Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1948-05-20
BIZ Elsie White Haines

This week we share with you a
letter written by Roger B. Farqu-
har, father of Roger Brooke Far
quhar of The Washington Post.
Like the editor, Mr.. Farquhal
grew up in the Muncaster's Mill
section and they share many mem
cries of 1t. The rest of this column
belongs to Mr.. Farquhar-it runs:
Dear Elsie White Haines:
Upon seeing your reference to
the old Muncaster's Mill in last
weeks SENTINEL, I had a print
made of a snapshot which / en-
close. 1t was taken not SO long be-
fore the mill burned. / think it
well shows the quaint picturesque
ness of the building in a scene dear
to my heart, as it evidently is to
yours.
Some of US had hoped, when the
property was offered for sale many
years ago, that someone might re-
tain the old building and make
some use of it, and save it for pos
terity, but this was not to be. The
problem, which l studied quite a
bit, was not a practical proposition
as a country home.
What a land of romance this
neighborhood was to my youthful
mind! 1t was the scene, in imagina-
ton, of many of the stirring events
of fiction and romance. as / read
these tales in my youth. Many of
the Highland scenes of SCOTS
Lady of the Lake" took shape in
my mind. In the deep wooded hill
sides, below the mill, near the Dor
der of Rock Spring line, was Ell
lens Isle. In these glens, not far
from the fox dens, l pictured,
"The stag at eve had drunk his
fill,
Where lag the moon ON Mo-
mans rill," ETC., ETC.,
And stretching his Gmtters
free and far,
Sought the aoild heGths of
Unl-UdY."
To be thrilled at SCOTS immor-
tai melody in verse was much, but
to have nearby scenes supply the
locale-that was still morel
The pretty meadow above the old
dam was Doone Glen. There John
Ridd first saw Lorna Doone and
loved her at sight, as he looked up /.
into her pretty face, as he lay
sprawled on the grass, after catch
ing creel full of trout in the
creek which rippled through the
Glen. The castle of the predatory
Highland Doones, in my youthful
imagination, was the big house up
on the Hill above the meadow, now
the home of one of the Welsh fam
lily. Carver Doone, the terror of all
the Highlands, finally met his doom
in a quick-sand bog on Rock Spring
farm!
But my youth was not all ro-
nance and imagination from the
classic fiction read-hardly, not
on a four hundred acre farm in
the Gay Nineties." There were
many hours and days of struggle
on the big farm, but there were
blessed interludes around the fam
lily hcarthstone, where good fiction,
poetry and games played their
part. But the memories are treas
ured after half a century and |
am very thankful that, "In what
ever field l stand, I still feel the
benign and SOLDERING recollections
of my early life,--I am never SO
far away, but l can still hear the
song of the evening bird, in the
groves of my nativity"
Many is the time rode one of
the work horses to the mill with
sack of corn, divided into two equal
parts, over the nag's shoulders, to
get a supply of corn meal. And
some of the "Old Stagers" round
about the County may not believe
it, but more than often l drove the
OK cart with a load of grain to the
mill, backed old Buck and Bright"
up to the little porch of the upper
door to unload, then later sidled to
the lower door (second on the left
in the photo) to load up the mid
dlings, crushed corn, meal, and so
forth, to return to Rock Spring. 1t
was a half days trip in those days,
though only few miles away.
We had a farm road, past the
hay barns, and the tenant house,
on Rock Spring where old jim
(Middleton) Ford lived. We drove
through the Muncaster farm mil
ton to the Redland-Norbeck road,
and thence to the mill. The Mum
casters, if going to Rockville, drove
along part Of this same road,
across the east half of Rock Spring
coming out on the Norbeck road at
the tenant house and they saved a