Evening star., 1926-03-30

| Wa shingtoHia may soon be eager
! to achieve the honor of becoming
Knights of the Golden Horseshoe. Not
TO have that distinction will be
, equivalent to living in Rome without
! Roma citizenship, or in Boston with
no Puritan claims, or in Virginia
without connection with the Cavaliers
| or the "F. r. vs. The automobile
does not outshine the Golden Horse
shoe-it glorifies its significance which
| commentaries the proWess OF its
wearers who first crossed the Blue
Ridge Mountains and discovered the
| beauties Of the future Shena ndoa h
! Park.
| Last evening Washingtonian ms met
around a banqueting table to toast
the park project. The contrast of
| their toa SITS with the original toasts
1 when the region was first taken pos.
session of by Gov. Spotswood and his
| gallant cavaliers was typical of the
change OF customs i'm the two cen.
turies.
| 1t was In August, 17l6. that Gov.
Spot swood of Virginia, with his escort
of so knights, set out from Williams
burg. the capital, TO explore the re-
J
possession OF 1t in the name of King
| George I of England. There was
| eavety in that cavalcade as 1t rode
out of Williamsburg, to GermanDa, on
] the Rappahannock, and crossed the
! Shena ndoah River 10 miles north OF
Port Republic, perhaps with the same
| heroic determination which two CEN
| turies later justified the immortal vow
| of the French at Verdun: Ills ne
| passeront pas!" though the oath OF
| the Cavaliers was in reverse, for II
| expressed a determinati ton to pass the
barrier: "Sic jurat transcendere
| the mountains")
To to that time no Englishman lex
cent perhaps certain irresponsible
| netidler and a weaver, wandering fool
| hardly among the Indians) had ever
crossed the skyline of those wonderful
| mountains. The French had jealously
prevented the English from gaining
knowledge of the region beyond the
| sunset which giIded that horizon, for
it was Frances plan to unite their
settlements about Louisiana with
| French Canada.
Now at last the English cavalcade
viewed the Promised Land from the
ridge of the mountains. and, as re-
| corded in the diary of one of the
knights, John Fontaine, they formally
| took possession by burying written
record of their claim in bottle. Says
| Fontaine:
I'VE had a good dinner and after II
we got all the men together and load
| ed all their arms and we drank the
! Kings health in champagne and fired
, volley, the princess health In Bur
gundy and fired a Volley. and all the
| rest of the royal family in claret and
| fired volley. We drank the COVER
| nor's health and fired a volley. We
had several sorts of liquors"
| In 1870 a silver knee buckle Of rare
! beauty and value. set In dia mOnds,
was found near Elkton, Rockingham
| County. 1t showed signs of great age
and is believed to have been lost by
one of those Knights of the Golden
| Horseshoe while they fired a volley."
| 1t, perhaps, symbolized the mxuriant
character of the knights. After the
return of the cavalcade Gov. Spots.
wood presented each member an ex'
| quisite golden horseshoe to commemo
| rate their exploit.
The settlement of the fertile Shen-
| andoah Valley dates from 1880, when
John and Isaac Vanmeter obtained
| grant of 10000 acres from Gov.
Gooch--a grant which Lord Fairfax
later contended was in conflict with
his own rights. Prolonged litigation
ensued which threatened 10 deprive
the original settlers Of their rights
| The first settler was John Lewis