New-York tribune., 1905-12-31
WASHINGTON TRADITTONS
Still Preserved in Part Of V~ginia
Where He Vas Born.

II IS a quiet life that the people of westmore-
land County, in the northern neck Of Virginia,
lead, says E. n vallandgham in The Maga-
zine Of History" On lonely plantation in this
county, within sight OF the Potomac, George
washington was born, and in spite Of the rolling
years of the Civil War and Of the Emancipation.
the northern neck of Virginia is in many
spects much what It was when George Washing
ton and Light Horse" Harry Lee were born
month apart In the year 1882. Even to this day
sailing craft slowly worm their way far into the
deep, navigable inlets of the region and carry
freight TO Baltimore and Washington. Each
plantation has its own wharf, and each planter
keeps a lookout for the coming schooner, just as
his ancestors Of washingtons day must have
watched for the slow and patient craft that piled
up and down the Potomac and away to Balt-
more Philadelphia and New York. or across the
Atlantic to England. a voyage that might
stretch out for six. eight, ten twelve
weeks.
The very speech Of the people has a slightly
archaic flavor and family names are redolent Of
old English ancestry, and the whole region teens
with traditions of washington. Down IN North
cumberland County the little harbor of Lodge is
named from the fact that here stood the Ma
sonic lodge that Washington used to attend.
The British destroyed the house in the Revoiu-
tionary War, but the cornerstone was found and
opened not many years ago. and some of its
treasures Of old English money were placed in
the cornerstone of the Masonic lodge at Kins-
dale another charming little Virginia harbor
II the shore is much what II was in Washing
TOMS infancy the river and its tributaries are
even more So Those who know the Potomac at
washington or amid the mountains that hem 1t
in further west and north may we'll have no
suspicion of the vast flood which IL becomes in
the lower part Of its course, where 1t Is from ten
to eighteen miles wide. Here cape on cape re-
cedes to unfold and unexpected depths or
IoveIiness little haFbors sit low on the tidal
waters backed by wooded bluffs. behind which
lie the rich plantations of Northum berland ana
Westmoreland A soft spoken race of easygofns
men still pursue the traditional methods or the
eighteenth century, fetch in sea trout ana
striped bass and pike to sell them at aosuroIy
low rrices and for nine months In the year
oystermen are busy. Every planter who will
car maintain his pound net In the shadows or
the Potomac or one of its tributaries, and all
along the lower course of the stream he can Sc
cure his own oysters almost without leaving the
shore The great width Of the separating hood
makes one shore invisible from the other. COM
r1,,nice tion is so slow between the shores tnat
,1aT1 living in one of the little harbors on the
Virginia shore who was In a hurry TO travel
norfhward found his most expeditions mode or
travel 20 be drive OF seventy miles to railway
at Richmond ,
bava nursed their traditions and held hard by
their family names so that the visiting stranger.
90 ha has any touch of historic instinct finds
hinsalf singuarly moved with sense OF near
ness In time to George washington and his con-
tsmporarieh