Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1898-04-20
EARLY VIRGINIA HISTORY
(oLD BELvoIR, CONTINUED
No. l6.

| William Fairfax assumed his duties as
agent of his cousin on the Baron's large
Virginia estate. Out of this estate a
tract of several thousand acres imme-
diatelv adjoining to Mount Vernon and
stretching for miles southwark along
he river had been assigned to him by
the proprietor as & gift in perpetuity;
and here he came about the year 1856
To establish home which iD time was
10 become very prominent and famous
IN The new worlds annals. To this
spot where we are gathered by these
snarled oaks and where that heap Of
nlsckened hearthstoDes remains 81
lent but melancholy witness OF the
past, duly repaired the builders and
ere ed u mansion; and surely no more
desirable situation could have been Sc
lected for q home in many day Of
travel. 1t is high, regular and COM
manding, and the landscapes OF the ma
l-stc river with its abrupt or gently
sloping shores, alternating with farm
alearings and woodlands, never fail to
! plesse the eye of the beholder, and
most appropriately it was named Bel
voir beautiful view.) Bat an additional
reason for SO naming it was plea ant
associations of Belvoir castle, one OF the
most celebrated Of the English castles,
and OF of the the first of the present
day.
The menorial residence which VIM.
Fairfax built was one of ample dimen-
sions and appointments for that early
time. Washington iu one OF his diaries
ellis us incidentally that it was "built
of bricks-Was of two stories and an at
tic, with four convenient rooms and
wide passage on the lower tioor-hve
rooms and wide passage on the sec
| ond floor with cellars aud convenient
Offices, kitchens, quarters for servants,
coach house, stables and all other out
buildings needed on great estate" and
| that There was large garden adjacent
stored with a great variety OF fruits, all
| in good condition
The writer visited the ruins of the
| home in the spring OF 1894, and traced
out and measured the ruined founda-
lions and found them massive and midi
eating great slZe and rength OF super
structure. They were of the following
| dimensions: The foundations of the
maiu buildings sixty by thirty-six feet,
with walls twenty seven inches thick
and strongly cemenled by mortar made
of oyster she'll lime and river sand
which had become as hard as the bricks
themselves. The cellar had occupied
the entire area under the rooms and
was seven feet deep, with partition
walls twenty four incnes IN thickness,
and with pavementS of bricks seven
inches square and four inches thick.
Outside of the gable walls were heaps
of quarry stones denotiug large sub
! structures for exterior chimneys. Every
thing about the walls still LETT intact
denoted stroug and superior construc-
ton. Adjacent were the ruins OF five
other brick buildings, presumably the
great kitchen, the buttery, coacherie,
aud quarters for the house servants-al-
most village: and in front on the
r yer bank, one hundred and tif y feet
above the ripplir & tide, we're the re-
mains of the two summer houses which
had commanded so many pleasant
views and fair prospects. There is but
an acre or so Of cleared ground about
the ruins, and upon this the surround
ing cedars, pines and brambIes are
from wear 10 year steadily encroach
ing Here was the site of the gar
den" for there were thousands of daft
fodils and other tuberous spring flow
ers waving their yellow petals in the
morning breeze, just as they hat done
when my Lady Fairfax was won't to
tread those now wild and neglected
paths in the long, long years before.
Through nll the lapse of the coming
and going of the many spring times,
they had faithfully kept up their
bright SUGGESTIONS, and were yet re-
naming true TO their trust, silent me-
mentoes of the kindly care of vanished
hands. But every vestige of the
choice iruit trees" described by
Washington had disappeared, save here
and there q veteran pear tree whose
few remaining branches were white
with bloom and promise of another
fruitage. a grape vine eight inches in
diameter was still vigorous.
The wells from out of whose cooling
dep hs so many refreshing draughts
had been drawn by the "old oaken
bucket" for man and beast were choked
by rubbish and had long been dry. Not
remnant of fencing remained. The
desolstion was complete and silence
reigned supreme. But the morning
sun was shining radiant over it all;
the buds of the forest boughs were
opening into foliage; the glad spring
birds were lightly fitting and chirpln!e
their songs OF glee, and hardly the rip
! pling waters of the beautiful river were
hurrying on in their seawsrd course at
the foot of the cliffs, just as when the
wstchful eyes and careful hands of the
masters were there to order and direct
all thing Alright.
, In the woods near adjoining, rows OF
sunken grave mounds indicated tie
family burial place. A score of graves
: may still be counted without stone or
enclosure. Tue marble slabs which
had marked the resting places of Viii