The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1898-07-23
The Story
of Cecil
County
For the Past
Two Hundred
Years.

a rather sudden habit, which not infre-
quently made necessary either a royal
pardon or jury verdict Of mot guilty"
they were on the whole brave, generous,
hospitahle race-qualities which adorn
their descendants. AS for the Scotch Irish
and Quaker farmers, they formed that
granite basis Of States stability-a
thrifty, substantial yeomanry. The slaves
and redemptioDers probably got as much
succotash as they required, and more rum
than was good for them, and although the
authorities did hang a poor iamne-crazed
wretch for cannibalism, it is to their eternal
honor that they never whipped Quakers
nor burnt "witches' '-Englsh and other
examples to the contrary notwithstanding.
Besides owning plantations in Maryland,
the old Cecilians had castles in Spain. y
With these they built their towns, as is
evident from the absence of all buildings
within the limits of the innumerable
wills and ''cities" that were vocalized
over the land. The Adventures who
planned them well won the title Of Gun
dertakers," for they 'laid them out" in
reality corpses, not corporations. But
although mere acts of assembly and "Span-
ish castles" could not make even visible,
not to mention tangible, habitable towns,
it requires no artificial stmulant to create
hospitality and generosity in the breast of
the Cecilian. Implanted there by nature
these noble qualities outflow to all, free as
the waters of their own vast bay, and hence
it is as matter of course that we find sue
cor and reunion afforded to the poor
. exiled, dispersed Arcadians by the men of
Cecil.
The last chapter OF the book is devoted
to the old families of the county. Two
hundred years ago an observant "prophet"
might we'll have prophesied that Talbot
would be lord Of the land, and that by
this time the raco would be numerous
therein, forming by length of custom and
continuity of power an influential heredi-
tary aristocracy; but how different are the
facts. The Talbots and their vast domain
have vanished, their chieftain is but a
shadowy being of mystery and romance
With the Talbots has departed another
family of old known to the county, but
not like them its lords presumptive,
although descended from greater lord
than ever was Talbot; namely, the Crom
wells of the line of Oliver, the man who
was more than king. High up, three or
four hundred feet above the rushing waters
OF the Susquehanna, stands a great head
land; hither, long ago, came one John
Cromwell, gentleman descended from the
great Lord Protector, through his son
Henry. Settling on the land, this man
gave name to the prornontory which is still
known as Mount CrOm well-thus that great
name is rooted in this land. On the ele-
waited plateau, far to the rear of the bluff,
still stands the old Cromwell house, of
heavy timber frame, covered with clap
boards. 1t is long and low, with quaint
gambrel roof. The plastering of the in
tSiiol 10 SSoiSu al ONei III ulliDOuu uluIhs.
In walking over the floors one goes up and
down HILL such is their inequality. Two
or three score of feet from the front door,
within square of box called dwarf but
now near six feet high, from the length of
growing time it has had, lie in the mould
ering bones of his descendants, relics of
the great Oliver. Johns, lIenrys and
divers stock this graveyard with their
bodies, while their ghosts, of course, haunt
the old house. Surely, the great Lord
Protector must come himself, sometimes.
Thither, ye ghost hunters, and see the
mighty dead!
And thus it is with the majority of the
first settlers, the land now knows neither
them nor their descendants and yet, not
so with all, indeed Mr.. Johnston mentions
several instances to the contrary, and nota-
BILE among these is the family of Hall, de-
scended from King James rs learned
and pious prelate, Joseph, Lord Bishop of
Norwich. This family have been seated
for two hundred and forty years on their
estate OF Mount Welcome, it having been
granted by Lord Baltimore to an ancestor
of theirs in 1910.
p. S. p. CONNER.