As for my own horse, he rather profited by his comrade's company. The contrast gave him quite a spirited and handsome appearance. He became, strange to say, wonderfully attached to his ugly companion. Whether this was from an inherent respect for age, or a sympathy for the other's distresses, I could not determine; but I had often hard work, when wishing to take a different road for a time, to induce him to leave the old brute. He was evidently rendered uneasy by a moment's separation.

thing rather peculiar. I have repeatedly wondered since, what his feelings must have been when his stable first began to move, how the swiftness of the motion, the thunder of the train and the jar of the floor, on which he stood, affected his nerves and those of his poor old comrade. Surely an animal that would scare at a log or a rock at the road-side, must in such circumstances have had very singular sensations. I really was not a little anxious, when we neared Frenchtown, to see them safe out of their novel quarters, not know.

might have driven them. Perhaps, however, the ubiquity of the sources of fear held them in equilibrium, and thus kept them quiet. At any rate, the distance was made without harm. Whatever may have been their state at first, time and distance must have pacified them. When the door of their car was opened, they walked out, to all appearance, with nearly as much composure and self-possession, as when led to water from their stable at home.

So much then for the footing on which we stood in un-ing to what desperate extremities fright and motion dertaking the journey. Our saddle-bags, pads, &c., which, from the fact that travelling on horseback is hardly ever undertaken in Jersey, are seldom or never seen there, excited a good degree of wonderment, sometimes having the effect, agreeable to some persons but the reverse to others, of filling the doors and windows of the houses with faces, as we rode by. Perhaps as good a method as a traveller can adopt, who is anxious to judge of the populousness of the country through which he passes, or who is fond of seeing faces, or of looking for beauty or deformity of feature or carriage, is to give a bizarre or outré appearance to some part of his equipage. On this principle, a man without a nose, with a wooden leg, or with any untoward unravelment of body, is apt to see more of the world than his neighbors, who, without any peculiarity of personal arrangement, attract no attention,-are taken for granted, without inspection. However, be this as it may, the style of our equipment, which, at the south, passed unnoticed, had a marked effect upon the Jersey people, often causing an ugly enlargement of the eye, and occasionally eliciting a laugh at our expense. The northern people, as is well known, are proverbial for their eagerness to get to the bottom of every thing,-to know the meaning of any thing singular or out of the way with which they meet. How far this feature of character belongs to the latitude of Jersey, as well as The day after we reached Baltimore, found us on our what general impression our outfit made, was in part way to Washington. The fact that much of the travel shown by a young lad, who, among a group of his play-between these two cities has been withdrawn from its mates, had stopped to examine my fixtures, as they remained upon my horse after I had dismounted in a town on our route. "Sir," said he, as I approached, "'is that ere the mail?'"

Arrived at Frenchtown, we took the steamboat again and reached Baltimore by the usual route. In passing, I might mention a little incident that occurred in this city at a livery-stable, where we quartered our horses for a night. My companion in talking a few moments with the owner of the stables, chanced to mention that we were on an equestrian tour. The man, having doubtless never formed any acquaintance with the word equestrian, except as used in juxtaposition with the technicalities of the ring, turned aside to a friend of ours, who was in company with us, and asked, if we were circus riders. This, when considered in the abstract, was by no means a very flattering query, but still, when our friend afterwards told us of the question, we managed to sustain our pride at about its usual point of elevation, by imputations of ignorance to the livery man.

old channel by the railroad that connects them, as well as the circumstance that the road passes through a section of country whose soil has been worn out, and whose population has, in consequence, been rendered sparse by a wretched system of cultivation, tend to make the ride a very dreary and uninteresting one. It was very evident, that the desolation and barrenness of the country was not its natural condition, but had succeeded a state of fertility and profitable cultivation. Hedges, which long unvisited by the pruning knife, had grown rough and irregular, told of the degeneration of the waste and sterile tracts which they partially enclosed. In one place I remember seeing, at the side of the road, an old iron gate fronting a barren plain, and once probably the entrance to a rich and productive

