USA > Maryland > Some old historic landmarks of Virginia and Maryland : described in a hand-book for the tourist over the Washington-Virginia railway > Part 11
USA > Virginia > Some old historic landmarks of Virginia and Maryland : described in a hand-book for the tourist over the Washington-Virginia railway > Part 11
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Of course, Washington was always Nelly's ideal hero, and the grandest of all the line of noble men.
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OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND.
General Zachary Taylor was one of her favorites among the public men of her, later time, and when he was elected to the presidency, she paid him a visit, and was for some time an honored guest in the White House, where she received the marked atten- tions of many distinguished personages of that day. While she lived she did not lose the hold she had in all her younger years upon the popular regard. She was still the storied "Nelly" who had been the fondly petted child in the household of him who was "first in peace, first in war, and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
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NELLIE CUSTIS, AT EIGHTEEN.
Mrs. Lawrence Lewis had two sisters, Martha Parke who was married to Thomas Peters, a large Virginia planter, and Elizabeth Parke, who was married to the wealthy and eccentric Thomas Law, a nephew of Lord Ellenboro. As governor of a large dis- trict in Bengal, India, Law had been accustomed to the discharge of important official
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SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS
functions and to the splendors and surroundings of a prince. In England his family was oppulent and distinguished. One brother was bishop of Carlisle, another a bar- rister of the first eminence and the successful defender of Warren Hastings against the political influence of Fox, the eloquence of Sheridan and the virulence of Burke. He was prominent in the improvement of the National Capital about 1800, purchased a large tract of wilderness land embracing the site of the arsenal, and laid out streets and upon them built a number of houses some of which are still standing.
When that fair, smooth brow of the great artist's picture had been imprinted with the lines of threescore years, and those clustering curls had changed their brown to threads of snow, how she must have seemed like some saintly messenger to those who eagerly listened to her as she brought from memory's far-away shore the historic scenes which had passed before those sparkling eyes in the heyday of her youthful life. Lorenzo, her only son, inherited the Woodlawn estate, and resided for some years in the mansion. He was married to Esther Maria Coxe, of Philadelphia, in 1827, and died in 1847. His widow survived him until 1885. Of the six children of Lorenzo, the last left, was *J. R. C. Lewis, of Berryville, Clarke county, Virginia. In 1845, the entire domain of this estate, having been almost entirely neglected through many years, presented a most forlorn appearance. Only here and there a patch of ground was under cultiva- tion-not a handful of grass-seed was sown, not a ton of hay cut. The fields were overgrown with sedge, brambles, sassafras and cedars, and all traces of fencing had disappeared. Not a white man was living on an acre of it. Only a few superannuated slaves remained in some rickety cabins, and these were subsisting on products from a farm in another county. The tax assessment was thirty dollars-one cent and a half an acre, although the buildings alone had cost near one hundred thousand dollars, just forty-three years before. It was at this period that the New Jersey colony purchased the property at $12.50 per acre, and subsequently, the whole tract was divided and subdivided into small farms, and occupied by improving proprietors.
The mansion having a main building sixty by forty feet, with wide halls, spacious apartments and ample wings united by corridors was most substantially constructed of the best materials, and doubtless its builders imagined their structure would endure for centuries, and it is only because of great neglect and severe usage that its condition now only ninety-seven years after the laying of its corner stone is so dilapidated, with its leaky roofs, its loosened casements and unhinged shutters and blinds, its broken windows and the bricks and stones falling away from its massive walls.
Only the irreverent and unpatriotic pilgrim who treads these lonely halls
"Whose guests have fled, Whose lights are dead."
can note the melancholy change without a pang of grief and regret that there are no reverent hands to restore the wastes and to set once more in order the stately house as it was when its first mistress held there her sway. No other of all the historic shrines of Virginia, next to Mount Vernon, appeals so forcibly to our kind regard. The manor was a portion of the Mount Vernon estate. The mansion was erected as we have seen by the loving munificence of the first President and his wife. Its mis- tress grew up and was educated under his affectionate care and solicitude. Its master was his nephew and had won honors as a gallant soldier of the revolution, serving on the staff of General Morgan, the true hero of Quebec, Saratoga and Cowpens.
The mansion, substantially constructed of old-fashioned bricks, having a main build- ing sixty by forty feet, with halls, spacious apartments, and ample wings, united by corridors to the main portion, together with sixty acres of land, was recently pur- chased by a company, who propose in the near future to make it the lower terminus of the Electric road, in which event the "Old Mansion" will be faithfully restored to its original beauty, and thenceforth be kept as an enduring memorial of its first
*Died lately.
