The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1885-11-14
A Virginia Lady of the Ancient
Regime.
q. L. d. IN Lippincott's Magazine.


Among the many beautiful and fasci-
mating women who adorned Richmond
society at the beginning of the present
century there were few more remarkable
and interesting than Mrs. Mayo, the
wife of Col. John H. Mayo, founder of
the bridge at Richmond that bears his
name. She was the daughter of John
De Hart, of New Jersey, an eminent
lawyer and member of the first Cont
mental Congress. Bellville, the home
of Colonel and Mrs. Mayo, in the su-
burbs of Richmond, was the seat of
elegant and boundless hospitality. No
person of distinction ever came to Rich
mond without calling at Bellville, the
entree to which was an unquestioned
passport to the best society of the city.
Mrs. Mayo's eldest daughter, Maria,
was the most celebrated Virginia belle
of her day. She never gave decided
answer to any of her numerous suitors,
and the story goes that one evening three
gentlemen met at her house, and after
a very pleasant visit they returned to
Richmond together. One of them ask
ed the others why they went there, as
he was engaged to Miss Mayo and ex-
pected shortly to marry her. The other
gentlemen also said they had hopes of
winning the fair lady. The first gen.
tleman determined to have the matter
settled, and accordingly went to her
house the following day and sought an
interview with Mrs. Mayo. He told
her he had her daughters consent, and
asked hers. Mrs. Mayo replied she
was sorry she could not give her con-
sent, and the gentleman then under
stood that the mother and daughter
were in perfect accord in the matter of
the young lady's love-affairs. In this
way Miss Mayo kept on hand regi-
ment of admirers, who formed sort of
reserve corps. When John Howard
Payne, the author of "Home Sweet
Home" visited Richmond, he was a
frequent guest at the Mayo mansion.
He wrote poem, in which he describ-
ed himself as falling asleep in grove
and all the months of the year appear
ing to him. The month of June was
the first, and he finally winds up with
May, which he described in very glow
ing language, ending with the line:
Sweet May, oh, could love thee ever
Maria Mayo is said to have refused
more than a hundred suitors before she
accepted General Winfield Scott, who
courted her when he was member ofthe
Richmond bar as Mr.. Scott. After en-
tering the army he continued his ad-
dresses, and was refused successfully as
Captain Scott and Colonel Scott, it was
only as General Scott, the victorious
hero of Lundy's Lane, that he at last
won the hand of the much-admired
belle.
Mr.. William Henry Haxall, a very
agreeable gentlemen of Richmond, re
lates that on one occasion he visited
Mrs. Scott soon after one of her trips
to Europe. He went in the evening at
nine o'clock, and after some time, when
he thought he had paid a call sufficient
ly long, he slyly looked at his watch,
and, to his amazement, found it was
one o'clock. On his apologizing for
the length of his visit, Mrs. Scott as
sured him she never retired before one
or two o'clock, but that she had no
idea it was so late, Mr.. Haxall being
one of the most agreeable gentlemen
she had ever met, when in fact he had
not spoken a dozen words, but was a
charmed listener to her interesting de-
scription of her travels abroad.
In 1928, Mrs. Mayo, in the sixty
eighth year of her age, undertook a
voyage to Europe in sailing vessel.
After her arrival, she passed most of
her time in Paris, where she was the re-
cipient of very fattering attentions and
the intimate guest of some of the
best families of the nobility, especially
those of General Lafayette and his son
George Washington, of the Count de
Segar, and M. de Melville, Minister of
Marine, of whom Mrs. Mayo wrote,
January 10, 152o:-"He lives in one
of the palaces in grand style, we see
there all the people of the court as often
as it suits us" She renewed also her
friendship with many French families
whom she had known in Richmond as
refugees during the French Revolution,
and their attentions and evident pleasure
at the reunion seem to have been pecu-
liarly gratifying to her. She returned
to Richmond in 1890, and lived al
Bellville until that elegant mansion was
destroyed by fire in 1S42. After hel
return, she confined her entertainments
almost exclusively to handsome dinner
parties, at which she presided with ex
ceeding grace and elegance, and where
it was said that, though the wines were
fine, the flavor and brilliancy of the
conversation were far superior. She