Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1931-04-10

beauty Of the formal and the charm
Of the unstudied. A 15-foot grass walk
leads down from the old garden to the
river, and as one looks from the front
porch Of the house down through the
vista formed by the trees of the lawn
that was the old garden, the prospect
Of the James is unsurpassed.
One wishes that he could take his
readers on a ramble around Williams
burg, visiting the house Of George
Wythe, teacher of Thomas Jefferson,
John Marshall, James Monroe, Henry
Clay, and Edmund Randolph; stopping
at Bassett hall, where Tom Moore
wrote "The FREELY" and inspecting
the John Page home, where the plot
of Mary Johnston's Audrey" was laid.
And one regrets that space limitations
permit only a mention of Claremont
Manor Upper Brandon, Weyanoke,
Flower de Hundred, and Ampthill, Co
lonial gems come down through the
ages to US.
On the Upper Neck.
But the Northern Neck calls US.
Here is Sabin Hall, with a situation
as beautiful and garden as delight
full as can be found in all America.
king" Carter built it for his son
Landon, one of whose wives was
Maria Byrd of Westover.
At Mount Airy, with its three houses
grouped about a central axis and con-
nected by curved, covered ways, al
ways have lived the Tayloes, inter-
married with the Platers and the
Ogles of Maryland. The race horses
of Governor Ogle and those Of Colonel
Tayloe were the most famous Of the
early American turf, and Colonel Tay-
loe's race track brought the elite Of
two colonies together.
Farther up the Northern Neck we
come to Stratford, ancestral home Of
the Lees of Virginia. From its pre-
cincts went two signers of the Dec
laration of Independence. Descend
ants of the original owner have in
cluded governors Of Virginia and Mary
land, generals in four wars, members
of constitutional conventions, and
many another whose name graces the
pages of American history.
Today it stands as a pitiful relic Of
its one-time glory, but Connecticut
chapter Of the Daughters of the Con-
federacy has recently acquired it and
is making plans for its restoration to
the aspect of days when Richard Hen
ry Lee, Francis Lightfoot Lee, Light
Horse Harry Lee, and Robert E. Lee
were born there.
On the north bank of the Kappa
hammock, at Fredericksburg, stands
Chatham, the home Of the Fftzhughs.
There George Washington courted
Martha Gusts, there Robert E. Lee
courted Mary Randolph Curtis, there
Abraham Lincoln visited the Army of
the Potomac.
And across the river is the little
home where lived Mary Washington,
Mother Of the First President. One
loves to visit the shrine.
Where Mary Washington Lived.
When George Washington reached
maturity and left the Ferry farm,
where he had spent most of his tender
years after leaving Wakefield, his sis
ter Betty invited their mother to come
to Kenmore, nearby, which Fielding
Lewis had built for his bride. Her
answer was: '.My wants are few. 1
feel perfectly competent to take cars
Of myself" So she moved, instead, to
the little cottage because George
thought it best"
History raises the curtain and gives
us a glimpse of her life there. Her
daughter frets at not hearing news of
her brother George at the front, and
is admonished that 1.-THE sister of the
commanding general should be an ex-
ample of faith and fortitude." Lafay-
cite visits her. He enters her garden
by the side gate and finds her raking
leaves and wearing a linsey-woolsey
dress and a broad-hrimmed hat over a
pleated undercap. She takes his hands
in both of hers. "Ah, Marquis" she
exclaims, you have come to see an
old woman. But can make you well
come without changing my dress"
Speaking Of this visit later, Lafay-
cite declared that he had seen 1.-THE
only Roman mother living at this day.