The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1878-09-12
MONTICELLO.
Desolatien ana Decay NJ the Ola Home 81
y 1eHers0a. EN%E

earth, the stone above 1t defaced beyond
recognition and the dilapidated hole-
stead in the possession Of tramp.
Monticello. to which President Jeffer-
son retired ut the conclusion Of his sec-
ond term, is on the summit of hill near
Charlottesville, Albemarle, county, Va,
1.-THE very seat from which. lifted above
the worlds turmoil, one who has exhaust
ed what it can bestow OF emiuence might
look down, withdraw from Its personal
troubles: bat contemp plating at leisure the
distant animation OF the scene" On the
outlines stretched away till they are lost
to the sight, with sylvan scene Of unsur.
passed loneliness in the vale below, the
quiet Rivanna meandering through rich
fields on one side, the pleasant village
dotted the other, while the porticoes and
| domes OF the university rise in the dis
.tance behind, it overlooked, says Mr..
Goodwin, "a combination of natural pic
lures that are rarely found in one spot"
The sky abt'vc," says another writer, its
not more shifting than the scene you may
have before you. 1t takes new aspect
ut almost every moment, aud bewitches
you with perpetual novelty
Monticello two generations ago was
more than mausion-it was a commune
ty. The $4,000 acres of the estate were
carefully titled by a small army Of labor
ers. 1t was Jefferson's boast that his car
rage aud the tools with which it was
mad, were alike manufactured upon the
estate. The house was spacious, richly
furnished and commodious, with
| an extensive and rich library, in which,
| seated in low Spanish chair, the Sage
! OF Monticello "held forth to his visitors
in an almost endless flow Of fine dis
course" There is graphic picture of
hin. given by writer who saw him at
| eighty-one, representing him as "dressed
no longer in the red brooches which were
once famous as his }avorite and rather
conspicuous attire, but still vindicatinQ
by sanguine waist-coat his attachment
to that republican color; in gray shorts.
small silver knee.buckles, gray wooilen
stockings. black slippers, blue body
coat, surmounted by gray spencer
He was tall, and though 1.-The and decid-
eddy graceful, and agile, long and ILL.,
limbed. Yet his figure was "command-
ing and striking, though bad, and his
face most animated and agreeable
though remarkably ugly" His leg had
never been conscious of q calf. but he
walked we'll and swiftly and with light
pess, and spripginess of tread such as few
young men have. He mounted his horse
| without assistance and rode some ten
miles day; dismounting at a fence
breast-high he would leap over it. only
placin. his hand on the topmost rail.
OF Jefferson as he appeared sixty three
Williamsburg, Va. John Esten Cooke has
given description as interesting. He
was, says Mr.. Coke, tall and thin and his
face was angular and far from beautiful.
"uis complexion was suuburned, his
hair of 81 ndy red, and bis eyes gay.
fecked with hazel-add indication gen
orally Of intellect He dressed
! somewhat after the fashion Of a beau, in
lowered waiscoat, silk coat, stockings
confined at the knee by fanciCu.ly worked
garters, and ueed powder, carried his
fine lace hat beneath his arm, bowed low,
paid gallant compliments to the fair sex,
and danced at every assembly," He was
hard student, working fifteen hours
day, and was an excellent performer on
the violin. "Of "Ossian's'' poetry then Just
given to the literary world, he raved; he
iDtented studying Gaelic so as to read
this greatest of bards in the original.
He was desperately in love with Rsbecca
Burwell, Ills Belinda" daughter of
Lewis Burwull OF White Marsh, left an
orphan at ten, and no less distinguished
of character. He wrote to friend that
he HAD thought of 1.-THE cleverest plan of
life that could be imagined. "You ex-
change your lands for Eigehill," he said,
Tor mine for. Fairfied's; you mary s. P. I
marry r. B., join and get pole chair and
pair Of keen horses, practice the law in
the same courts and drive about to oil
tho dances in the country together"
| Arcadian plan, but not to be carried out,
for later letter says: with regard to
the scheme which l proposed to you
F.! some time since l am sorry to tell it is
totally frustrated by Miss r. BIS MARI
age with Jacqulin Amber which the peo-
pie here tell me they daily expect.
Well, the Lord bless her, l say!' Mr..
Amber was treasurer Of Virginia.; his
brother Edward married Miss Cary,
who tradition asserts, had also jilitcd a
future Washington, TO- wit.
Belinda had been married many years
when her old admirer, then approaching
80. met Martha Shelton OF The Forest,
Charles City, daughter of Mr.. John
Wayles, an eminent lawyer. At the age
of II she had married in 1865 Mr.. Bath
urst Shelton, who died two years later.
At 22 the widow was "a little above the
medium height, slender, but elegantly
formed" with fair compl. xion, delicate
~ tinted; large hazel eyes, full of life
and feeling luxuriant hair of rich. soft
auburn; she rode ana danced with ele-
CANT ease, sang and played very sweetly,
had excellent sense. admirable cultiva-
lo1, warm heart and large fortune:
With Mrs. Ske!tcn Jefferson fell in love
He had two rivals, and one historian
records that they abndoned the tieldto
him when one night (when probably each
had come resolved to put his fortune to
the toucb) they met on the doc step and
heard within Jefferson's violin and song,
accompanying the lady in aplaintive voice
On New Years day, 1872, Jefferson and
she were married, and soon after they set
ont for Monticello, which the groom had
begun to build in 1859, just before the
burning Of his patrimonial home of
Shadwell. As they advanced towards the
mountains 1t came on TO snow, and at last
they had to leave the coach aud take to
horses. At Bienheim, Col. Carriers estate,
where they stopped to rest, they founu
no one but an overseer, and leaving it at
sunset they rcsolu'ely faced towards
Monticello, eight miles distant, along a
mountain pathway three feet deep with
snow. Says Mr.. Cooke:
1T was late when they arrived and
thct rless reception awaited them or
rather there was no reception at all. The
fires were all out, the servants had gone
to bed and the place was dark and silent
as the grave. Conducting his wife to the
little pavilion. which was the only part
Of the house habitable at the time, Jeffer-
SOD proceeded to kindle the fi,e and do