[QUOTATION FROM A LETTER DATED JULY 5, A.D. 1885.]
"Yesterday I went with my aunt to spend 'the Fourth' at the Hydes. They
have the most delightful place,--a great stone house in a wilderness of
foliage and beauty, and yet within convenient distance of the railroad
and the river-boats. Why don't we build such houses now? You could make
a ball-room out of the hall, and hold a grand reception on the
staircase. Kate Hyde said the house is more than a hundred years old,
and that the fifth generation is living in it. I am sure there are
pictures enough of the family to account for three hundred years; but
the two handsomest, after all, are those of the builders. They were very
great people at the court of Washington, I believe. I suppose it is
natural for those who have ancestors to brag about them, and to show off
the old buckles and fans and court-dresses they have hoarded up, not to
speak of the queer bits of plate and china; and, I must say, the Hydes
have a really delightful lot of such bric-a-brac. But the strangest
thing is the 'household talisman.' It is not like the luck of Eden Hall:
it is neither crystal cup, nor silver vase, nor magic bracelet, nor an
old slipper. But they have a tradition that the house will prosper as
long as it lasts, and so this precious palladium is carefully kept in a
locked box of carved sandal-wood; for it is only a bit of faded satin
that was a love-token,--a St. Nicholas _Bow of Orange Ribbon_."