-
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OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND.
mistress, the beloved foster-daughter of George Washington. No more fitting place, we think, than this could be chosen by the associations of the sons and daughters of the "Revolution" for the holding of their annual reunions: and the keeping of their archives and historic mementoes and relics. That would make it a desirable and at- tractive place of pilgrimage in all the coming years, and most effectually secure its per- petual preservation.
Note-Since the forcgoing account was written the writer has to note with great pleasure that the Wood- lawn Mansion has changed ownership and that the work of its restoration has been commenced.
Here is an extract from one of Nellie's letters to a friend in Philadelphia: MOUNT VERNON, 1798. "MY DEAR-We live very happily here-have in general been blessed with health. Wc have had many agreeable visitors and are now contentedly seated round our winter fireside. I often think of, and would like to again see the many good friends I left in Philadelphia, but I never regret absence from that city's amusements and ceremonies.
I stay very much at home-have not been to the Federal Capital for two months. My grandparents, the General and his wife, brother George, Lawrence Lewis, a nephew of the General, and your humble servant comprise the family circle here at present. I never have a lonesome nor dull hour, never find a day too long. Indeed, time appears to fly; and I sometimes think the years are much shorter for some time past, than they ever were before.
I am not very industrious, but I work a little, read a little, play on the harpsichord, and find my time fully taken up with daily employments. My mother and her young family are all well. My sister Mrs. Peters has lately presented us with another little relation, a very fine girl who is thought to be much like her mother. I have not seen my sister since that event, but hear she is quite well. I send by my sister, Mrs. Law, a cotton cord and tassel which I learned to make last summer. I hope you will like it, and you will gratify me much by wearing it in remembrance of me.
Mr. G. W. Craik is at present much indisposed. Poor young man, I fear he is not long for this world. Alexandria has been very gay this winter; balls in abundance. When I am in a city, balls, are my favorite amusement, but when in the country I have no inclination for them. I am too indolent in winter to move any distance.
I shall thank you to remember me affectionately to those friends who may inquire about me. My be- loved grandma joins me in love and best wishes to you and your children.
As the New Year is almost here I will conclude with wishing you and yours many happy new years. each succeeding one happier than the last; and be assured dear Madame that I am with perfect esteem."
Yours, ELEANOR P. CUSTIS.
NELLIE CUSTIS AT MOUNT VERNON.
The American Revolution was still going on when Nellie Custis was a prattling child and it was not until after its last disheartening campaign which ended with the crown- ing victory at Yorktown that she began at the age of three years the seventeen years of her life which were passed under the guardianship of George and Martha Washing- ton at Mount Vernon. Her adoption by these honored personages into the rare felici- ties of their household meant for her orphanage an affectionate solicitude and parental care which were to continue unabated while the indulgent master and mistress lived.
Nellie, though a girl of vivacious spirits and jovial disposition was dutiful, reverent and appreciative as we have accounts, and easily won by her genial ways the kind re- gard of her guardians and of all her associates and acquaintances. Washington was lavish in expense for her education. He employed for her a private tutor, bought her a costly harpsichord still to be seen at Mount Vernon, and had her instructed in music and dancing. She was quite proficient in drawing, and painting in water colors. She loved embroidery and continued the fine employment until the closing years of her long life, and many are the mementoes of her skill in this wise still treasured and shown by her descendants.
Nellie grew up to womanhood under influences wholesome, elevating and refining. While she was not kept under any rigid restraints, the kindly parental solicitude of her guardians encompassed and shielded her from contact with hurtful associations. Grandma Martha was a model of propriety, circumspect in her ways and a fit exem- plar for imitation. Nellie was vivacious and social in her disposition. She relished
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SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS
society and was always a welcome presence in its circles. At Mount Vernon she was in constant touch with the intercourse and manners of its many distinguished Ameri- can and European visitors representing every department of the knowledge of the times, and at the republican court she had thrown in her way, extraordinary opportuni- ties of experiences for acquiring social accomplishments and easy and graceful manners. She was a child of nature and delighted in all beautiful things.
To the servants of the Mount Vernon estate with whom the writer talked forty years ago, many traditions had come down from their ancestors of the kindly treatment and good offices and influences of Miss Nellie. Gilbert Stuart painted her portrait at the age of seventeen, an engraving from which prefaces this account.
WASHINGTON AND NELLIE CUSTIS.
