reminiscent not of the Renaissance work then becoming
dominant in England, but of the older Gothic; it is not at
all unlike many of the small English parish churches of the
sixteenth century, when the Gothic style was really extinct,
although its superficial characteristics, the buttresses and
the pointed arch, still obtained. The stepped gable at the
chancel end of the church is an unusual feature in English
architecture.... The tower is the only part of the building
which shows the Renaissance influence."
When the building was some two hundred years old it began to fall into
disrepair; the people preferred to attend the church in Smithfield.
Bishop Meade wrote his "Old Churches and Families of Virginia" at the
time when the old church was most dilapidated. He said:
"Its thick walls and high tower, like that of some English
castle, are still firm, and promise to be for a long time to
come. The windows, doors, and all the interior, are gone. It
is said that the eastern window--twenty-five feet high--was
of stained glass. This venerable building stands not far from
the main road leading from Smithfield to Suffolk, in an open
tract of woodland. The trees for some distance round it are
large and tall and the foliage dense, so that but little of
the light of the sun is thrown upon it. The pillars which
strengthen the walls, and which are wide at the base,
tapering toward the eaves of the house by stair-steps, have
somewhat mouldered, so as to allow various shrubs and small
trees to root themselves therein."
For nearly fifty years the church was closed. But in 1884 Rev. David
Barr, who was in charge of a church nearby, began to raise funds for
the reconstruction of the building. He persisted in spite of many
discouragements. When matters looked darkest a man who signed himself
"A Virginian" made the following appeal:
"There is still some plastering to be done in the tower, and
the pews are to be made or bought. The church cannot be
completed until the money is raised. Can no generous giver be
found who will contribute the money necessary to bring the
east window from London?... For sixty odd years the church
has stood there silent, without a service, facing and defying
storms and decay, appealing in its desolation to every
sentiment of the State, of the Church and of the Nation
against abandonment and desertion, and now in its half
completed condition, feeling the touch of revival and
restoration, it pleads more imploringly still for just enough
money to complete the repairs and to enable it once more to
enter upon its life of activity, and to utter again with
renewed joyousness the ancient but long suppressed voice of
prayer and of thanksgiving. Shall it appeal in vain?"
The appeal was not in vain. The church was completed. Twelve beautiful
memorial windows were put in place. These bore the names of George
Washington, Joseph Bridger, the architect of the church, Robert E.
Lee, Rev. William Hubbard, the first rector, Sir Walter Raleigh, John
Rolfe, Captain John Smith, Bishops Madison, Moore, Meade, and Johns,
and Dr. Blair, whose connection with Bruton Church and William and
Mary College is told in another chapter of this volume.
A building that is similar and yet in many respects quite different is
in New Kent County, about as far above Williamsburg as Smithfield is
below that university town. This is St. Peter's Church. It is thought
that the parish dates from 1654, though the present building was not
begun until 1701. The minute which tells of the first plan for the
structure is dated August 13, 1700:
"Whereas, the Lower Church of this Parish is very much out of
Repair and Standeth very inconvenient for most of the
inhabitants of the said parish; Therefore ordered that as
soon as conveniently may be a new Church of Brick Sixty feet
long and twenty fower feet wide in the clear and fourteen
feet pitch with a Gallery Sixteen feet long be built and
Erected upon the Main Roade, by the School House near Thomas
Jackson's; and the Clerk is ordered to give a copy of this
order to Capt. Nich. Merewether who is Requested to show the
same to Will Hughes and desire him to draw a Draft of said
Church and to bee at the next vestry."
The cost of the new church was one hundred and forty-six thousand
pounds of tobacco. This included the main building only, for the
belfry was not built until 1722.
Rev. David Mossom, who was rector of the church from 1727 to 1767, was
the minister who married General Washington, at the White House, as
the home of his bride was called, a few miles from St. Peter's Church.
The story is told of this eccentric minister that on one occasion,
having quarrelled with his clerk, he rebuked him from the pulpit. The
latter avenged himself by giving out to the congregation the psalm in
which were these lines:
"With restless and ungovern'd rage
Why do the heathen storm?
