The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1879-12-13
In an Old Portrait Gallery.

1t is an acknowledged fact that naval
stations are the gaycst society centres,
and while the personnel OF the little
navy of the Revolution were busted
with exciting enterprises taxing their
C urage and endurance on the high seas
they were all the more ready to indulge
in social enjoyments when in port. The
ladies of New London, too, We're as
patriotic as they were handsome, and
devised innumerable entertainments for
their gallant defenders The Marine
Tavern and the Golden Bali in the
town, as well as the inns on the Nor
witch and Old Lyme turnpikes, became
scenes of revelry, while private man
sions outvied each other in hospitality.
Some of the ola mansions of the town
are particularly rich in miniatures and
Others in oil paintings of the ladies of
this period-refiued, sweet faces, set of
by elaborate coiilures and great rufis.
The miniatures painted by Mrs. Cham
pin at the beginning of this century,
in especial those OF the Colt sisters, have
a delicacy of treatment and a purity of
sentiment peculiarly suited to the fair
young faces of her sitters. The family
portrait gallery of the Shaw family in
PRODUCES us most wildly to the early
society os New London. 1t is difficult
not to imagine while gazing on these
aristocratic DANES, stately gentlemen
and gentle girls who surround us, stand
ing at full length in their tall frames,
that they are looking at us through
open doors-that Madam Temperance
Shaw, in her white satin and mob-cap,
with the open Bible in her hand, is not
expecting a visit from her pastor, Rev.
Gurdon Saltonstall. Nathaniel Shaw,
her son, with his long light locks, sober
dress and knee and shoe buckles, re-
minds us Of William Penn, but of Will
liam Penn minus his rotund figure. In
his almost Quaker simplicity Of attire
he forms decided contrast TO his
courtly wife, in her stiff gold-colored
satin dress, bosomed like Ruben's wife,
with pearls in her hair and around her
beautiful throat; she holds red rose in
one shapely hand, and as she stands
there, Is the embodiment OF naughty
aristocracy. And yet this proud dame,
when the war ships in Shaw's Cove, on
which the mansion fronts, were full OF
men dying with ship fever, opened her
house, turning it into hospital, nursed
the stricken men with her own hands,
and fell az last, sad to say, Il victim 20
the same malignant disease. What n
romance might be written in this pic
ture gallery The next portrait is that
of pretty Polly Shaw, sister of Nathaniel
Shaw. The portrait represents her at
fifteen, in dress of white satin, simply
cut, with square neck; its only orna-
ment is formal cross of-Malta-shaped
rosette of four loops OF satin ribbon,
with tear-shaped pearl in the centre.
All innocence is our thought as we look
at the serious young face. She stands
in garden, with basket of fruit and
shade hat upon her arm. She is
going to visit the poor" said my com
panion; I" we need not be told that she
married minister" Here too is the
portrait of her daughter, coquettish
woman in a." beehive" headdress, which
reminds us of the portraits OF Madame
lie Brun in her white muslin turban.
She holds baby on her lap--a baby
who, grown to man estate, became the
father of the present generation now
occupying the house. How far back 1T
throws everything And yet, as we
walk through the immortal house, peep
into the library with its portrait Of
Cromwell in armor, stand reverently in
the room that entertained Washington,
half expecting to see his figure held as
by sensitive plate in the high mirror,
and stroll through alleys OF box that
rise high hedge on either hand, up
the knoll crowned with summer house
century and half old, where Lafay-
cite, who visited the place twice, prob
ably toasted the bright eyes of pretty
Polly Shaw in those spiral-stemmed,
monogram-engraved champagne glasses,
and Washington presided at the lawn
party, ladling the punch from the
magnificent Chinese bowl-how real and
near it all seemsl These pictured
ladies are the real and only jewellers
here; we fesh-and-blood intruders are
only ghosts.
There are not many old houses in
New London 80 rich in associations, for
when Arnold burned the town in 1871
he made thorough work, anxious 20 in
graIiate himself with his commanders
by doing all the injury in his power to
the cause he had deserted. Every
locality has its epoch to which it refers
in determining the date of every event
in New London nothing is old which
did not exist before the burning"