The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1878-12-28

Written for the Baltimore County Union.
NOTES ON DULANY'S VALLEY, ND.
BY AN EXILE.
No. w.

PROVINCIAL government III grew 10 DE the centre
of attraction for all that was of note in Maryland
The last Colonial Governor, Sir Robert Eden. was
a man not only of ability but of handsome pres
ence and charming manners, who gathered around
him a miniature court so distinguished for refine
ment, elegance, luxury and perhaps certain scan
dals without which courts, little or big, can hard
ly exist, to have obtained for Annapolis from a
writer of the day the title of the 81. Germdin Of
AMERICA. This prestige was not lost for a con-
siderable period after the Revolution, and the
busy city at the "head of Patapsco" was for long
time looked upon as vulgar mushroom by the
truly genteel people of the State. We find our
friends in the "Valley" in the early days turning
fondly to Annapolis as the seat of social distinc-
ton, regarding Baltimore merely as poste restdnte
on the way to the metropolis. Traces of this feel
ing fingered among some of the old families at
least as late as 1896 when the "reform" Inaugural
ted under the auspices of the GLORIOUS nineteen
upset the established order of things and gave the
final blow to the social and political pre- eminence
of the venerable capital.
There can be no doubt, l think, that there has
been greater change in the elements of civili2a-
ton within the last hundred years-or might al
most say ffty-than had taken place in the two
previous centuries. The people Of our kevolu-
tionary period lived and dressed and talked and
felt more like the people of the reign of Queen
Elizabeth than like those of the present day. Of
course there had been all along a considerable
progress and a large advance had been made in
the minds of men. Without this they would not
have attained the necessary preparation for the
wonderful departure just before them. But what
had been done rather the putting of old ideas
and methods into more modern dress than their
complete displacement by discoveries both in
philosophy and physics which has since taken
place.
Though there seems among the people OF Mary
land but little antiquarian feeling and knowledge,
[ suppose it would afford at least Il monentary
qualification to know exactly what manner OF men
and women were their Revolutionary ancestors
[ imagine such knowledge, however, cannot in its
more important aspects be attained Great as has
been the external and apparent change-it is in
the inner man-in the coasc iousaess Of the modern
individual that the real revolution has taken place
which has made him as essentially different from
his ancestors of three or four generations ago as
If, in the process of Development, cublt had oeen
added to his stature or doubled volume to his
brain. The Centennial year was, among other
ways, sgnalzed by renaissance IN costumes
supposed to be of the style of the days of the Rev.
olution, and old chests were ransacked or dresses
inprovised by those who had no chests to resort
TO- for habiliments deemed appropriate for the
Martha Washington re- unions that for the moment
were fashionable. Young men and maidens play
ed at grandfather and grandmother and these
charming masquerades demonstrated at least that
modern loveiness could not be concealed by ancient
disguise. The most skeptical were convinced OF
the possibility of serious love affairs taking place
between powdered wigs and small clothes on the
one side and hair cushions, patches, stays and
high-heeled shoes on the ether. Yet who can es-
innate the difference in the consciousness OF those
who wore those obsolete garments for an evening s
sport and those who donned them daily with full
faith in the absolute fitness and perfection OF their
toilets? It is not very difficult to imagine how
the world looked hundred years ago, but just
what-or rather hog-the people. then alive,
thought and felt about it, is something that can
not be recalled; and after all the way in which
this environment is regarged constitutes the most
significant distinction between the lowest savage
and the being of the highest civilization yet at
tanned.