Why in such rash attempts engage
As they can ne'er perform?"
The epitaph on the tomb of Mr. Mossom in St. Peter's churchyard states
that he was the first native American admitted to the office of
Presbyter in the Church of England.
LXXIII
MONTICELLO, NEAR CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA
THE HOME OF THOMAS JEFFERSON
"Oh, my young master, they were all burnt, but ah! we saved your
fiddle!"
So the negro servant replied to Thomas Jefferson who, on returning
from a trip, learning that his home at Shadwell had been burned, asked
after his books. To the negro's mind the fiddle was the most important
thing in the house.
Fortunately the new mansion, Monticello, near Charlotte, which he had
designed, was so nearly completed that he was able to take up his
residence there. Two years later he led into the new house his bride,
Martha Skelton, a widow of twenty-three.
Before the marriage Jefferson, in accordance with the Virginia law, in
company with Francis Eppes, entered into a license bond, of which the
following is a copy:
"Know all men by these presents that we Thomas Jefferson and
Francis Eppes are held and firmly bound to the sovereign lord
the king his heirs and successors in the sum of fifty pounds
current money of Virginia, to the paiment of which well and
truly to be made we bind ourselves jointly and severally, our
joint and several heirs, executors and administrators, in
witness whereof we have hereto set our hands and seals this
twenty-third day of December in the year of our Lord one
thousand seven hundred and seventy one. The condition of the
above obligation is such that if there be no lawful cause to
obstruct a marriage intended to be had and solemnized between
the above bound Thomas Jefferson and Martha Skelton of the
County of Charles County, widow, for which a license is
desired, then this obligation is to be null and void,
otherwise the same is in full force."
Edward Bacon, who was overseer at Monticello for twenty years,
described the estate in vivid words:
"Monticello is quite a high mountain, in the shape of a
sugar-loaf. A winding road led up to the mansion. On the very
top of the mountain the forest trees were cut down, and ten
acres were cleared and levelled.... I know every room in that
house. Under the house and the terrace that surrounded it,
were the cisterns, ice-house, cellar, kitchen, and rooms for
all sorts of purposes. His servants' rooms were on one
side.... There were no negro and other out-houses around the
mansion, as you generally see on plantations. The grounds
around the house were beautifully ornamented with flowers and
shrubbery.... Back of the house was a beautiful lawn of two
or three acres, where his grandchildren used to play.
"His garden was on the side of the mountain. I had it built
while he was President. It took a great deal of labor. We had
to blow out the rocks for the walls for the different
terraces, and then make the soil.... I used to send a servant
to Washington with a great many fine things for his table,
and he would send back the cart loaded with shrubbery."
Jefferson spent most of his time on his estate until his death in
1826, except when he was called away for the service of his country.
Nine years after the beginning of the happy married life in Monticello
there was a panic among the servants because of the approach of the
British. Because Jefferson was Governor of Virginia, it was thought
that of course the mansion would be pillaged. Mrs. Jefferson was put
in the carriage and sent to a place of safety, while Mr. Jefferson
remained at home, collecting his most valuable papers. Later he
followed his family. But when the soldiers reached the estate, the
first inquiry of the leader of the party was for the master of the
house. When he learned that Jefferson had escaped, he asked for the
owner's private rooms, and, on being shown the door which led to them,
he turned the key in the lock and ordered that nothing in the house
should be touched. This, it was explained, was in strict accordance
with the orders that had been given by General Tarleton; their sole
duty was to seize the Governor.
A year later, when the Marquis de Chastellux, a nobleman from France,
visited Monticello, he was charmed with the house of which Mr.
Jefferson was the architect, and often one of the workmen. He said it
was "rather elegant, and in the Italian taste, though not without
fault; it consists of one large square pavilion, the entrance of which
is by two porticoes, ornamented with pillars. The ground floor
consists of a very large lofty saloon, which is to be decorated
entirely in the antique style; above it is a library of the same
size; two small wings, with only a ground floor and attic story, are
joined to this pavilion, and communicate with the kitchen, offices,
etc., which will form a kind of basement story, over which runs a
terrace."