As what is to be laid before the reader is ex professo an account of the "Jerseyman in the Old Dominion," | any incidents of travel occurring in states passed through in reaching Virginia, may perhaps be out of place; and indeed all that early part of our journey was very barren of interest or adventure. We may, however, mention the route taken. We rode first to Philadelphia; here as our time was limited and we were anxious to see as much as possible of Virginia, we put our horses on board a steamboat and went down the Delaware to New Castle. From this place we passed on the railroad across the Peninsula, through a farm. It was really distressing to look at the ruin of part of Delaware and Maryland to Frenchtown. Our land bearing such strong marks of former value, and horses, strange to say, were carried with the train in a to feel at the same time that all its desolation was owlarge car partly filled with the baggage crates. This to ing to an improvident, reckless system of cultivation. me was a new leaf turned over in the history of steam. The dreariness of this ride was a good preparative for I could give up my horse, without hesitation to be led the interest and beauty of Washington, and we were on board the steamboat; that is comparatively an old still farther prepared for the architectural magnificence fashioned way of doing business. But the idea of shut of the place by a gentleman with whom we met on the ting him up in a railroad car and whisking him off at road, who told us, with a very savant air, that the Cathe rate of twenty miles the hour struck me as some-pitol was the finest building in the world. Of course,

as Congress was not in session, we saw but few of the ] by the toils of war and crowned with the laurels of vichuman "lions" of the place, and hence were obliged to tory--when wearied with debate, or oppressed with limit our curiosity to the inspection of the buildings and other things worthy of notice. I will be shrewd enough, however, not to do violence to the reader's love of novelty, by any information drawn from this quarter. Suffice it to say, that no one can look from the dome of the rotundo, without being led to agree heartily with the Portuguese minister, that Washington is "a city of magnificent distances."

the duties of office, or but just released from place and power, laden with the blessings of a grateful people, this was his path to honorable repose. However there was but little necessity for dulling the edge of impatience by dwelling on such associations as these; a short ride brought us within sight of the old family residence.

I will not undertake a regular and minute description Our next stage was Alexandria, a place bearing of the place, as this perhaps would be trite and burstrong marks of decay and stagnation. Its want of densome, but will merely note such matters as interestprosperity is, I believe, ascribed to its neighborhood to ed us most. After tying our horses in front of a low Washington. The latter, I was told, has almost en range of cabins occupied by the gardener and other of tirely swallowed up its trade, and, as a consequence, the negroes, we entered, under the guidance of the wife greatly affected its population, which was represented of the former, a lawn fronting the dwelling. This is an to me as amounting at present to about eight thous-old fashioned frame building, which now would be and. Its inhabitants however say, that the city is thought very plain and simple in its architecture, but now, to some extent, improving. One effect of its de- which in olden time was considered a house for anie pressed circumstances is worth noting; to some of its laird, I ween. South of the lawn and house were a citizens it is doubtless a matter of consolation,-a number of small buildings, whose several destinations green spot in the general sterility of business and enwere detailed by our negro guide. The fish-house, terprise. I refer to the redundancy of ladies in its salt-house, bath-house, carriage-house, &c., I remempopulation. The fair sex, I am told, have greatly the ber among the list she enumerated;—a list, which suffiinajority, and, as of course we may infer, they have ciently evidenced that the father of his country stood vastly the upper hand in the city. This, by the by, prepared to make such provision for those of his daughhowever, need not necessarily result from superior num-ter's children who might choose to visit him, as would ber, for it is notorious that the ladies often get posses-render such a visit any thing but an act of self-denied sion of the mace without such superiority. Be this as it may; the fact in regard to Alexandria is certain, and the mode of its explanation easy. On account of the narrow limits of business in the city, the young men, as they become old enough to take care of themselves, are obliged to seek their fortunes where more room is afforded for profitable employment than at home. Hence the male members of families, are, in great numbers, subtracted from the population; while the females, poor things, not being endowed by custom with equal right to locomotion and enterprise, are obliged to remain behind. This surplus of ladies is an agrecable, though evident feature of decline. It makes a city, like the foliage of an autumn tree, bright and beautiful in its decay.

devotion to their grandfather. All the out-door ar rangements, however, are exceedingly plain, and, in some instances, even exhibit traces of the pinched frugality of the olden time. The bath-house is really a bijou of simplicity. Diogenes could scarcely have found fault with it; a mere beehive shed boarded in, a little hencoop of a place, which stands in striking contrast with the airy lavacra of a younger date. And yet this humble box, (if indeed it be of no more recent construction than I am led to suppose,) often sheltered one, who has no fellow now. Doubtless he often left it the legacy of the dust and smoke and other circumstances of honorable war.

Before entering the dwelling, we went with the negro woman, who had undertaken to act as our guide, to A few minutes ride south from Alexandria brought visit the tomb. The vault, where the remains of the us into Virginia, within the limits of obligation by con- Washington family now lie, is within a small square tract to the reader. After some few miles on the Fre-enclosure, surrounded by a high brick wall. The endericksburg road, we turned off to the left into a by- trance to this enclosure is by an iron gate fronting and way to visit Mount Vernon. Some fraction of an hour, parallel to the door of the vault. On the ground, in the perhaps more than this, was passed in reaching an old open air, on one side of the short path connecting this gateway opening upon the road, which first gave us door with the outer gate, lies the sarcophagus of Washnotice of our vicinity to Washington's seat. Two di-ington, and corresponding to it in situation on the other lapidated cabins stood at its sides, which originally side, that of Mrs. Washington. In order to afford them were probably intended as porters' lodges, but were some protection from the weather, they are both now now sadly out of repair, and appeared to be tenanted covered round with rough board work. Hence all that by the ordinary negroes of the plantation. We opened we saw of the sarcophagi, as we looked through the the gate, and entered upon a narrow road winding bars of the gate, was a small part of the white marble through a wild, untrimmed, unbroken wood. It is not appearing through the openings between the boards. a difficult task for any one of ordinary sensibility to This is of course only a temporary arrangement. fill with interesting thought and feeling, the minutes Small brick arches, meeting the vault on each side of occupied in threading that winding avenue in the ro- the door and open in front, are to be thrown over each mantic woods of Mount Vernon. By this path, doubt-coffin, so that the action of the weather may be guarded less, Washington, after bidding adieu to the quiet and against, and yet they may be exposed to view in endearments and pleasures of home, passed out, when he went to fight his country's battles, to take part in her councils and to execute her laws. And, when worn out

front.

It will doubtless be remembered that the sarcophagus, which contains the remains of Washington, was

ter.

presented by Mr. Strothers, a Philadelphia marble cut- I those, who have the right to resent the impertinence, will, it is known, be pained by it without being present, or feeling disposed to confront the rudeness of the intruder, is unworthy of the other noble traits of the American character.

Akin to this is the disposition, that has been evidenced in another part of the union, in the conduct of the people toward a distinguished foreigner, who, an exile from his country, has taken refuge in ours. His gene

friend of every one, that can appreciate worth and nobility of character. Wealth and taste enabled him to erect in the neighborhood of a pleasant village a fine country seat, and to render the grounds around inviting and ornamental. These he threw open to the visits of all who might care to see them. In return for the favor, the vandal spirit of his adopted countrymen has been abundantly manifested in defacing and injuring whatever could be reached with the knife, or the pen

The lid is a slab of fine marble, ornamented with a most exquisitely sculptured device in relief on its surface, executed by an artist in Mr. Strothers' employ. The reader will perhaps recollect too a legend, doubt. less the offspring of some creative imagination, which went the rounds of the public prints, detailing certain strange circumstances connected with the removal of the body. It was said that Mr. Strothers, when the old covering was taken from the coffin containing the re-rosity and amenity of disposition have made him the mains, was permitted to unscrew the lid of this inmost receptacle and to look upon the dead. The body, we were told, was in perfect preservation, the face, untouched by corruption or decay, was lighted up with a benignant smile, as if, unagitated by any pang or uneasiness of death, the soul had but a moment since plumed it for its distant flight and the body but just settled to its long repose. This was no doubt a delicious morsel for the lovers of romance and sentiment, and, indeed, would be interesting to any one, if it possessed the in-cil. During his temporary absences, the fine statues terest of truth. But unfortunately here it is most essentially deficient. The coffin was opened in presence of a number of the members of the Washington family, and probably by their direction. An old family servant, who was allowed to be with them, assured me that the body was completely decayed. The hair and dust had fallen from the head, exposing the naked skull. It was a singular story; perhaps the figment of a mind revolt-ribaldry, tap-room jests, and (0 mores) mockery at faling at the idea, that a frame, which courage had led to so many battle-fields and crowned after so many victories, which wisdom had seated in supremacy over the councils of a nation of freemen, and wreathed with the laurels of civic honor, should be forced to bow to the vulgar doom and dismembering tyranny of death. But the worm acknowledges no forbidden prey;-decay knows no distinctions, the patriot and the traitor are alike her children.

and other ornaments of his walks and lawns, were so battered and spoiled, that he was obliged to take them within doors out of the reach of his worthy guests. At a late visit to his place, I saw a door of an observatory, one of the few things left at a convenient distance from the house, that afforded a proper color and surface for the pencil, completely bespattered with names, low

len greatness. So much for the honor, decency and most glorious liberty of the noblest nation that the sun in his circuit smiles upon!

But, perhaps, the reader would be quite as well sa tisfied, were we to drop the censor and attend to our more legitimate duty. A few rods from the place where the family remains are now deposited, is the old vault. Its site was selected by General Washington himself; at his death he was buried within it, and But before leaving the tomb of Washington, which, it remained his grave until his body was removed by with all its associations, ought to render every Ameri- Mr. Strothers to its present resting place. This old can, who visits it, at least temporarily, a nobleman in tomb is situated in a grove of fine trecs, a short disthought and feeling, we might notice a mark, that has tance from the house. It is an exceedingly simple, been left at this sacred spot, of one of those mean and even a rude piece of architecture, consisting merely of contemptible traits with which the American character a small excavation in the earth, built around with is we fear justly stigmatized,-the distorted and deform-stone and covered with a mound, in which several ed, though perhaps legitimate offspring, of our valued small trees are rooted. The entrance is by a door in liberty. The outer gate was locked, as of course is the side. The whole structure is a monument of reproper and necessary, where, in order to gratify the publican simplicity, and is calculated to affect the wishes of visitors, the coffin is so exposed. Behind the visiter with a strong desire that it might remain proof enclosure, however, rails had been fixed, reaching from against the ravages of time, that future generations, a bank to a lower part of the wall. Some one, betray-advanced still farther in refinement and luxury than ing his disregard of the feelings of the living and his we, might sce how distinct splendor is from worth,want of reverence for the dead, had by these assistan-how narrow and rude a bed greatness could spread ces attempted an escalade, in order to attain by this piece of reckless coarseness a nearer approach to the hallowed tomb, and an opportunity of more familiar scrutiny of the sacred resting-place of the dead. I hope I am guilty of no want of patriotic feeling, when I say, that the spirit, of which this act is a result, is one eminently, if not peculiarly American; one too, that in a country, whence the boast has gone abroad that all who live under its laws are noblemen, ought to be scorned by private feeling and frowned down by public opinion. This disposition inquisitively to pry into what is not intended for the eye of strangers; wantonly to set at nought all rules of decency in going and gazing, where

for its long repose. But alas! its very simplicity will make it but a short-lived monument. The hand of time, unrepelled by the care and attention of the liv ing, is even now upon it, sapping the supports of the mound, mouldering the wall and filling the empty cell. A future day will not know the place made sacred by the choice and burial of Washington.

On returning from the tombs, we entered the house under the guidance of an old family servant. We were told, that all the furniture belonging to General Washington had been long since removed; there * Joseph Buonaparte, ex-king of Spain, resident at Bordentown, New-Jersey.

were however a few moveable relics of his original establishment remaining. The first thing to which our attention was directed on entering the hall, was a large and singularly formed iron key, hanging against the wall, enclosed in a small glass case. When La Fayette, at the head of the National Guards of France, took and destroyed the Bastile, he retained its key in his possession and afterwards, when in America, gave it to Washington. Here it was hanging in the case. The sight of it less than a century ago would have made a Frenchman shudder, would have scared him with visions of darkness and chains and torture and death. At Mount Vernon, it serves as a striking memorial of the value of those republican institutions, which its owner gave us; an American should look upon it with feelings only of exultation and gratitude. We were shown into all the rooms on the lower floor of the house. In one, which we entered, was a beautifully carved mantle of fine variegated marble, a present from La Fayette. Several of the rooms were hung with pictures, among which I noticed a portrait of Washington on china, which is said to have been cut, or broken out of the side of a pitcher. It was mounted in a handsome frame, and I believe is considered an excellent likeness. The study, which we last visited, contains the library, which was considerably increased by Judge Bushrod Washington, the General's nephew and his successor at Mount Vernon. Against the wall is a portrait of an elder brother, by whom the house was first occupied, and with whom Washington lived before his marriage.

His successor seemed to take peculiar pleasure in exhibiting this, to him, hieroglyphic testimonial of his teacher's ability. Perhaps he flattered himself with the idea, that what is a recommendation of a master, must, of necessity, answer equally well for his apprentice,-that his color had occasioned no impediment to his full and satisfactory acquisition of as perfect a system of German horticulture, as the parchment instrument in question proved his teacher to possess. This at least I must do him the credit to say, that he seemed throughout, in the performance of his office, to have "walked in the steps of his illustrious predecessor." Indeed, a different course was scarcely practicable, without serious injury to the beds, since the above mentioned box-edgings, winding, at the sides of the paths, through the garden, necessarily restricted him to such procedure. I must confess, however, that one part of the old gentleman's polity was rather grating to the feelings. He told us that he made it a practice to sell flowers and shrubs to such visitors who might choose to buy of him. This really struck me as rather unseemly, to drive a petty trade in the produce of the beds, in some cases, of the very plants that General Washington had cultivated, and that too for the very reason of their having been his beds and plants. Relics from such a source are surely invested with too much dignity and value to be bartered for a few shillings. The gardener told us that such were his orders, and that the money was devoted to the support of the place. This, however, I cannot but surmise to be a yarn of the old man's special fabrication, to incite us to supply him with tobacco and pipe money. It surely can't be done with consent and by authority; for every one must see the revulsion it must cause in a visitor's feelings. What would a foreigner think of us, if, on going to Mount Vernon, he were offered for some paltry sum a flower to dry in his note book to the memory of Washington, and were told that the heirs and assigns of this great man eked out their living by the sale of such relics. This is the only fault I have to find with the old gardener's menage, and really I would suggest it as a matter worthy of restraint and limitation.

On leaving the house, which is so far divested of its original furniture, and so far altered in its internal arrangement by subsequent occupants, as to excite little interest, except as regards the general association, we entered the garden under the guidance of the ebon functionary, who presided over that department. It is surprising that this part of the establishment, which one would suppose would retain fewer traces of its original plan than the others, should have preserved so far its first arrangement. This is in a great measure owing to some edgings of box, that border and define the beds, and which the negro man told us were At the side of the garden and forming part of its enplanted in Washington's time, by a Dutch gardener in closure, are the ruins of the green-house, which was his employ. By the by, this same Dutch gardener must burnt down a year or more ago. Many of the plants have been quite a character. The old man, who was were saved from the fire, and no other green-house havwith us and who had been very careful to tell us that ing been provided him, the old negro had been nursing he had learnt his trade of his foreign predecessor, them through the winter in another old building, which showed us a recommendation, which this personage he had fitted up temporarily for the purpose. They had brought with him from Germany, and which had were now standing out in the sun in front of their winbeen the means of securing him a place at Mount ter quarters. Some of them looked exceedingly old Vernon. It really was a curious old document, drawn and weather-beaten, as if they had been alive in the on parchment, now soiled and greasy with age and war time and had borne the common trouble and hardrepeated inspection, written in German, with German ship of the revolution. The gardener pointed out to text,-bedizzened and besprinkled, in the usual Dutch me an old orange tree and another plant, I think an taste, with all kinds of flowers and flourishes, indica- aloe, which had been in the green-house in General tive, I reckon, of the efflorescence and luxuriousness Washington's time. The latter bore the marks of exalways attending the efforts of this said knight of the treme age. Though it had been much injured by the spade and rake. It carried with it prima facie evidence fire, it was sprouting strongly again, and as it belongs of respectability, was attended with the affidavits of to a very long-lived family of plants, it may doubtless sundry great names,-perhaps of the lords and ladies be looked on as a representative of revolutionary times of some one of the petty German principalities, and some twenty or thirty years to come. I was also inhad doubtless as inevitable a tendency to set its owner debted to the same worthy representative of the colored at work after his immigration, as any bit of sheep-race for showing me an old decayed barkless trunk of skin of equal size, that he could bring from abroad. I a cherry tree, for which he claimed an exceedingly

VOL. V.-102

remote antiquity. He placed the youth of the tree I forget how far back. It may, for aught I know, have been a twig when the elder Washington was a boy. It had an exceedingly venerable appearance, and, though sapless and branchless, it seemed to have been spared as a kind of family memorial.

would weep over a relic, or brood with yellow melancholy over the conquests of decay. Yet I would advocate honor to the great,—I do approve of cherishing, by association, as well as by recollection, the memory of departed worth. I would rejoice in any effort, whether public or private, to hold back the ebbing tide at The old negro, in giving me the history of divers Mount Vernon, and to continue it an interesting and matters and events connected with the establishment, hallowed shrine for the pilgrimages of a grateful people. once or twice chronologized his narration by referring I might add too that the frequency of visits, makes it to the time, when the "Ginnerl took place." This, at more properly an object of governmental care, since it least, was the way in which I understood his expres-is thereby rendered an unpleasant place of private resion. I concluded that he referred to the era, which, in sidence, and I imagine that it is chiefly on this account common parlance, we would call, General Washing-that it is used as such, but about two months of the ton's time; though to be sure this was rather an indefinite specification. Yet still, I thought that the poor fellow had perhaps heard of wars and marriages taking place, and thought that, as a consequence, he might speak of Ginnerl Washington's taking place, not only with perfect propriety, but with rather rare elegance. However, unfortunately for my self-gratulation in hav-ficed to public feeling. ing thus encountered something to laugh at, I found that I had not heard an interposed article, which the negro had, though slurringly, supplied. His epoch was much more specific,-" the time the Ginnerl took de place," i. e. Mount Vernon.

