Oldal 110 [110]
OCR
Pe 0 AAN ES "RIVER OB VANTATHON : BELT On his way to Petersburg from Richmond in 1781, the Marquis de Chastellux lost his way, but he says, ‘‘We had no reason to regret our error, as it was only two miles about, and we skirted James River to a charming place called Warwick where a group of handsome houses form a sort of village, and there are some superb ones in the neighborhood; among others, that of Colonel Cary, on the right bank of the river." The town to which the Marquis referred was established in the second year of the reign of George III. At the time of the Revolution it boasted mills, ware and storehouses, rope-walks and a shipbuilding yard. Unfortunately, everything was destroyed by the British in 1781. Up to this time, however, fortune smiled upon the Cary family and burnished their rooftree with a golden horn. It was to this James River country seat that Archibald Cary brought his beautiful bride, Mary Randolph, from Curles Neck, across the river. At that time jewels, laces and brocades were brought in their own vessels, to land on the Ampthill shores. There were coaches and fine horses, rare wines to stock the now empty cellar—in short, everything connected with this splendid old home was the very finest to be found in Virginia. The road which leads from the Petersburg highway to Ampthill is rich in trees and native shrubbery. Dogwood, birch and oak trees shade a narrow, drowsy brook which flows from a spring near by to supply the old mill pond. Scattered throughout—along the roadside and through the woodland—are quantities of Scotch broom, or gorse. I[his seems to point to some British encampment as, since Revolutionary days, gorse has come down to Americans under the name of “Cornwallis hay.’’ ‘The story goes that the seeds were brought over in the hay used to feed the horses of the British army. One can easily fancy a red-coated trooper, disconsolate, and wandering beneath the dogwood trees, singing the words of the old Scotch ballad, ‘‘Kissin’s out of fashion when the broom is out of bloom.” The entrance road turns sharply onto the lawn which surrounds 167]