Another attractive picture was given by the Duc de la
Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, after his visit to Monticello in 1796. He
noted the fact that Jefferson owned five thousand acres, of which but
eleven hundred were cultivated.
"I found him in the midst of the harvest," he wrote, "from which the
scorching heat of the sun does not prevent his attendance.... Every
article is made on his farm: his negroes are cabinet makers,
carpenters, masons, bricklayers, smiths, etc. The children he employs
in a nail factory, which yields already a considerable profit.... His
superior mind directs the management of his domestic concerns with the
same abilities, activity and regularity which he evinced in the
conduct of public affairs."
Long absence from home and lavish hospitality wrecked the Jefferson
fortune, and when the owner of Monticello finally returned home after
his eight years as President, he was compelled to curtail his
expenses. But still he made guests welcome. It is said that at times
there were as many as fifty guests in the house at one time. One of
those who sought the Sage of Monticello in 1817 was Lieutenant Francis
Hall, who wrote of his veneration as he looked on "the man who drew up
the Declaration of American Independence, who shared in the Councils
by which her freedom was established, when the unbought voices of his
fellow-citizens called to the exercise of a dignity from which his
own moderation impelled him, when such an example was most salutary,
to withdraw; and who, while he dedicates the evening of his glorious
days to the pursuits of science and literature, shuns none of the
humble duties of private life; but, having filled a seat higher than
that of kings, succeeds with graceful dignity to that of the good
neighbor, and becomes the friendly adviser, lawyer, physician, and
even gardener of his vicinity."
July 4, 1826, the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration of
Independence, was the day of Jefferson's death. The sale of his estate
was sufficient to pay all his debts. To his daughter who was thus made
homeless, the legislatures of South Carolina and Virginia each voted
as a gift $10,000.
On the stone placed over the grave of the Sage of Monticello was
carved the inscription which he himself had asked for: "Here was
buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American
Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and
Father of the University of Virginia."
[Illustration: UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA.
_Photo by H. P. Cook_
See page 326]
LXXIV
THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA AT CHARLOTTESVILLE
THE CHILD OF THOMAS JEFFERSON'S OLD AGE
When Thomas Jefferson retired from the Presidency he was surrounded at
Monticello by his daughter, her husband, and eleven grandchildren.
Daily association with the young people made him more anxious than
ever to carry out a plan that was the growth of years. He wanted to
see other children as happy as were those in his own home, and he felt
that the one thing he could do to increase their happiness would be to
see that the State made provision for their education.
During the remainder of his life he never lost sight of his project.
While he did not live to see his system of common schools established
in Virginia, it was his joy to see the University of Virginia grow
under his hands from an academy to a college and then to a university.
From 1817 he labored for State appropriations for the school. A friend
in the State Senate assisted him nobly. The reader of the published
volume of the correspondence between the two men, a volume of 528
pages, will see how untiring was the labor that had its reward when
the appropriation of funds made sure the founding of the university.
Three hundred thousand dollars were provided for construction, as well
as $15,000 a year for maintenance.
Jefferson himself drew the plans for the buildings and superintended
the construction. Sarah N. Randolph, in "The Domestic Life of Thomas
Jefferson," says that "the architectural plan and form of government
and instruction for this institution afforded congenial occupation for
his declining years.... While the buildings were being erected, his
visits to them were daily; and from the northeast corner of the
terrace at Monticello he frequently watched the workmen engaged on
them, through a telescope which is still [1871] preserved in the
library of the University."
Edmund Bacon, the overseer at Monticello, gave to Hamilton W. Pierson,
the author of "Jefferson at Monticello," a humorous account of the
early days of the project:
"The act of the Legislature made it the duty of the
Commissioners to establish the University within one mile of
the Court House at Charlottesville. They advertised for
proposals for a site. Three men offered sites. The
Commissioners had a meeting at Monticello, and then went and
looked at all these sites. After they had made their
examination, Mr. Jefferson sent me to each of them, to
request them to send by me their price, which was to be
sealed up. