Chancellor Johnson. The lovely daughter of the hostess, and Miss Helen Scott, a noted beauty, were also of the group. The scientific visitors were not only impressed with the grace and loveliness of the fair Baltimoreans, but with their taste in dress. Flowers of the choicest variety adorned the drawing-rooms, veranda, &c., and the supper was presided over by an artist who had been confectioner to the Emperor of Austria, at Schoenbrunn. His achievements in iced fruits and other dessert preparations elicited the remark from a gentleman at a military dinner-party, given by Mrs. Phelps, that he had seen nothing like it since leaving Vienna.

On the occasion of a visit from Mayor Lincoln, of Boston, with the Common Council and Board of Education, to Baltimore, Mrs. Phelps gave them an elegant entertainment, at which her daughter's harp-playing was a most admired adjunct to the speeches by the 'mayor and other gentlemen. In the summer of 1866, a delegation from Congress was invited by General Phelps, and a morning "reception" was given by his mother. Mrs. Phelps has for ten years contributed to the enjoyments of Baltimore society. Her literary and educational celebrity is as extensive as the country. She is a sister of Mrs. Willard, whose social influence in Troy was as much acknowledged as her fame as a teacher and author.

XXI.

THE influence of Mrs. Frémont has been very peculiar. Without entering personally into the arena of politics, or using any machinery of partisanship, she has sent forth an animating spirit, acting on eminent minds. Living in the whirl of social excitement, she has found time to maintain relations with leading statesmen in every part of the country. Her influence seems to have been exercised, not in the furtherance of schemes, but simply by the force of a powerful nature and a singular clearness of mental vision. In France she might have ruled openly in the councils of the nation; in America she merely gave suggestions and advice to those who controlled the people's destiny. Her father was the distinguished Colonel Thomas H. Benton, of Missouri, who sat thirty-one years in the United States Senate. She was born in Virginia, on the family estate of her maternal grandfather, Colonel James McDowell, to whose father, a lieutenant-colonel in the British service, the crown grant for military services was originally made, and who was killed there by Indians in 1742. The domain was in Rockbridge County, and extended "from the valley to the tops of all the hills in view;" the point of view being a lakelet formed by the meeting of two streams

that crossed the valley. There was another grant of ten thousand acres of pasture land in Greenbriar County, adjoining; with yet another, called "the military," of some thousands of acres in Kentucky; and another on the Ohio side of the river, on which a part of Cincinnati was built. These grants of "wild lands" were made by the English government, instead of payments in money, to their young officers. The inheritor of this magnificent estate was distinguished not only by noble aspect and dignity of manner, but by uprightness, justice, and liberality, with a temperance rare in those days. He divided his patrimony with his mother and sisters, who, like him, bestowed on the lands the most careful cultivation, such as only those born on the soil they expect to transmit to their children are willing to give. It was a section where the chief crops were tobacco and wheat, and where the Scotch settlers had introduced a thorough system of farming. The best imported stock and horses always belonged to the property; and thrift, order, and abundance reigned. Colonel McDowell married into the Preston family, and held a commanding position during life. He was a private court of appeal on questions of property and honor among the neighbors. It has been recorded that but ten cases on which he had pronounced an opinion had afterwards been taken into court.

In this region stands the "Washington College," endowed by Washington, of which General Lee is now president. On the same "College Hill" is the Military Institute, of which Stonewall Jackson was for eight years

the head. There stood also the " Ann Smith Academy," where the daughters of prominent families were sent, attended, in their own carriages and on horseback; their brothers at the adjoining school having their special servants, dogs, guns, and horses. Besides the ordinary branches, the girls were taught fine embroidery and the care of their complexions. No high-born Virginia maiden would "spread her hand" by turning a door-knob, or touching the tongs, or handling a heavy object. Long gloves and deep sun-bonnets were constantly worn, and they ate little meat or butter. It is now more rationally believed that sunshine and a nourishing diet are essential to health. Every girl was taught her duties as head of a house. The homely, hearty English middle-class country-life formed the model, to which greater breadth was given by the larger extent of the estates and number of laborers to be managed. The Scotch elements of diligence and conscientiousness, modified by a more liberal scale of living, created a form of rural life almost peculiar to the true Virginia home. It was the pleasure and pride of other proprietors besides Colonel McDowell that they lived on land which had never been bought or sold, and that in sixty years no negro had been transferred to another owner. Each plantation was a little kingdom, producing within its own limits every thing needed except groceries and fine cloths, which were brought from Richmond in the wagons that carried the harvest of flour and tobacco.

The central portion of Virginia, cradled among her

glorious mountains, where lie the Sulphur Springs, the Hawk's Nest, the Natural Bridge, and other wonders of scenery-not far south enough for the operation of planting interests, was the region where the old ancestral pride and contempt of mere moneyed aristocracy subsisted in sternest purity. Its farming, rather than trading or planting interest was first broken in upon after the invention of the cotton-gin, which revolutionized Southern interests. Among the leading families, such as the Randolphs, Wythes, McDowells, and others, a logical head and clear conscience led them to one result on the question they had to meet hourly in their livesthat of slavery. Most of them did not believe in its continuance; some went further, and emancipated their slaves by will; while others did so during their lives, giving them also a start in life, while they could lend them a helping hand. Of this latter class was the mother of Mrs. Frémont.

In those days there was a classified, sifted, and solidly established order of society. Everybody and everybody's family was known; and "pedigree" was a prized qualification. It has been lately the fashion to laugh at the phrase, "a Virginia gentleman," for the title has been usurped. Then simplicity of character, good faith, honesty of purpose, loyalty to a conviction, a liberal hospitality, and a life spent in the honorable discharge of duties, were indispensable traits. Thackeray has given us George and Henry Esmond as types of the best class in Virginia society. Could he have painted a