A distinguished contemporary who had mingled much in society's gay circle of that period has left us this pleasant account of Nellie, "She has more perfection of expres- sion of colors, of softness, of firmness of mind, than any one I have ever seen before." She loved out door exercises and sports, rode frequently on horse back with her guard- ian when he went to inspect the progress of work on his plantation, when he rode to his mill on Dogue run, to Gunston, the home of the patriot Mason, to Colchester and Alexandria. At the latter place she had many friends, the Carlyles, the Ramsays, the Daltons, the Craiks, the Arals, the Fitzgeralds and Johnsons who made frequent visits to Mount Vernon and with whom at their hospitable homes in the new town she was an oft time guest. All this gave her healthy physical development and laid the sure foundation of her serene old age.
The beautiful natural attributes which were developing in Nellie in her later girl- hood, with her educational accomplishments, made her a welcome presence in all homes . and circles.
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OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND.
That Washington loved Nellie as fondly as if she had been his own child, all the accounts we have of their intercourse fully attest. Their companionship was one of uninterrupted harmony. She won him to her by the sweetness of her disposition, her casy and graceful manners, her cheery converse, and the lavish measure of her appre- ciation of all his kindly solicitude for her.
From Your grandmother S. Lewis. Dech 25th 1841. (At three-score-and-ten.)
NEE NELLJE CUSTIS
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Mrs. Lewis after the death of her husband which occurred Nov. 20, 1830, left the Woodlawn home and went to Audley, a fine old estate of 1600 acres in Clarke county, Va. Where she lived until her death in 1852.
Of Lawrence Lewis, Foote in his "reminiscenes" says: "I remember him well and entirely concur with those who supposed him to exhibit a remarkable likeness to his uncle the General, at least he was in appearance so much like the best pictures of Washington that any one might have imagined he had actually sat for them."
Here is one of the quaint songs Miss Nellie used to sing to her accompaniment on the harpsichord still to be seen in the Music Room at Mount Vernon.
THE TRAVELER AT THE WIDOW'S GATE.
"A traveler stop't at a widow's gate;
She kept an Inn, and he wanted to bait; She kept an Inn, and he wanted to bait, But the widow she slighted her guest; But the widow she slighted her guest;
A nose shouldn't look like a snout. A bag full of gold on the table he laid
'T had a wondrous effect on the widow and maid; And they quickly grew marvelously civil-
The money immediately altered the case;
For when nature was forming an ugly race; She certainly moulded the traveler's face
They were charmed with his hump and his snout and his face,
As a sample for all the rest, as a sample for all the Though he still might have frightened the devil, rest.
The chambermaid's sides they were ready to crack When she saw his queer nose and the hump on his back,
A hump isn't handsome, no doubt,
And though, 'tis confessed, that the prejudice goes Very strongly in favor of wearing a nose
Will stop at the widow's to drink."
AN IDEAL OF "OLD BELVOIR MANSION."
OLD BELVOIR, THE HOME OF THE VIRGINIA FAIRFAXES.
"Come back ye friends whose lives are ended; Come back with all that light attended
Which seemed to darken and decay When you arose and passed away!
He paid like a prince, gave the widow a smack
And flop'd on his horse at the door like a sack, While the landlady touching his chin
Said "Sir, should you travel this country again, I heartily hope that the sweetest of men
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OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND.
They come, the shapes of joy and woe, The airy throngs of long ago-
They make the dark and dreary hours
Brighten and blossom into flowers.
The dreams and fancies known of yore
I linger long-I love to be
That have been, but shall be no morc.
Again in their fair company;
They change the eloisters of the night
But ere my lips ean bid them stay
Into a garden of delight-
They pass and vanish quite away."
Come with me reader and linger for a space while I tell you a story whose beginnings were long before the drum's loud beat and the bugles echoing call summoned in haste the sturdy colonists, from the lowlands and mountains of old Virginia, to make ready for the coming struggle of the American Revolution; even before the British war fleet of Commodore Kepple came proudly sailing, the first of all others up the Potomac with the army of General Braddock, to wage war against the French and Indians in the Ohio valley. The story is not a story of love, though ladies fair and born of high de- gree, and men of knightly and chivalrous bearing, figure prominently in the interesting details. It is not a story of war, though some of its personne were soldiers and had witnessed fierce encounters of armies in the old country, but it is a story of circum- stances which were all important factors in the successful conduct of the seven years of heroic strife which opened the way, for the founding of the grandest government on the earth; and it is a true story moreover, though it may have the tinge and character of romance.
We will sit leisurely down by this grass and moss grown heap of earth and chimney stones, here under these gnarled oaks and cedars on the hill crest a hundred and fifty feet above the murmurings of the tide. Before us rolls on its seaward course the grand old river, broad deep and beautiful as when in 1608 the bold and reckless adventurer, Captain John Smith with his little company of fourteen explorers cut its shining waves with the prow of his open pinnance, upward bound to the region of the powerful Piscat- aways and Mayonese on whose hunting grounds and war paths the cities of Washing- ton and Alexandria now stand.