year. The constant intrusion of strangers, though expected and doubtless considered an honor by the family, is nevertheless a great evil, as it regards domestic privacy and comfort. This should serve in a great measure to do away any reluctance that may exist to entrust to public care that which must necessarily be so far sacri

However, I have lately met somewhere with the sentiment that digression is a piece of immorality. Whether we are to consider it is as equivalent to deception, or the fruit of malice prepense, I will not attempt to determine; but will acknowledge the addition to my ethical code and hasten back to the path of duty. It is much easier however to get back into this path, than from Mount Vernon to regain the main Frede

that was to lead us to it, was so hard to thread, on account of its irregularity and numerous branches, that no dint of inquiry of the few we met and no depth of study of likelihoods and probabilities could prevent us from twice losing our way. The last time we met with this mishap, our error was so serious, and, from lack of opportunity to gain information, so long continued, that we became completely mazed in the paths of a rough wood, and were glad to purchase the services of a negro boy from a house we met with, to be our pilot to the road. One at all familiar with the peculiar sensations of discomfort resulting from such bewilder

The old cherry trunk aforementioned, was about the ultimum visum of our visit. We mounted our horses and turned their heads to rethread the path winding through the woods to the outer gate of the plantation.ricksburg road. The rough, winding, illegible way One of the few unpleasant feelings that came over me, as we rode away, resulted from the air of decay, I will not be so uncharitable as to say, of neglect, which was visible throughout the place. It really is a matter greatly to be deplored, that a spot so sacred-around which cluster so many associations connected with the suffering and sorrow, success and glory of our country, should ever be blighted and desolated by the hand of Time, that objects which, by reviving the memory of greatness, are calculated to encourage the patriot's heart and to palsy the traitor's arm, should ever be given over from neglect or by necessity to the ravages of decay, to moulder and be forgotten. I have often been impress-ments, or the least aware of the anxieties and irritaed with the idea, whether reasonable or no may per- tions of travel through a thinly settled region, where haps be doubted, that this subject is worthy the atten- the path is wild and green, has a hundred brothers forktion of the country. A few years ago, it will be re-ing from it and no houses by its side to give opportunity membered, the government applied for permission to remove the remains of Washington to the capital. This proposal was declined by the family. They preferred that the honored dead should lie entombed with his kindred. Now, in order to attain the same end then desired, in order to cherish the memory of Washington, would it be impracticable for government to purchase Mount Vernon? They might then restore as far as possible all its old arrangements, prop up its mouldering honors, call back its waning beauty, and thus make it a worthy memorial of the dead, whose life it nourished and delighted, and whose sepulchre it embosoms. The Russians, among their innumerable palaces of splendor and magnificence, take pride in defending against the attacks of time the little wood cottage that was the home of Peter, their best and greatest Czar.tinue your journey and encounter the desolation of the And, though Russia is no source for us to have recourse to for example or suggestion, yet here, I think, is a precedent both interesting and worthy of imitation. I would be no advocate for a sickly sentimentality, that

of learning where you are going, will sympathize with us in our feelings of complacency, when once more enjoying the carelessness and confidence of a dusty, grassless and bevoelkert road. A few miles of such enjoyment brought us to the little village of Occoquon, as pretty a place as I saw in all Eastern Virginia. It is situated on the Occoquon, just at the mouth of a beautiful gorge, which this river forms, in cutting its way through a range of mountains, which range across it at this point. The scenery can hardly be called grand, at least in comparison with what we afterwards saw in other parts of the state; but in a region so flat and sterile, so barren of magnificence and of fine prospect, you are prepared to overrate the beauty of the place by the want of interest in your previous ride. And, when you con

road heyond, the eye of your imagination goes back and stations itself on the bridge opposite the town, looks up the gorge, rests upon the stream checkered with rocks and miniature islands and whitened with