The Cecil Whig., 1876-05-27


for his own occasional residence. The fort
and mansion are often mentioned in the
Provincial records as the place where the
Council sometimes met to transact busi-
ness; and accordingly many public acts are
dated from Mattapony
Calvert was doubtless attracted to this
/ spot by the pleasant scenery of the head
land which here looks out upon the noble
water view of The Chesapeake, and by its
breezy position as an agreeable refuge from
the heats of Summer.
! Our party, therefore, determined to set
out upon search for some relics of the
mansion and fort; and as guide in this
enterprise, we engaged an old negro who
seemed to have a fair claim in his own
conceit to be regarded both as the Solomon
| and the Methuselah of the plantation. He
was a wrinkled, wise looking old fellow,
with a watery eye and grzzled head, and
might, perhaps, have been about eighty:
but, from his own account, he left us to
infer that he was not much behind that
great patriarch of Scripture whose years
are described as one hundred and threescore
and fifteen.
| Finding that he was native to the estate,
and had lived here all his life, we interro-
gated him with some confidence in his
ability to contribute something useful to
the issue of our pursuit. Amongst all the
Solomons of this world, there is not one SO
! ly yiy,,,,r itb tho ct inn
able verify of his wisdom and the intensity
of his knowledge as one of these veteran
of an old family estate upon which he has
spent his life. He is always an aristocrat
of the most uncompromsins stamp, and
| has contemptuous disdain and intolerance
for every form of democracy. Poor white
people have not the slightest chance of his
good opinion. The pedigree and history
of his masters family possess an epic dig
nifty in his imagination; and the liberty he
takes with facts concerning them amounts
to a grand poetical hyperbole. He repre-
sents their wealth in past times to have
amounted to something of fabulous super
fluffy, and their magnificence so unbounded,
that he stares at you in describing it, as if
its excess astonished himself.
When we now questioned our venerable
conductor, to learn what he could tell us of
the old Proprietary Mansion, he said, in
his way, he "membered it, as if it was
built only yesterday: he was fotch up so
near it, that he could see it now as if it
was standing before him: if lie couldn't
pint out where it stood, it was time for
him to give up: it was mighty grand
brick house, laying an emphasis on brick,
as special point in his notion of its gran
deur; and then he added, with all the gray
ity of which his very solemn visage was a
copious index, that "Old Master Baltimore.
who built it, was a real fine gentleman.
He knowed him so well! He never gave
anything but gold to the servants for tend
ing on him. Bless you. he wouldn't even
think of silver. Many time has he given
me guinea for waiting on him."
This account of Old Master Baltimore,
and his magnificent contempt of silver, and
the intimacy of our patriarch with him,
rather startled us, and began to fear that
the story of the house might turn out to
be as big lie as the acquaintance with the
Lord Proprietary Master Baltimore
had then been dead just one hundred and
twenty-one years. But we went on with
him, and were pleasantly disappointed
when he brought us upon hill that sloped
down to the Mattapony, and there traced
out for US, by the depression Of the earth,
the visible lines of an old foundation of
large building, the former existence of
which was further demonstrated by some
scattered remains of the old imported brick
of the editice which were imbedded in the
soil.
This spot had fine outlook upon the
Bay, and every advantage of locality to
recommend its choice for domestic estab-
lishment. We could find nothing to ind-
cate the old fort except the commanding
character of the hill with reference to the
river, which ght warrant a conjecture as
to it's position. | believe that the house
fortifcation, as l perceive in some of the
old records that the fortification itself was
called the Mattapony House, which was
once beleaguered and taken by Captain
John Coode and Colonel Jowles.
After we had examined all that was to be
J seen here, our next point of interest was
graveyard, which, we had been informed
by some of the household at Mrs. Carroll's,
had been preserved upon the estate from
very early period. Our old gossip professed
to know all about this, from it's very first
establishment. 1t was in another direction
from the mansion house, about mile dis
tant, on the margin of an inlet from the
Bay, called Harper's Creek; and thither we
accordingly went. Before we reached the
spot, the old negro stopped at cabin that
lay in our route and provided himself with
hoe, which, borne upon his shoulder, gave
a somewhat mysterious significance to the
office he had assumed. He did not explain
the purpose of this equipment to us, and
we forbore to question him. After de-
scending to the level Of the tide and pass
ing through some thickets of wild shrub
|
mediately upon the border Of the creek;
and there, in quiet sequestered nook of
rural landscape, the smooth and slugeis
little inlet begirt with water lilies and re
hectng wood and sky and the green hillside
upon its surface, was the chosen resting
place of the departed generations of the
family. A few simple tombstones-so
of them darkened by the touch of Time
lay clustered within an old inclosure. The
brief memorials engraved upon them told
us how nveterately Death had pursued his
ancient vocation and gathered in his relent-
less tribute from young and old in times
past as he does to day.
Here was theme for a sermon from the
patriarch, who now leaned upon his hoe and
shook his head with slow ruminative mo-
ton, as if he hoped by this action to dis
engage from it some profound moral retlec-