The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1927-11-17

squires built their homes there, but
they retained their immortal residence
and only removed to their town homes
for intervals.
Particularly after the Puritan ele-
ment had lost it's control of our poll
tics the planters gathered at the little
provincial capital during the session
of the General Assembly. There was
real display of social cultivation.
Manners and dress became, in keeping
with the times, always ceremonious,
but it was the ceremoniousness which
is so solemn and extreme that it is
really the height of naivete.
1t is difficult to realize what rich
ness was brought into life out of so
simple elements. This richness of life
is enhanced in our eyes because there
was no price of long Shaving years
which one had to pay to business to
achieve it.
One was either wealthy by Gods
grant or one was not; and if one was
not, we'll, one could have a share of
the good things without working too
hard. Of course, many of the fea-
lures of those times sound antique and
quaint enough to US.
Winston Churchill's novel tells of
curious conveyances like chariots and
coaches and tours; of musical instru-
ments called spinets; of houses built
with curving stairs and wide front We
randas-" those Marylanders never ad-
mitted to themselves the cold wealth
err" of costumes made up by black
satin breeches, peach-colored coat and
waistcoat, shoes with pinchbeck
buckles-and with the women by wide
calashes and wider hoops; of break
fasts composed of sweet ham and ven
ison, hot breads and sausages; of Ne
groes who sang carols on the lawn to
ode quality" amidst serving of egg
nog and punch; of festivities such as
that of st. Taminas, May 1, when the
young men dressed up as Indian bucks
and danced about the Maypole on the
town green or burst in at the Coffee
House" and made those within give
them a shilling or even crown in def
erence to the occasion.
The period seems far enough off,
but so also does that third period in
which the growing Baltimore became
the center of our aristocracy-the cen
ter in the sense that their estates sur
rounded the city, and in that sense
only.
These families looked toward the
city; they saw it as the place of their
newly established businesses, but they
remained superciliously apart from its
urban courseness. They lived in a
semicircle of hills around the newly
incorporated city-the merchants
whose families had first come to Btu
more during the Revolution to estab-
fish businesses that would be safe
from military disturbances.
There was the Patterson house, well
known through the marriage of Eliza
beth Patterson to Jerome Bonaparte;
there was Green Mount, the home of
Robert Oliver, another wealthy mer-
chant, right next to it; still further
westward was the mansion built by
Col. John Eager, called Belvedere;
Beechwood, the estate of Robert Gil
NOR, was on the west of the city and
commanded view of the Patapsco; a
mile beyond the eastern boundary was
Homewood, given by Charles Carroll
to his son, and at the entrance of
Green Spring Valley another fine
mansion was the residence of his fav-
orite daughter, Mrs. Cation, whose
daughter welded into the English
peerage.
There were also innumerable other
finely built country houses with large
estates, so that for all the persistence
of the country life in the rest of Mary
land it might be said that our main
aristocracy was in the hills around
Baltimore.
Real manors there were no more;
but all through the greater part Of the
nineteenth century the gentle tradi-
ton of that original country life per-
sisted with not many notifications as
the typical strain of Maryland culture.
The coat became larger and square
cut; the hooped petticoats gave way
to more modern gowns, girdled under
the arm-pits; pomatums and powdered
and pulled hair finally took their place
among the antiques.
But the manner of life was still leis-
urely and ceremonious-them manner of
the numbering times, when, methinks,
there was more of goodwill and less of
haste in the world"
conversation then was part of
education. When social habits were
SO closely interviewer in the life of the
people, to talk we'll was of itself dis
tinction. Not week passed without
formal dinner party at some of these
spacious country seats, and guests
would frequently ride twenty miles
to attend them"