The Washington herald., 1912-04-07
CHAPTER II.
AZ Greenwny Court.

disgusted with the pomp of an
English Court, the fattery Of
those who wished to gain the kingly
favor, and with the civilization of re-
fuad society--had forsaken home and
kindred for the wilderness OF Virginia.
Charles the Second-hat weak and hand
some sovereign of the virile British race
had given to his ancestors an enor-
nous grant of territory in this British
province. Written out in bold script
upon yellow piece of parchment, and
STAMPED with the royal seal, ran the fol-
loving: i give and bequeath TO YOU all
the land in America lying between the
headwaters of the Rappahannock and
Potomac rivers, stretching to the Chesa-
peake Bay"
This then was his heritage vast.
unconquered wilderness, heavily tim
bered, well watered, the home Of vari-
GUS bands of unfriendly Indians, and
OF the panther, the elk. the black bear,
the beaver, and the buffalo. Here ran
the mighty Potomac River, clear as cry
stal in the cold winters, muddy with the
yellow clay OF Maryland and Virginia
in the long and tedious summers. And
here this graceful stream was joined by
the shimmering Shenandoah, rising in
the wooded mountains of the Blue
Ridge, fed by the graceful Opequan, by
Cedar Creek. and by the sparkling rivu-
lets of Luray.
Il was a paradise for the hunter and
the fisherman For the squatter and
husbandman it offered opportunities for
luxuriant crops which only virgin soil
possesses, and so, when the saddened
Lord Fairfax left the shores OF England
to take up his residence in this strange
and unknown land, he looked forward
to the surveying and developing Of his
vast dominions with the greatest posi-
bic pleasure. A keen sportsman, he long
ed TO be where he could indulge himself
IN the chase 10 his hearts content and
hsh in streams which had never known
aught but the trap and spear Of the Wap-
pitomica and Shawnee braves. 1t was
also true that the lady of his choice
as fair maid as ever graced the sands
At Bath, or tripped gay quadrille in
London, at the seasons height-had
spurned his hand in marriage With
toss OF her powdered head she had told
HIM that he was too ugly and too tire
some for one OF her kind, and this, add
ed TO his disappointments in political
affairs, had made Thomas, Sixth Lord
Fairfax, man who Stunned the society
of those in English power and who
courted the company OF the fur trader,
the trapper, and the frontiersman
With no reluctance he had left Eng
land upon slow sailing vessel, with a
high stern and tendency to roll near
bottom upward when the waves began
20 swell. The landing upon Virginian
soil had been with little pomp and cere-
mony as would have been expected of
man of his rank and position He had
quickly gathered together a party. of
sturdy fellows--ready and prepared for
the wilderness and its perils--and in
long birch bark canoes was soon slowly
padding up the muddy waters of the
Potomac in the direction of the Shenan-
doah range OF mountains
With this sad-faced Britisher was
person whose face was even more drawn
out and weary looking than his own, il
that were possible Clad in somber
gray. with thatch OF scraggly hair and
a pair OF weak and over-indulged eyes
such was Adam Poe--at one time a
fellow Of Oriel College in Oxford, but
now the friend and companion of the
rowing Englishman. The scholar was
of an argumentative cast of mind and
he had fallen out with those regents
. of his university who had the direction
of religious matters, and so had asked
10 60 to America-to the wilderness
where he could begin life anew with
out the direction of his old compatriots.
Thus they travelled slowly up the river,
enchanted with its beauty and loveliness,
and carrying for day around the great
falls of the Potomac (Cohongoruton,
as the Indians called iD, until they
reached the valley Of the Shenandoah.
Here they were charmed with the vast
sweep of the plateau. the noble streams,