Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1881-09-06

FERNEY, MADISON Co. Ky, September S-There
are few episodes more pleasant to recall or
more real in the enjoyment than the few weeks
visit at a country house, filed with gay COM
pany, whether it be in midwinter. with great
fires roaring up the broad chimneys and lights
and laughter and music within. and snow
storms and sleigh rides and skating carnivals
without. or in the last lingering days of sum-
mer to be in the midst of pasture lands and
harvest fields, inhaliug the rich, fruity fra
GRANGE of Eipened orchards, all agleam with
their mellow store of late peaches and golden
apples, bending above the long swathes
Of soft orchard grasses beneath At
time like this, when the golden summer
melts beautifully and imperceptibly into the
first loveliness Of autumn, it is a boon to be
abroad with Nature in her fairest and happi-
est mood. The long, delicious days the exqui-
site season gives US, so STILL so heavy with si-
lence the faintest insect voice finds clamor-
GUS tongue, and pipes and whirrs through the
sultry noon. Overhead, great. soft. white
masses go sailing across the skylike cloud
ships that have lost both chart and compass,
and are aimlessly adrift In the blue upper sea.
A deep, golden haze enwraps all things, as
gold dust--purplish lights rest across the hills
and fiery sunsets burn along the west. 1t is
difficult to remember that beyond that misty
girdle the brawling world-waves break and
fret and chafe, and the sun comes up and the
sun goes down on world of men who care
for nothing more than the sound of their roar
ing.
mo more, no more,
The worldly shore
Upbraids me with its loud uproar;
With dreamful eyes
Thy spirit lies
Under the walls of Paradise
Set thus in its fair frame work is Ferney.
Only a country house. but not many country
houses have family traditions so fraught with
romantic interest as this. Surely If the old
skeptic could have looked abroad from his re-
treat over such a scene, and let its tender
beauty steal into his SOUL he must have
shivered his airy br1lliancies at a touch, and
followed Nature up to Natures God"
Ferney, in the original was built shortly
after the admission of Kentucky into the
Union. The more modern and the principal
portion Is great square brick block with
granite corners, sufficiently solid and weather
stained to be quite imposing in appearance.
But the rear is the original structure, built
rough blue stone, with walls of immense thick
ness. small. deep-set windows with innumera-
bic tiny panes, and wide, cumbrous chimneys.
lar; it was doubtless born of the exigencies of
the times when forethought was given to the
best means of defense against the Indians In
side the ancient mansion the walls are lined
half way up with elaborately carved wains-
coting, and the mantel shelves tower aloft like
the pulpits in ancient churches.
The founder of the family Yves Marquis, a
real live one, the friend and compatriot of La
fayette, who came over to America to lend her
his strong right arm in the revolutionary strug-
gle, bringing all his worldly goods with him,
which consisted of his title and one son. Both
father and son bore themselves right gallantly
in the revolution, and when the war was over
the old man, finding his title did not amount
to a row of pins in this country and having
nothing to connect him with the Old World but
an accumulation of debts, settled down in
primitive republican simplicity in Virginia
Here his impetuous young son formed
belle and beauty, a descendant of the
great Marlborough She was a born CO.
quette, and countless was the number of her
conquests. When the young Marquis became
an aspirant for her favor he bad his hands full
in diSposing OF his rivals, and only bore off the
lmperious beauty after wounding one of her
lovers unto death in a duel Shortly after this
the old Marquis died, leaving to his son a large
tract OF wild land in the part of Virginia that
afterward became Kentucky, which had been
bestowed upon him for his services to the re-
public
Here the son came and built a kind of
baronial castle that was fortress and barracks
in turn. 1t became the centre of little settle
tanned and the desperate defenses it made
against the hostile Indians 1t was here that
the young wife with her baby in her arms was
struck by u shot from secreted savage and
fell before her husbands eyes, the
little one clasped in her arms unhurt
After this the bereaved husband
took his children the long and difficult Journey
back to Virginia, placing them with their
mothers relatives to be reared. The baby girl
grew up in time with all her mothers beauty
and winsomeness, and reigned over almost as
many hearts. How is it that in old times, and
especially in Virginia, the women were able to
do so much damage! Is it because pretty wo-
men were fewer then and therefore one could
hold undisputed sway, or are there such great
er numbers of beautiful ones now that if one
is unkind the slighted lover may easily find
consolation in one equally charming, ready to
his hand! Or perhaps mankind has grown
more coolly philosophical in matters Of the
heart and can say with that caustic old fellow
who went squarely down to the bottom Of such
things:
Be she fairer than the day,
Or than fiowery meads in May,
II she be not fair to me,
What care how fair she be?''
Inthose times men fought for lovely Woman's
smiles, and when one was the fortunate win