Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1916-04-14
MAIDSTONE.
BY HON. MOODY RICH.
HON. VOLNEY FRENCH

the tasks of the school-room than
joining in the usual sports of the
scholars, with the exception of a ia
vorite amusement-that of skating
of which he was always fond
whenever tempted by the smooth
crystal surface of the Connecticut.
From Maidstone he pursued his
academic studies at Concord, VT,
and Lancaster and Meriden, N. H.,
and thence he entered the Unive rsity
of Vermont. His health and means
failing, he left Burlington and
entered the law. office of Messrs,
Gay & Buchan, at Rochester, N. 7.
Here he stopped three years and
finished his profession. During all
this time he was entirely dependent
upon his own eXertions for the
means of subsistence. Frequently,
it is said, his eXchequer was so low
that he was obliged to live in gar
ret on crackers and cheese.
In 1910 he joined the army of en-
igrants that were moving on to set
tie the West. He has ever been re-
garded as an upright lawyer and a
successful practitioner. Among
other offices which he has held he
has been twice elected Judge of his
own county. By strict integrity and
close application to business, he ac-
CURED in a few years a competency;
but having more taste for literary
pursuits than the legal profession,
some years since he closed his books
and his office door. In the fall of
1854 he left for the old world and
spent twoyears in travelling through
some of the most interesting portions
of Europe, Asia and Africa.
From one of his published letters,
written at Thebes, in Upper Egypt,
the following extract is made to
show the extent Of his travels and
researches:
There is one thing" he says,
that have aimed at-variety OF
matter, for there is 50 much materi-
al had only to choose my subject.
| described to the reader a winter
passage over the ocean, the com
mercial city of Southampton, and
then Paris with all it's spendors, its
gayeties, its dissipation, its churches
and works of art. | then took him
through the valley of the Rhone.
calling at Nice and Genoa, to the
eternal city, me~the home of the
C@sars-and pointed out to him her
palaces, her churches, and all the
places within her of great historic
interest. Leaving the sepulchers Of
the great dead here and the cata-
combs of the poor prosecuted Chris
tians, | took him to Naples and
showed him the buried cities of
Pompeii and Herculaneum; ascend
ed Vesuvius, descended to Avernus
and passed over the shadowy StyX.
With the sun we went northWard,
not forgetting to call at beautiful
Florence and take a ride in the
beautiful gondoIas of Venice, along
the canals bordered by her marble
palaces. Striking over tie German
plains by battle-felds and castles
famous in legend and song we ar
rived at the Baltic, took a hasty
peep at Stockholm, and the lovely
Malaar lake, and thence passed over
to Norway--the New England of
Europe--and saw her cool and linn
pid streams, her evergreen hills
lakes and mountains. But night
here had become day, and we has
tened towards Switzerland. Here,
if the reader caught half the inspir-
alton which | felt, he must have
been pleased with the cataract, the
glacier, the avalanche and the crev
ices, down into which the channels,
bred in the mountain-tops, looked
with dread. Passing into Italy once
more, we glided over two of the
most beautiful sheets of water the
eye can rest on--lakes Maggiore and
Como; recrossed the Alps into the
Tyrol, heard the chime bells of SAILS
burg, that once each day recalled
the memory of Mozart, and halted
for week in Munich. Thence we
went through the whole valley of
the Danube, passed oyer the Black
Sea and found ourselves in the land
of the Orient. From thence to
ancient Alexandria, by Athens and
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