These few trees around us are all that are left of the dense primitive forest, which was hewn down in the time when the smoke of the aboriginal wigwam went up in its midst, to give place to the plow and the hoe of the tobacco planter. They are now scarred by the cycles of time, but their branches even in decay are still far reaching and green, and will shield us well from the rays of the noontide sun while we recount the events of the many faded years. And now, while we are enjoying the cooling shadows, the fresh breezes and the natural sights around us, let us go back a hundred years before the sur- render of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. Across the ocean, at that time in England when James the second was reigning and lands in the new world were to be had by favorites of the crown for merely the asking, it was ordered by the royal authority, in 1688, that letters patent should be issued to Thomas, Lord Culpeper, previously a gov- ernor of Virginia for all that extensive domain known in history and geography as the Northern Neck of Virginia between the Potomac and Rappanannock rivers, compris- ing in its area the counties of Northumberland, Lancaster, Richmond, Westmoreland, King George, Prince William, Stafford, Fairfax, Loudoun, Fauquier, Culpeper, Madi- son, Page, Shenandoah, Hardy, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, Jefferson, Frederick and Clarke.
From Lord Culpeper this tract or principality had descended through his daughter Catharine Culpeper Fairfax to her son Thomas, sixth Lord Fairfax of his line, who was a person of note and distinction in the British realm, a man of learning, a graduate of Oxford College and a member of the celebrated literary club of which Joseph Addison was the chief spirit and to whose pen we are indebted for the Spectator. This right Hon. Thomas of Leeds Castle in the county of Kent, England, and Baron of Cameron in Scotland was a cousin of Thomas, third Lord Fairfax, general of the parliamentary or "round head" armies of the protector, Oliver Cromwell, and who of course figured prominently in the military and Revolutionary circumstances of the beheading of King Charles first of England, January 30, 1649.
By the terms of the original patent to Culpeper he was constituted sole proprietor of the "soil" of this wilderness empire "together with all its forests, mines, minerals,
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huntings, fishings, and fowlings, with authority to divide, sell, grant or lease and occupy at will, any or every portion thereof, always however to be and remain under alle- giance to the royal prerogative," as was the common phraseology of grants in the days of feudalism. A royal gift indeed was this almost unlimited concession of empire to one royal subject.
Lord Fairfax, although his most important interests had been transferred to Virginia, was not ready at the time to make it his home and become an actual settler with the colonists of his inheritance, but as great numbers of squatters and freebooters were already settling on his lands and claiming them as estates in fee through fact of occu- pation, and by connivance of irresponsible agents, he commissioned his cousin Col. William Fairfax, already a resident of the colony, to look after his western possessions. William, born 1691, was a son of Henry, second son of the proprietor's father and Anne Harrison of South Cave, Yorkshire, whose sister Eleanor became the wife of Henry Washington. He lost his father when quite young, but his education was not neglected. His uncle, Sir John Lowthers, had him entered in his college where he pursued a course of instruction which served him well in the varied occupations of his future years. By extensive reading and seven years of travel and study in foreign lands, his mind was enriched and ripened and his abilities and courtly ways secured for him many public positions of trust and profit both in the old and new world. Of an ancient English family, he had entered the British army at the age of twenty-one and subsequently had served with honor in the royal navy both in the East and West Indies: had officiated as governor of New Providence after having aided the town from the incursion of pirates; also had done good service for his sovereign, Queen Anne, under Col. Martin Belden; and after coming to Belvoir we find him a member of his majesty's honorable council of Virginia and at one time its presiding officer.
While residing in the Bahamas, as chief justice of the islands he was married to Sarah, daughter of Col. Walker of Nassau, who accompanied him to England in 1717 and afterward to New Salem in the province of Massachusetts Bay where he filled an appointment as collector of his majesty's customs from 1725 to 1734. By Sarah, his first wife, he had four children. George William the eldest was born in Nassau in 1724. The other three, Thomas, Anne and Sarah were born in Salem. Thomas was an offi- cer in the royal navy and was killed in a naval engagement. Anne was married to Lawrence Washington and was the first mistress of Mount Vernon, and Sarah was married to John Carlyle of Alexandria, Virginia, who was a major and commissary in the French and Indian war under General Braddock in 1755. The mother of these children died in 1747. Their father was again married shortly afterward to Deborah Clarke, daughter of the Hon. Bartholomew Gedney and widow of Francis Clarke of Salem, to whom she had been married in 1701 and with whom she had lived twenty-six years. She was an intimate friend of Sarah, the first wife, who had expressed the de- sire on her death bed that she might take her place. By this second wife, William Fairfax had three children, Bryan, who by the death of Robert, seventh lord, elder brother of Thomas, sixth lord, without issue, in England, became eighth lord Fairfax, born in 1737 and died at Mount Eagle near Great Hunting Creek in 1802. William Henry, and Hannah who was married to Warner Washington cousin of the General. William Henry was a young man of great promise and it is related of him that at the storming of Quebec under General Wolfe, just before the action commenced, Wolfe, his commander, approached him and said-"young man on this day remember what is ex- pected of your name." He was true to his trust and fell gallantly under the city's walls.
