The Penn's Grove record., 1885-03-21

A writer from Red Hin, Va, says: |
recently paid q visit to the home and
| grave of Patrick Henry. at Red Hill, in
Charlotte County. I started from Ran
dOlph, a station on tine line Of the Rich
mond and Danvil'e Railroad. near the
confluence Of the StauntOn and Little
Roanoke Rivers, which takes its name
from John Randolph Of Roanoke, whose
residence stood Do a grove a few miles
off, and who owned the greater part Of
the land in this vicinity. Many local
traditions of this celebrated man, |
was told, were still rife in the %neighbOr-
hood, although few who had yer seen
him now survive. His house, which
was subsequently occupied, after beng
very much enlarged, by the late Judge
Bouldin, of the Court Of Appeals of
Virginia, was recently burnt to the
ground, thus meeting with the same
fate that had overtaken Mattoax and
Bizarre, where Randolph had lived be-
fore finally settling at Roanoke.
l turned aside from the public road
to visit the spot where the body of Ran
dolph was once buried. Tue house was
built upon a plateau in "a forest that
IONCAlbbhCh AlAI NlhN hE4AEJ Va bH0 ~
ton. The situation is naturally fine,
but to this day very secluded. There is
plainly discernible the indentation Of
the grave where Randolph's body for
merly rested unmarked by head stone
or slab. A few years ago, the bones
were exhumed and removed to the
beautiful Hollywood Cemetery in Rich
mond. Only one person was present at
the second burial who had attended the
6rst-Judge Hunter M. Marshall, Rich
mond bar, who, as a boy, stood by when
Randolph was laid in earth at Roanoke.
BY a guide | was taken into the en-
closure, half garden, half graveyard,
where HenTyts body lies, surrounded by
the tOmbs of other members of his fam
lily. A plain slab which covers his re-
mains bears, in addition to the dates of
his birth and death, the brief inscrip-
ton Ills fame, his only epitaph."
The soil is overgroWn with perfwlnkie,
even the path is hidden by it, and it en-
tangles the feet as walks, like SO
many taut whip cords. Trees go around
the wall of the enclosure, and near the
center are cedars and bushes. l pluCked
a late flower to take away with me as a
memento, together with several caves
of the p%eTiwinkle.
Returning 10 the house, | sat fo1
some time with my host, a young man
of intelligence, who told me that he
thought of giving up his holding, az the
situation of the plantation was rather
too much cut off from the world at
large. If so now, what must 1t have
been in the times of Henry, a hundred
years agoP At present it is about
twenty miles from d station, all the
crops being transported to the railroad
by batteaux, or carted in wagons tC
Lynchburg. To reach Richmond,
Henry had to travel by carriage fol
nearly a hundred miles oye the rough
roads of the country. Here at Red
Hill, where he spent the latter part OF
his life, he died. There was only one
STAN on his character. according to
local tradition. He was said to have
been very p%arsimOnious, but no doubt
his severe struggle with poverty in his
early years had given him an exagger'
ated impression of the value of money,
One of the largest and most fertile
plantations in Campbell county was ac'
quired by Henry as a fee for legal ser
vices, and is still in the possession Of
his descendants.