unanimously Whigs of the firmest and most unconquerable spirit. They were among the bravest and most effective militia, when called into the field. Gen. Washington signified his opinion of them when, in the darkest day of the revolutionary struggle, he expressed his confidence, that if all other resources should fail, he might yet repair with a single standard to West Augusta, and there rally a band of patriots who would meet the enemy at the Blue Ridge, and there establish the boundary of a free empire in the This saying of the father of his country has been variously reported; but we have no reason to doubt that he did, in some form, declare his belief that, in the last resort, he could yet gather a force in western Virginia which the victorious armies of Britain could not subdue. The spirit of these sires still reigns in their descendants, as the day of trial, come when it may, will prove.

west.

Another characteristic of these people was their rigid Calvinistic, or, as some would call it, Puritanical morality. Founded on religious principle, this morality was sober, firm, and consistent, though, in some of its aspects, too stern to be altogether winning, and often unadorned by that refinement of manners which imparts a charm to the exer. cise of virtue in the common intercourse of life. But much of their austerity should be forgiven, in consideration of the precious substance of virtue within it. Their moral character was a rough diamond, but, nevertheless, a diamond which would brighten most under the hardest rubs.

The root of their morality, as we have intimated, was religious principle, deeply grounded by education, and nurtured by constant attendance on religious exercises. No sooner had they provided necessary food and shelter for their families, than they began to provide for the regular and decent service of God. They built churches and called pastors to the full extent of their ability. While their settlements were sparse and feeble, their churches were necessarily few and far asunder. Consequently, some families had to go an inconvenient distance to church. But they went, notwithstanding, male and female, old and young, on horses, some of them ten or twelve miles, to the house of God regularly on the Lord's day. These were the right sort of people to found a commonwealth that should stand the wear and tear of a hundred ages.

Some of the churches built by the first generation are yet standing, substantial monuments of their pious zeal. They are built of the solid limestone of the valley. Others have been replaced by larger and fairer structures of brick. In building some of the primitive stone churches, before roads, wagons, and saw-mills could facilitate the collection and preparation of materials, they had to adopt some singular modes of conveyance. For example, the Providence congregation packed all the sand used in their church from a place six miles distant, sack by sack, on the backs of horses! and, what is almost incredible, the fair wives and daughters of the congregation are said to have undertaken this part of the work, while the men labored at the stone and timber. Let not the great-grand-daughters of these women blush for them, however they would deeply blush themselves to be found in such employment. For ourselves, we admire the conduct of these females: it was not only excusable, not only praiseworthy-it was almost heroic. It takes Spartan mothers to rear Spartan men. These were among the women whose sons and grandsons sustained the confidence of Washington in the most disastrous period of the revolution.

Their social intercourse was chiefly religious. When the Lord's Supper was administered in a church, the service usually continued four days. A plurality of ministers was present, and the people would flock to the place from all the country around-those who lived near giving hospitable entertainment to those from a greater distance. It was customary to have two of these sacramental meetings annually in each of the churchesone in the spring and one in the autumn. The meetings of the presbytery, which circulated through the principal churches, drew together a larger concourse, and were celebrated as the chief religious festivals of the country.

But except these solemn festivals, and the weekly meetings at church, the families of the country had little social intercourse, except occasional visits and the occurrence of marriage feasts. Nothing was known of the gay amusements common among the lower Virginians. The careful and religious education of their children was one of the most important features of their domestic policy. Common schools arose among them, therefore, as soon as the state of the population admitted them.

The first academy established in the valley of Virginia was located on Timber Ridge, near the present village of Fairfield, in this county. It is the one alluded to in the preceding historic

sketch of Washington College, and was founded in 1776. Its first rector was the Rev. Wm. Graham.* This institution, the germ whence sprung Washington College, is thus described in the work of Dr. Ruffner:

The schoolhouse was a log cabin. A fine forest of oaks, which had given Timber Ridge its name, cast a shade over it in the summer, and afforded convenient fuel in winter. A spring of pure water gushed from the rocks near the house. From amidst the trees the student had a fine view of the country below, and of the neighboring Blue Ridge. In short, all the features of the place made it a fit habitation of the woodland muse, and the hill deserved its name of Mount Pleasant. Hither about thirty youth of the mountains repaired," to taste the Pierian spring," thirty-five years after the first settlement of Burden's Grant. Of reading, writing, and ciphering, the boys of the country had before acquired such knowledge as primary schools could afford; but with a few late exceptions, Latin, Greek, algebra, geometry, and such like scholastic mysteries, were things of which they had heard-which they knew perhaps to lie covered up in the learned heads of their pastors-but of the nature and uses of which they had no conception whatever..... It was a log hut of one apartment. The students carried their dinner with them from their boarding-schools in the neighborhood. They conned their lessons either in the school-room, where the recitations were heard, or under the shades of the forest, where breezes whispered and birds sang without disturbing their studies. A horn -perhaps a real cow's horn-summoned the school from play, and the scattered classes to recitation. Instead of broadcloth coats, the students generally wore a far more graceful garment, the hunting-shirt, homespun, homewoven, and homemade, by the industrious wives and daughters of the land. Their amusements were not the less remote from the modern tastes of students-cards, backgammon, flutes, fiddles, and even marbles, were scarcely known among these homebred mountain boys. Firing pistols and ranging the fields with shot-guns to kill little birds for sport, they would have considered a waste of time and ammunition. As to frequenting tippling-shops of any denomination, this was impossible, because no such catchpenny lures for students existed in the country, or would have been tolerated. Had any huckster of liquors, knickknacks, and explosive crackers, hung out his sign in those days, the old puritan morality of the land was yet vigorous enough to abate the nuisance. The sports of the students were mostly gymnastic, both manly and healthful-such as leaping, running, wrestling, pitching quoits, and playing ball. In this rustic seminary a considerable number of young men began their education, who afterwards bore a distinguished part in the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of the country.