It was about the year 1734 or 35 that William Fairfax assumed the duties as agent of his cousin on the Baron's large Virginia estate. Out of this estate a manor of sev- eral thousand acres immediately adjoining Mount Vernon and stretching for miles southward along the river had been assigned to him by the proprietor as a gift in per- petuity and here he came about the year 1736 to establish a home which in time was to become prominent and famed in the new world's annals. To this spot where we are gathered by these gnarled oaks and where the heaps of blackened hearthstones remain a silent but melancholy witness to the past, duly repaired the builders and
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OF VIRGINIA AND MARYLAND.
erected a mansion; and surely no more desirable site could have been selected for a resting place in many a day of travel. It is high, regular and commanding and the landscapes of the majestic river with its abrupt or gently sloping shores alternating with farm clearings and woodlands never fail to please the eye of the beholder, and most appropriately it was named Belvoir (beautiful to see). But an additional reason for so naming it was pleasant associations of Belvoir castle one of the most prominent of the old English castles, and one of the finest of the present day.
The manorial residence which William Fairfax built was one of ample dimensions and appointments for that early time. Washington in one of his diaries incidentally tells us that it "was built of bricks, was of two stories and an attic with four conven- ient rooms and a wide hall on the lower floor, five rooms and a wide passage on the second floor, with spacious cellars and convenient offices, kitchens, quarters for ser- vants, coachcrie, stables and all other out-buildings needed on a great estate;" and that
RUINS OF OLD BELVOIR MANSION.
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SOME OLD HISTORIC LANDMARKS
there was a large garden adjacent, stored with a great variety of fruits all in good condition.
The writer visited the ruins of the home in the spring of 1894 and traced out, and measured the foundations, and found them to be of the following dimensions: the foundations of the main building, sixty by thirty-six feet, with walls twenty-seven inches thick and cemented with mortar made from oyster shells, which had become extremely hard and tenacious. The cellar had occupied the whole area, and was seven feet deep, with partition walls twenty-four inches in thickness, with pavements of bricks seven inches square and four inches thick. Outside of the gable walls were heaps of quarry stones, denoting that there had been outside chimneys with large foun- dations. Everything about the parts of the walls still left intact, told of massiveness. Large trees had grown up from the debris inside of the foundations, and briars every- where trailing, gave to the spot a desolate appearance. The mansion had been en- closed by a wall of bricks, the wide foundations of which may still be traced through their entire extent of one hundred and fifty by one hundred feet. Adjacent are the ruins of five other brick buildings, presumably the great kitchen, the coacherie, and quarters for the house-servants; and in front, on the river bank, two hundred feet above the rippling tide, were the ruins of the summer house, which had commanded so many pleasant views and fair prospects. There is but an acre or so of cleared ground about the ruins. This must have been the site of the "garden," for there were thou- sands of daffodils waving their golden petals in the morning breeze, just as they had done when my Lady Fairfax was wont to tread those now neglected paths in the long, long years before. Through all the times of the coming and going of the many spring times, they had faithfully kept up their bright successions, and were yet remaining, silent mementoes of the kindly care of vanished hands. But every vestige of the choice fruit trees, described by Washington had disappeared, saving some veteran pear and cherry trees, which were yet thrifty-looking and white with bloom. A grape-vine eight inches in diameter was still vigorous by the fallen walls, its branches again put -. ting forth buds with the return of another spring. The wells, from out of whose cool- ing depths so many refreshing draughts had been drawn by the "old oaken bucket" for man and beast, were choked and dry. The desolation was complete. But the morning sun was shining warm and radiant over it all. The buds of the forest boughs were opening into foliage. The glad spring birds were lightly flitting, and chirping their songs of love; and hard by, the rippling waters of the beautiful river, were hur- rying on in their seaward course, just as when the watchful eyes and careful hands of the masters were there, to order and direct all things aright.
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