Evening star., 1918-12-15


mont and Margaret Mercer. who
made it famous, overlapped or inter-
locked. Perhaps it would be better.
to say that he reached that part of
his narrative where the story of Lud-
well Lee ends and that of Margaret
Mercer begins
Throughout the Goose Creek county
the name of Miss Mercer seems to be
deeper craven on the memory of the
people than the name of Ludwell Lee.
The reason for this which one might
assign off-hand is that Ludwell Lee
lived farther from our times than
Miss Mercer, but that difference Is not
great. Ludwell Lee. who was the
second son of Richard Henry Lee
and Ann Aylett. died at Belmont, on
March %. 1896; MISS M Mereer Tr Gasd aai
reason for the difference in the depth
of impression left by these worthy
persons may probably be traced TO the
difference in the persons themselves.
Mr.. Lee was scholarly man. after
the antique college program fashion.
At a time not long removed from the
revolutionary period. in which ne
played very proper part. ne retireo
from public life. His interest IN ma
tional questions was always aier; e1i.
but in the main it was academic. HIS
activities were eXerted in the care
of his estate the rearing and educa-
tion of his children and such partlci-
patton in the religious affairs of his
parish as became layman. lie was
a conservative man. After has pas
sionate espousal of the cause of the
colonies against the mother country
he drew about him the staid and
somber cloak of orthodoxy as con
cerned the church and the state. MS
conception of things was that the
world was a very we'll ordered sphere
and though there might properly be
adjustments and readjustments here
and there, any wide deviation from
the established order of things was
dangerous.
\ i;
He had little interest and less SYM
pathy for new wrinkles" and new
tangled" notions in religion and poll
tics, in social economy and all that.
He considered such things mischiev-
Gus in that they disturbed the pub
lie peace and tended to addle minds
which, for their own ease and COM
fort. should remain calm. Quiescent
and even dormant. His attitude was
that the Scriptures were written and
the laws made. 1t was the province
of the clergyman to construe the for
mer and of the judge to expound the
latter. The vox popult, plain people
etc, ought not to meddle with these
matters.
Ludwell Lee grew to be a courtly
and benevolent man; he was seventy
six years old when he died. He was ar
aristocrat of the "old school to his
finger-tips, and his manner was pa
triarchal and benevolent toward the
men of his acquaintance who We're
less fortunate than he In birth ano
circumstances, but he believed thai
there were lines between the classes
that could not be easily crossed Mint
you, the Rambler did not know Lud
well Lee in the Aesh. but he ha.
walked around the walls of Belmont
listened to the echoes in the dreary
tenantless rooms and balls and stoot
beneath the venerable oaks and ce
feels that he can safely read so mucl
of the character OF Ludwen Lee jus
as clearly as though the old man
ghost had risen from the mat OF peri
winkle that weaves green shrou'
about his grave and had come to NEE
the Rambler on the pallid- columne'
porch of Belmont.
Miss Mercer was a revolutionary
Revolutionary" is used in a com
parativc sense. Her views would no
thinking, well read women of today
but among her cotemporaries sh
was an advanced thinker. Many O
the people who knew her or. livin
in the same times with her, knew Q
her. called her a crank" il that wor
was current a century ago. Thoug
she maintained communion with tn
church in which she was born and
which she died, she read the Scrip
lures and construed many passage
according to her own light. She ha
ideas on such things that did not a
ways comport with those Of regularl
ordained ministers. Such a course wa
dangerous for any person to pursu
but for mere woman it was, in til
conception of many persons, III
seemly
Added to all this, she taught scho,
and had under her charge varyin
numbers of young women. Perhar
she might inject the moral poison {
heterodoxy into their young. swe,
souls! Because of her religio,
opinions, Miss Mercer was mucl
discussed woman in Loudoun count
and also in those neighborhooC
where she taught school before r,
moving to Loudoun. And in discus:
ing her faults, or perhaps they ma
have been her virtues. the neighbo
hood gossips did not always wag tel
der and gentle tongues. But the rea,
err. in passing through these line
should remember this: Miss MercI
was woman of strict piety, stror
religious feeling and profound r.
fcrsn In 4