SAMUEL HOUSTON, late president of the republic of Texas, was born

* A correspondent has furnished us with the following original anecdote:

in the summer of 1781, Col. Tarleton came near capturing the whole of the Virginia legislature, with Mr. Jefferson, our governor, then assembled at Charlottesville. All of these, however, except seven, made their escape, and reassembled in Staunton, where they resumed their labors, supposing it a place of safety. But soon after they commenced business, a messenger arrived with the information that Col. Tarleton was in full march for that place. Intimidated by their late narrow escape, they precipitately fled, each caring most for his own safety. It so happened that on that day a Presbyterian clergyman from Lexington, 35 miles distant, was on his way to a meeting of his presbytery, at the Augusta church, 8 miles north of Staunton. Meeting with some of his brethren, who inforined him of what had occurred, he inquired of them whether any measures had been taken by the legislature before they dispersed, to call out the militia, and being answered in the negative, he expressed great surprise, and said something must be done, and proposed that they should each take different roads, and attend to it at once. This was accordingly done, and the call as promptly obeyed; and the men assembled at Staunton the same evening, prepared to march with a view of meeting the enemy. The clergyman alluded to reached Lexington, 35 miles distant, the same evening, and having spread the word in different directions, a large company assembled at his house the next morning. To these he delivered an address suited to the occasion. But they were without an officer, and no one being willing to act in that capacity, the clergyman offered his own service, which being accepted, he girt on his sword, and they immediately set out for the scene of action. On reaching Rockfish Gap, (the place where the road leading from Charlottesville to Staunton crosses the Blue Ridge,) they found the mountain covered with riflemen, determined that no hostile foot should enter their borders with impunity. Intelligence, however, soon arrived that Tarleton had changed his course, and was retreating down the country. Some supposed it was a feint, and that he would attempt to cross the mountain at another place, and immediately set out to guard the pass. Others returned home. But the clergyman alluded to, and his company, with others, went in pursuit of the retreating enemy, and joined the Marquis Lafayette below Charlottesville. The campaign, however, being likely to be protracted, they did not continue long with the army, but returned home. The inquiry naturally arises, Who was this clergyman? Answer-It was the learned and pious Rev. Wm. Graham, one of Virginia's most useful and gifted sons-then principal of Liberty Hall Academy, (now Washington College,) whose voice has been heard in almost every part of the valley, announcing the tidings of mercy and who, with hundreds of his spiritual children, is now rejoicing around the throne.

in this county, in a dwelling now occupied by the Rev. Horatio Thompson, near Timber Reach church, six miles NE. of Lexington. His father was a farmer in good circumstances, and of Scotch Irish descent. Samuel received an ordinary school education, and when a young man removed to Nashville, Tenn., and studied law. His energy and talents raised him to the many prominent stations which he has held.

The Rev. ARCHIBALD ALEXANDER, D. D., President of the Theological Seminary at Princeton, N. J., was a native of this county, and married a daughter of the "Blind Preacher," (see p. 417.)

The Hon. ANDREW MOORE, of Rockbridge, was the only Virginian ever chosen a member of the United States Senate, west of the Blue Ridge. He was a member during the administration of Jefferson. In the Falling Spring church-yard, on the forks of James River, is the grave of Gov. M'NUTT, who died in 1811. He was a lieutenant in the company of Capt. John Alexander, (father of Dr. Archibald Alexander,) in the "Sandy creek voyage," (see p. 352,) in 1757. Shortly after, he was appointed governor of Nova Scotia, where he remained until the commencement of the American revolution. In this contest he adhered to the cause of liberty, and joined his countrymen in arms under Gates, at Saratoga. He was afterwards known as a valuable officer in the brigade of Baron de Kalb in the south.

The first road over the Blue Ridge from Burden's Grant, was a pack-horse road through Rock Fish Gap. It was made by Ephraim M'Dowell, ancestor of Gov. James M'Dowell. There are Indian monuments, formed by piles of small stones, on Salling's mountain, on the Blue Ridge, on the North mountain, and on various other mountains in this section. All these occur at the gaps of the mountains, where the Indians were accustomed to cross. There are various Indian mounds in the county. The largest is on Haze's creek, about 10 miles northerly from Lexington, on the farm lately owned by Dr. Alfred Leyburn. It is about 4 feet high, and 90 in diameter. It is almost white with bleached bones; stone pipes and other relics have there been found.

The beauty of the scenery of the valley of Virginia has often been commented upon; but we have not met with a more just description than this from the work of a foreign traveller. He had been travelling from the Kanawha country through the White Sulphur Springs, and when within about twenty miles of Lexington, in crossing the North mountain, saw the view described below:

The great point of sight is called the Grand Turn. It is an angular projection from the side of the mountain, and is supplied with a low parapet of loose stones, to protect you from the precipice below. The old jagged pine of the forest, which has braved the tempest age after age, stands up in its clustered grandeur behind you. The lone and ravenous vulture is wheeling over your head in search of prey. The broken rock-work falls away abruptly, some eighty feet immediately beneath your standing, and then runs down in softer lines to the glens below. You look to the left, and there stand, in all their majesty, the everlasting mountains, which you have traversed one by one, and sketching on the blue sky one of the finest outlines you ever beheld. You look to the right, and there lies expanded before you one of the richest and most lovely valleys

This celebrated curiosity is in the Valley of Virginia, near the centre of the state, one hundred and seventy-two miles west of Richmond. Its mean height, from the stream below to its upper surface, is two hundred and fifteen feet and six inches.