of citizens from Orange and the surrounding counties, who came to bid him welcome on his triumphal tour in 1826. It belonged to the Gordon family, and, indeed, with the two houses nearly opposite, constituted Gordonsville for many years.

Bloomingdale, near Somerset, was the home of Thomas Barbour, whose house stood several hundred yards northeast of the present mansion. "Tetley," nearby, was the home of a Capt. William Smith, but was so named by Mr. Charles J. Stovin, who owned it for many years. Bloomfield is the old Newman home, now owned by Judge Newman, and greatly improved. Hazelhurst is the handsome home of Mr. Frank Nalle, near Somerset. The old Winslow house, near Poplar Run, burned down six years ago, was a genuine type of the colonial period. Walnut Hills, near Madison Mills, was the Orange home of Governor Kemper. Greenfield, now owned by Mr. Richard Booten, was one of the old Taylor homes; the present house was built for Mr. Thomas Scott; some of the oldest tombstones in the county are there. Yatton, so named by Mr. Lewis B. Williams who lived and died there, was formerly "Midland," another of the Taylor homes, as is also Meadow Farm, which is still in the Taylor family. Selma was the home of the "beloved physician," Dr. Peyton Grymes. Retreat, formerly Willis Grove, now owned by the heirs of Dr. Charles Conway, was the home of "Gentleman Billy" Willis, and a merry place in days of yore. Chestnut Hill, now owned by Mr. W. G. Crenshaw Jr., was the home of Dr. Uriel Terrell, famous in old days as a favorite hostlery of Henry

a

Clay and other statesmen; the old Taliaferro home, near Rapidan, Crown grant in 1726, now owned by Mr. John Taliaferro; Morton Hall, Lessland, former homes, of Hon. Jeremiah Morton; Vaucluse, of the ancient and aristocratic Grymes family; another Somerset, near Germanna—these are all old, and in a sense, historic homes.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Being a Personal Retrospect.

After more than five years of research and endeavor, this book is submitted to the indulgence of the public in the confidence of work conscientiously done; yet not without misgivings.

In writing history the personal note may never be sounded, and this chapter, not intended to be a part of the "history," is added, that some things not consonant with dignified narrative may be said.

Imprimis, it would be ungrateful not to acknowledge with genuine cordiality the encouragement received at the hands of gentlemen not native to the County and therefore not intimately interested in its history, yet without whose public spirit and liberality it is more than doubtful whether this book could ever have attained the dignity of type. He is an indifferent philosopher who is ashamed of being poor; he is none at all who does not recognize the limitations of that condition. So, let it be said at once and once for all, that its publication is due to the liberality of those who have contributed to the illustrations; which, in the writer's judgment, constitute a very valuable historical feature.

Some of these have been contributed by personal friends who have, perhaps, denied themselves in order to perpetuate cherished historical memories; others

by gentlemen who know the writer casually, or not at all, and who have taken on trust his promise to write a history of the County.

He can not forbear to thank both friends and strangers, nor to hope that they will think he has at least tried to keep faith.

And now comes the inevitable and irrepressible Ego, being a summary of the reasons that induced me to attempt this book. I knew many of the old people of the County—Dr. Uriel Terrell, who died aged 94; Mr. James Barbour Newman, a kinsman, who died aged 97; Mr. Johnson Barbour, my kinsman and my Mæcenas, whose mind was stored and saturated by his father and mother with the history and traditions of Orange.

Only suppose that I had collected from them, and had preserved in this book, all they could and gladly would have told me! What a book it might then have been, which now it can never be!

History ought to be a picture of the time it attempts to describe, a picture held up in substance, as it were, before the eyes of the reader; as Hamlet says it should "hold the mirror up to nature, and show the very age and body of the time his form and pressure."

I came to the age of immature observation shortly after the Reform Constitution of 1850-51 was ratified.

I remember well the old County Courts before they became field-days for fakirs and horse-traders. Though now but little past three-score, I remember people who wore queues and short breeches—not many but a few. I remember when the usual apparel of

country gentlemen consisted of blue broadcloth "swallow tail" coats with brass buttons, nankeen waistcoats and trousers; and becoming apparel it was. "Vests" and "pantaloons" are modern, and the cut of the trousers is wholly different from what it used to be. The Rev. Dr. Philip Slaughter told me that he wore the first pair of trousers without the old fashioned "flap" ever seen in Orange; and Mr. Johnson Barbour told a story of an old family servant who asked his mother, "please not to let the sempstress make any of them blackguard breeches for him."

I remember Henry A. Wise and the great Know Nothing Campaign of 1856.

On the court green at Orange, I have seen Mr. Johnson Barbour, Mr. James Barbour Newman, Mr. Woodson Campbell, Mr. Benjamin Johnson, Mr. John S. Cowherd, Mr. Robert Taylor, Dr. James L. Jones, Col. James Magruder, Mr. Barton Haxall, Mr. E. Goss, Mr. Charles Stovin, Dr. James Madison, Col. John Willis, Major John H. Lee, Messrs. James, Reuben, Thomas and John F. Newman, Col. Garrett Scott, and his brothers John and Charles, Mr. David Meade Bernard, Mr. Thomas Scott, Dr. Peyton Grymes, Mr. Lewis B. Williams, Mr. Richard Henry Willis, Col. George Willis, Mr. Philip B. Jones, Mr. Joseph Hiden, Mr. Ferdinand Jones, Hon. Jeremiah Morton, Mr. George Morton, of Pamunkey, Col. John Woolfolk, Mr. Travers Daniel, Mr. William C. Moore, Col. Elhanan Row, Mr. Lancelot Burrus, Dr. David Pannill, Mr. George Pannill, Mr. Philip S. Fry, Dr. Thomas Slaughter, Dr. Horace Taliaferro, Dr. Edmund Taliaferro, Captain Dick Chapman,