Rich
ard by name, was an ardent mon
archist, and left the old country il
| the troubled times of King Charlie
the First. at is not certainl,
known" says Mr.. Cooke, "whethe
he sought refuge in Virginia after th'
failure of the Kings cause, or wa
tempted to emigrate with a view t.
better his fortunes in the New
World" Whatever may have beer
his motive in repairing to Virginia
Richard Lee undoubtedly broughI
with him from England number o
followers and servants, and took uT
extensive tracts of land in the Old
Dominion. Among the manor-houses
which he there built or commenced
was one at Strafford, in the Virgins
county of Westmoreland-wi within
which county George Washington
himself was born. This house hav-
ing subsequently been destroyed by
fire, was rehuiit-Queen Anne her
self having been contributor to the
fund subscribed in England and in
the colony for its re-erection-and
became at a later date the birthplace
of Richard Henry Lee, and OF his
distinguished son, Robert Edward.
Richard Henry Lee, the father Of the
great Confederate general, was one of
WashingtOn's best subordinates; and
under the so5riq,tet of "Light-Horse
Harry" gained conspicuous fame as a
cavalry general in tine revolutionary
war of the American colonies against
England. In a letter written in 1888,
George Washington conveys his
Glove and thanks" to Lighthouse
Harry, whose admirable qualities as
a soldier were always recapituiated
with modest pride by his still greater
son. In 1869 General r. Z. Lee pub
lished a new edition of his fathers
Memoirs of the War in the Southern
Department. to which he prefixed
an unostentatiOus life of its author.
The old house at Strafiord,
wherein the great American soldier
first saw the light, deserves few
passing words of comment. 1t. was
one of those Virginian manor-houses
which so warmed the heart and kin
died the fancy of Thackeray; for in
one of these, he loved to say, that it
would delight him to write the his
tory, which he always contemplated
but never executed, of the times of
good Queen Anne. The bricks, paw
ing-tiles, carvings, windOw-sashes,
furniture, and decorations of these
stately old country-hOnses, were all
transported from England TO the Old
Dominion. English plasterers mould
ed and spread the ceilings; English
masons appraised the Italian mantel-
pieces which they brought with them
across the Atlantic; English carpen-
tiers made fast the windows -sashes,
and set up the lintels of the doors.
Their book-shelves were filled with
the great English classics who -four
ished i'm the Augustan age of Queen
Anne. Within the libraries of some
of these houses Thackeray passed
many hours, enraptured to find him
self surrounded by the works OF all
the English authors who were most
to his taste. There he again familiar
lied himself with the tender grace of
Addison, the rugged force of Smollett;
there he forgot the "wild relish and
vicious eXuberance of the too copious
present" by bending over the pages
of Swift, Pope, Arbuthnot, Boiling.
broke, Walsh, and Granvilie; and
there for the first time he became ac-
quainted with the Memoirs of Colonel
Byrd of Westover,' the founder, dur
ing George H.'s reign, of Virginia's
beautiful caEital at Richmond. The
very bricks, paving-stones, and Win
dow-frames, of 'Westover, Brandon,
or Strafford, eXhaled an atmosphere
which was fragrant to his nOstrils,
and enabled him again to summon
into fieshly existence those English
worthless of whose literature he was
so fond. There he loved to rehearse
that Charles II. wore a coronation-
robe of Virginia silk when reinstalled
upon the throne of Great Britain;
and that, in gratitude for her loyalty
in the hour of his abasement, he per-
mitted the proud old State to rank
thenceforward in the British Empire
with England, Scotland and Ireland,
and to bear upon her shield the motto,
En- dat Trgiilia g,td'tdm.
The early influences of the old
grange at StraffOrd, in which he was
born, had much to do with shaping
the character of General Lee.
Critics." says Mr.. Cooke, "charg-
ed him with family pride. If he pos
sessed that virtue or failing, tue fact
was not strange. Strafford opened
before his childish eyes memorial
of the old splendor of the Lees. He
saw around him old portraits, old
plate, and old furniture. Old parch-
ments contained histories of the deeds
of his race; old genealogical trees
traced their line far back into the
past old servants grown grey in the
house waited upon the child; and, in
q corner of one of the great apart
ments, an old soldier, grey too, and
shattered in health, once the friend
of Washington and Greene, was writ
ing the history of the battles in which
he had drawn his sword for his native
land"
To the last hour of his life, General
Lee retained his affection for trees,
streams, mountains, and country as
sociations with which his happy
childhood at Strafford had imbue l
him. One of the last letters which
he ever wrote contains the following
passage:-"My visits to Florida and
the White Sulphur have not benefit
ed me much; but it did me good to
go to the White House"-a small
country seat not far from Richmond,
which came into his possession by
his marriage with Mary Custis, the
daughter of Washington's adopted
son-s'and to see the mules walking
round, and the corn growing" He
loved the country, the woods, the
birds, and the brooks as fondly as
Izaak Walton or Waterton. His
favorite talk was about country life;
and nothing was so grateful to him
as chat with plain Virginia farmers.
The writer of these words well re-
members a ride on horseback which
he took in company with General
Lee upon the morning of the 1th or
May 1868. The battle of ChancellOrs-