The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1908-02-15
TIE wYLIre HOUSE MYSTERY.

untenanted, stands two-story house,
l built of wood, with low antique
roof, and a large, old-fashioned Chin
ney protruding through the center ;
the clapboards and shingles loose and
worn by time, the windows but half
filed with glass, the door standing
partly ajar, and the death like silence
which pervades the place, denote that
it has long been deserted. 1t fronts
towards the east. On the south side
is an old we'll, half choked with stones
and rubbish. Behind this, on the
west, are the ruins of some strange
structures whose original use is not
apparent. Still further back, to the
| south and west, with one corner reach
ing to the ruin last mentioned, is the
barn, the body more than half uncov-
cred, and the roof decayed and fallen
inwards. The decayed posts of the
old door-yard fence occur at long In
tervals near the road in front of the
house, with occasionally pendent
strip of board, once part of the fence
itself. The stumps and broken trunks
of several fruit trees may be seen a
| few rods distant, near what may once
have been a garden. Two gigantic
oaks stand a little in front of the
house, their enormous and wide
| spreading branches towering above
and almost overhanging the roof,
seeming like two imperishable giants
mocking at this picture of ruin and
decay. No other dwelling is in sight.
Going southwark the traveller comes
upon this ruin suddenly, soon after
entering large pine forest Stretch
ing ahead as far as the eye can reach
on the left of the road extends the
forest pines, interspersed here and
there with white birch and stunted
oak. On the right hand of the road
upon which the house stands, is a
sandy plain of several acres, which
was doubtless once cultivated, but is
now barren and rapidly being over
grown with the pine of the neighbor-
ing forest. The forest, also, comes
mp to the back of the house, keeping
2 large portion. of It in almost eternal
Though 1t has undergone the wear
and decay of more than a century,
this house, in many places, still bears
tokens of once substantial and even
rich and elegant finish. The win
dows are of ancient style, narrow,
reaching nearly 10 the floor, and
shaped at the top in the form of an
obtuse angle. They are also deeply
set, and exterior castings were origi-
nally carved with some taste, but the
carving has been mostly worn off by
the wind and rain. The wood work
inside is mostly of oak, dusty, dis
figured and worm eaten, but now and
then place is found unimpaired by
the hand of time, revealing the costly
style in which it was originally finish
ed. The front door opens from a
low, narrow ,ancient-looking but taste
fully constructed portico, into a wide
and lofty hall the walls of which
were once painted and curiously deco
rated with grotesque figures and
scenes of the chase but are now fes-
tooned with cobwebs, and the large,
queer figures of the dogs and hunts
men have become blackened and half
obliterated. A broad flight of stairs
leads to the second floor; and doors
open on either hand into the apart
ments below. Above and below
everything bears the same unmistak-
able signs of age, neglect and decay.
At the further end of the hall door
opens into a kind of old fashioned
English kitchen, having doors leading
into the cellar and other rooms on the
first floor.
Many conflicting stories have been
told respecting this house. 1t is said
by some to have been built by a
famous Tory of revolutionary times,
who, at the close of the war, aban-
doned it and went to England, either
through fear of punishment, or in
chagrin and disgust at the American
success. He is said to have made it
noted Tory rendezvous during the
war, and its walls are said to have
ratified aud rung with the din of many
a midnight carousal.
Some even go so far as to affirm
that certain obnoxious Whig was
once brutally murdered here but
these stories are differently related by
some, while by others they are said
to be untrue.
| Another story more extensively
credited ahirms that the house was
built by Colonel Wyling from whom
it has received its present name.
Colonel Wyling, SO the story runs,
had come from England to this coun-
try with a lady of great beauty and
reputed high birth and building this
house in its present secluded position,
had it finished and furnished in what
was then regarded the most sumptu-
Gus and elegant style. He kept both
a man and maid servant, and soon
became widely known for his free use
of money, and for leading gay, roll
licking sort of life. But little was
known of his previous career. He is
said to have boasted of having ac-
quired fortune and military honors
in the British East India service, but
this was afterwards doubted by some
who suspected that both bis name and
story were invented to conceal his
true character. That he had some
fortune was not doubted but how it
had been acquired, or how it was
maintained, was matter of great
question for he had no visible bust
ness, but for some secret purpose
often made journeys to the coast ;