Evening star., 1894-12-15
OLD MARYLAND HOMES.
Famous Wye Manor and It's Gracious
Memories.

Famous Wye Manor and It's Gracious
| Memories.
| From the Century.
If one might be frisked by the mere
| magic of a wish away from the vulgar
| scrambling aud the din and all the heart
less impertinence Of this impatient time
| back to those ways of pleasantness and
| paths of peace which We're the familiar
| conditions of old Maryland. he might
choose to find himself trundling in
| tiquated gig through the long, dim stretch
| of woods and the double colonnade of
| locust and beech IS which formed the ap-
proach of the great house." and ended in
| the graveled drive that belted the noble
| lawn-from five to seven acres of close,
| clean sward, dotted with furs and cedars.
| and terraced from end to end. Here stood
| the sturdy domicile, broad and square.
| built of bricks brought over from England
| in the ships that came for tobacco 1t was
| fanked each hand with offices and
strung out to the very edge of the woods
with NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., dairy ice house,
| overseer's lodge and the quarter" for the
| dusky colony of, slaves. This latter might
| be either a group of cabins or a single,
| spacious tenement of logs stone, afford
| ing enc big sitting room below, floored
with earth, and rude dormitories, bunked
and bianketad, above. On the ground floor
| the negroes loved to lie around the great
| hearth, with their feet to the fire, and to
sleep that sleep of insouciant beatitude
which was broken only by the familiar cry
| of warming Some fool-nigger's heel a
burningn
In the distance the clumsy windmill
| for the grinding CT the maize which was
presently to find itself transformed and
| famous in coQuetries of johnny-cake and
pone, and fapjacks fattered with golden
butter; and beyond, between the willows
| by the creek, glimpsed and glanced the
| ripping silver of the bay, with its sleepy
\ sr,lnt 1x,ft "A
| barges, and with the slender spars of
pungies in among the cuddling little isles,
where Sambo tonged for "eye-sheters' IN
| the sun, and the larger fisher took his finny
treasures from the weir.
Hospitab'e Manor House.
| Here was land flowing with mint juleps
and blooming with delectabIe damsels
| Mistress Rebecca Lloyd, beautiful ard
gracious, greeted the newcomer with a
winsome courtesy or the broad piazza, and
the grizzled butler who had ''toted' his
young missus around so long that there
were still times when he forgot himself
| and called her honey" brought you the
beguiling beverage a silver salver en-
! graved with the family arms, and was dis
traSsed If your straw refused to draw.
That broad piazza was burned, with the
rest of the noble house of Wye, when q
British mariudins party looted the planta-
tion and tie mansion, and carried of
plate, jewelry and watches, swords, spurs,
SaSheS and cooked beaver muffS, turbans
and tippets, wigs and embroidered waist
coats, plumed hats and cardinals-the
whole splendid plundel of brave apparel
and dainty bedeckingS. The fair RebecCa
has long since been choired among the
angels, and the grizzled butler sleeps with
his toes turned up to the mint; but when /
crossed the lawn one kindly day in last
December l was greeted as graciously by
Rebecra's later kinswoman, and conducted
into the great hall, which never yet wheth-
er in the parent house or in this, big
enough for the hosritalities it has harbor-
ed. The grand old manor house gave its
body to the flames, but its soul survives IN
the later mansion, where its traditions of
courtesy and kindness are piously cher
ished.
Near the site of the historic domicile, q
fragment of which still remains, stands the
beautiful structure, impressive by its
proud simplicity, which invites the way
farer today in the name of eight genera
tions Of Maryland worthless who have kept
house there since Edward Lloyd J. the
Puritan, in l6S, set up his son Philemon
TO be lord or the manor of Wye and master
of Wye house-incunahula majorum. The
main building of two lofty stories, includ-
ing the hail. drawing room, parlor, dining
room and chambers, all of noble proper
| tons, is connected by corridors with one
| stored wings, in which are the library on
one side and the domestic offices on the
! other, presenting pleasing facade of 30
| feet. looking out upon the lawn and the
| leafy avenue and over the woods to Wye
river ana the bay.
When Fred. Douglass Was Slave.
| In Gov. Lloyd's time there was a certain
! steward, or bailiff at Wye, one Capt An
thony of st. Michaels, at one time master
+, of bay craft in the service of the gov
ernor This man was the owner of a likely
negro 10y, who escaped from bondage, and
by his remarkable powers, requirements
and address became known to the world
as FL cderick Douglass. In 1881 Mr. Doug
lass, being then marshal of the District of
Columbia, was moved TO revisit the scenes
of his childhood and his thrall and one
day found himself on the porch of Wye
house, where he was received by the sons
OF Gel. Lloyd, their father being absent
with that courtesy which is extended to
every stranger wh) frdS his way thither
When he had made known the motive of
his visit he was conducted ever the estate
from spot to spot that he remembered and
described with al their childish associa-
uoEs, mere spring, there a hedge, a lane
field, tree. He called them by their
names, or recalled them by some simple
incident, and all the glowing heart of the
man seemed to go out to the place as he
passed from ghost to ghost as in a dream
And then a strange thing happened; stand
ing mute and musing for a while he said
SLOWLY and low, as one who talks in his
sleep, over in them woods was whar ME
anu Mars Dan useter trap rabbits" Mars
Dam was the governors son. Was ii the
mans half-playful. half-pathetic sense of
the 2rotesque inc Ongruity of the situation?
OR was 1t g glamor?-all the tremendous sig
nlhcance OF phenomenal life compacted
into the homely reflection and phrase of a
barefoot "darky''
He plucked flowers from the graves of
iead Lloyds he had known, and at the
table drank TO the health of the master of
the old house and of his children, that
they and their descendants may worthily
maintain The character and the fame of
their ancestors"