The familiar epistolary correspondence of a
people would seem to afford the best chance for n
fair prcsentment of the modus rircadi of the time
in which it was written. Yet it is surprising how
meagre for the most part are the old files OF aml-
y letters which come down to us. In the domes-
tic affections there has been no change and even
the expression of them remains pretty much the
same. Parent and child brother and sister, lovers,
friends and enemies felt and wrote hundreds OF
years ago nearly they do now, and so potent
and engrossng are the emotions and cares OF
private life that when family correspondence is
explored for the light it may chance to she'd on
the great events which posterity is apt to imagine
must have been the theme of every contempora-
neous pen, it is for the most part found on such
topics nearly silent Thus in the letters of one of
the most intelligent women of the Cromwellian
era not an ausion is found to the great events of
the civil war. 1t is only occasionally that the So
cial paleontoogst in exploring the strata of these
literary deposits finds genuine footprint preserv-
ed in the mud which enables him to reconstruct
the kind of being that made it,
All this will probably be deemed a rather for
midable prelude to the introduction of few ex-
tracts from the letters Of some of the dr0m0fis
persona of these notes which seem to me worth
presenting as serving to give a certain touch of
reality to a picture without much color or perspec
tive. The first is from George FitZhugh to his
friend and brother in law, Horatio Belt. 1t is
dated at Annapolis where the writer had just ar
rived, apparently to spend the winter, in the fall
of 1882, and proceeds:
: Then dined, got the barber to shave
me, cut my hair and alix my half crowns worth
to it, (probably ribbon to tie his queue.) capari-
soned myself in my goslin3 green, &C.. and went
to the tragedy of the Revenge to which was add
ed the Apprentice. After the play and farce were
over | walked through very hard shower of rain
from the play house to the ballroom, supported
by Aiulatto George and Tom Hanson, TIE last of
whom was presently called off tp assist carriage
in distress. 1t contained the Widow Gusts, Mrs.
stone, &C., VINO elIner mlSIeu DD Jhck U bduiuOTH
or a driver who was stranger to the town. had
entangled themselves among the tomb-stones in
the church yard. These difficulties being got over
we soon Joined in the ball room, where con
tnued dancing, eating, drinking, card playing
and chatting till near three when Tom Hanson,
after having worked a great many traverses round
and round those lots at the back of the ballroom
was obliged TO acknowledge that his eyes were Of
no use to him unless assisted with ianthorn, for
6 liz TIL a,ll
negro man, he gave a two and twenty penny piece
It was not our lucky day, for if we had staid an
hour longer Sally Allen and Kitty (Dulany) would
have carried US home in COACH in which they
had returned for that purpose after having carried
the widow of Abingdon and Miss Ariana c. to
their bed chamber 81 Thursday was so
rainy that the race was postponed to Friday. l
attended the ladies to the play notwithstanding
1t was 'Barnwelf and the Devil on Two Sticks
Supped on excellent oysters at home, ct. Hanson
presently and slept soundly till Friday morning
This day we had most beautiful race The last
two heats were closely contested by Little Davy,
belonging to B. Rogers Of Baltimore, and I forget
what horse, that the riders iOckied each other and
one of them lost his cap. 1t was however so light
that it did not occasion any dispute. Little Dayy
took the purse and the knowing ones were taken
in. Good sport in the afternoon. Three heats
aud the purse won by Duckett of your county (P.
Ge0rgee). AZ nlgnb went 20 inc EAR fenltenb
and Lethe. This company have very tolerable
scenes, good dresses, horrid women, Mrs. Ryan
excepted, and but few passable males One Of
them who played Altamont made me think was
calling you whenever he called on Horato ''Tis
my friend Horasay! 0 my Horashyp He also
talked of loriers and was guilty of variety of
other ntolerabilities which will not be of any
count for you to hear or for me to tell. So fare
well my Horashy. tits now eleven o'clock att night
and am an invalid and have been so ever since
my return. Heath's gin delayed but did not pre-
vent. GEO. FITZHUGH.
''Molly (hs wife) is well affected towards you"
The "Tom Hanson" in this letter was the other
brother-in-l law, while Mulatto George was a body
servant distinguished in the family history for his
excellence in that capacity, but more remarkable
as the father of the Rev. George McGil who was
1 think, the first President of the Republic of
Liberia.
Of DIR. Horatio Belt, after taxing my memory
I remember but trivial but somewhat whimsical
incident which is only worth telling illustrating
a matter of former costume. The DIR. was crack
shot and much addicted to dog and gun. On one
occasion when out with friend he received the
contents of his companions towing piece but at
such distance as to render the mustard seed shot
harmless except in the comparatively unprotected
space between vest and pautaloons. Ii seems the
latter were at first worn without suspenders and it
was no uncommon thing for line of white, indi-