Brenham weekly banner. [volume] (Brenham, Tex.) 1877-1907, 1890-05-15
AN IDEAL SOUTHERN HOME.

! in GoochIand county, twenty miles
!; west of Richmond, has been sold fol
$4,000 to a party of Richmond gen
. tlemen, who will probably use it as
stock farm.-Galveston News.
The above paragraph recalls to
mind charming phase of Southern
life, which no longer exists, and
that has faded away like the mem
DRY of beautiful dream. Before
the war, when property in slaves
furnished the cornerstone of South
ern aristocracy, the elegance and re-
fnement and intelligence of the peo-
pie was found in the country, and
the hospitality of the Southern peo-
pie, the grace and charm of their
manners and the righteousness and
refinement displayed in their homes
were proverbial. And there was no
home in the South which furnished
a truer type of Southern refinement
or IN which the old-time hospitality
and before-the-war Southern GUS
toms we're kept up longer than at
"Sabot Hill" the home of the Sed-
dons. Had DR.. johnson, in exhaust
ing his powers of description and
imagination to paint the dwelling
place of Rasselas in the Happy
Valley" have come upon this place
he could not have presented a more
fanciful and poetic picture than by
giving a faithful description of
Sabot Hill and relating the daily
life thereat. The place is located be-
tween the James River and
Kanawha canal. The residence is a
beautiful two-story brick building
in lovely grove, on a high hill and
overlooking the river. In the centre
Of the building is rotunda or court,
with inches in the walls ornamented
with quaint little statuettes. The
rooms are painted in different
colors like the White House at
Washington, and each has furniture
to match. A portion of the house is
given up to an extensive library of
several thousand volumes, and the
walls are hung with some of the rar-
est and most celebrated paintings
and pictures in the world, by Ru-
bens and other great masters. A
number of single pictures which
adorn the walls cost thousands of
dollars. The editor of The BANNER
had the honor of enjoying the hos
pilality of Hon. Jas. A. Seddon's
family at this elegant home in the
summer of 1878. They were always
entertaining guests from Richmond
and other places, but at the time the
writer had the pleasure of being
there he was the only representative
of his sex, while there were all the
way from ten to twenty beautiful
young ladies, and it became his
agreeable duty and formed a part of
his daily life there to accompany
them a blackberry hunting in the
meadow and pastures for the pur-
pose of helping them over the
fences. Four meals a day were
served after the English style. Din
ner, the principal meal, generally
lasted about two hours and consis-
ted of numerous courses. Wine
was served with each course, and ne
gro buffers Ia starched linen stood
at each end of the table. The walls
of the dining-room were solid reflect
ing mirrors. The time was spent
between meals in playing various
games, pleasure driving and in row.
ing on the river and canal. Between
the principal meals lunch was served
in parties of twos and threes on
small tables in the rotunda. At
that time Mr.. Seldom, the ex-secreta-
~ of war of the Confederacy, was
alive, but was all drawn up with
rheumatism and constantly wore a
skull-cap. He loved to talk about
Texas and said that the whole South
looked to it to become the empire
state of the union and to represent
the new energies and recouped
forces of the South. A few years
back Miss Matoika Gay, the editor
of society paper in Richmond,
created great deal of sensation
and good deal of bitterness by the
statement that the genuine aristo-
crazy of Richmond were occupying
attics and looking down upon the
butchers and bakers drive by in
their fine turnouts and the adven-
turers who came down from the
North and struck it rich after the
war by preying on their misfortunes.
And now beautiful Sabot Hill, the
ideal Southern country home of a