Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1898-04-14
EARLY VIRGINIA HISTORY.
BELVoIR-THE OLD COLONIAL SEAT OF
TIE VIRGINIA FAIRFA XES.

TIE VIRGINIA FAIRFAXEs.
No. II.
Come back We friends, whose lives are ended
Como back with all that light attended,
Which seemed to darken and decay
When you arose and went awsy
They c,me, the SHAPES of Joy and woe,
The airy crowds OF long ago,
The dreams and fsncies known of yore,
That have been, and shall be no moro
They change the cloisters Of the night
Into garden of delight;
They make the dark and dreary hours
Open aud blossom into flowers!
lingcr long I love to be
gain in their fair company;
| But ere my lips can bid them stay
They PISS and vanish quite away
Come with me reader and linger q
| moment while l tell you story whose
beginnings were long before the time
when the drums loud beat and the
bugle's echoing call summoned in haste
the sturdy colonists from the lowlauds
and mountains of Old Virginia to make
ready for the coming struggle of the
American Revolution-even before the
British war fleet of Commodore Keppel
came proudly sailing, the first of al
| others, up the Potomac with the army
| of General Braddock to wage war
| against The French and Indians in the
wilderness of the Ohio valley. 1t is no'
story of love, though ladies fair and
born of high degree and men OF
kniphtlv aud chiy .lrous bearing figure
prominently in the interesting de-
tails. 1t is not story of war,
though some of its persona were
soldiers, and had witnessed fierce en-
counters at arms, but it is story OF
circumstances which were all important
factors in the successful conduct and
termination of the seven years of heroic
strife which opened the way for the
founding of the grandest of all the gov
ernments of the earth, and it Is a true
story, moreover, though it may have the
tinge and character OF romance.
We will sit l,isurely down by this
grass grown heap of blackened hearth
stones, here under these osks and
cedars on the hill top hundred and
fifty feet above the murmuring OF the
tide. Before us in its seaward cou'se
rolls the grand old river, broad, deep
aud beautiful as when in zoos the Id
aud reckless Captain Johu Smith with
mis- little company OF explorels
cut its shining waves with the prov OF
their open pinnace upward bound TO
the region OF the powerful Piscatawnys
and Mayonese, on whose hunting
grounds and warpatbs the cities oil
Washington aud Alexandria now
stand.
These few trees around ms are all
that are lett of the dense primitive tJr
est which W, 5 hewn down by the brave
pioneers in the me when the smoke oil
the wigwam went up from it's midst to
give place to the plow and the hoe OF
he tobaccoplanter.
! They are now gnarled and SCARED
by the cycles of time, but their branches
are still far reaching and green, and
will shield us well from the rays of the
noontide sun, while we recount the
events of the many faded years. AND
DOW while we are enjOyiog The cooling
shadows, the fresh breez S and the
pleasing natural sights around us let US
90 back hundred years before the SUI
render of Lord CORVALLIS at I rktown
Across the ocean at that time in Eng
land. when James the Second was the
ruling monarch, and lands in the new
world were 10 be had by favorites o.
the crown for merely the asking, 1t was
ordered by the royal authority that let
| ,ho ho a6 n Z
Thomas Lord Culpeper, previously a
Governor of Virginia, for all that ex'
tens;ye domain known in history and
geography as the Northern Neck o.
| Virginia, comprising in its area the
counties of Northumberland, Lancas
ter. Richmond, Wtstmoreland, Ripe
George, Prince William, Stafford, Fail
fax, Loudoun, Fauquier, CulpeIe er
Madison, Page. Shenandoah, Hardy
Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, ). Her
son, Frederick and Clarke.
From Lord Culpeper this tract OF
principality had descended through his
daughter, Caiharine Culpeper Fairfax
to her son, Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax
of his line, who was a person of note
and distinction in the British realm, 8
man of learning, a graduate of Oxford
College and member OF cele ebra'eo
literary club of which Joseph Addison
was the chief spirit, and to whose pens
we are indebted for the Spectator. Tni;
right Hon. Thomas, Lord Fairfax, O.
Leeds Castle, in the county OF Kent
and Baron of Cameron in Scotland
v,es consin of Thomas Fairfax, gen
ersl of the parliamentary or "rounc
head" armies of the protector, Oliver
Crom we'll, aud, OF course, figured prom
inentlv in the military and revolution
arv circumstances of the beheading o
King Charles 1st of England, January
so. 1649.
By the terms of the original patent tt
Culpeper, he was constituted sole pro
prietor of the soil" of this wilderness
empire, together with all its forests
mines, mineral, huutings, ii .hings
and fowlings with authority to divide
sell, grant or lease and occupy at viii
any or every portion Thereof; always
however, to be and remain under al
legiance to the royal prerogative," a
was the common phraseology of grants
in the days of feudalism. 4 royal gil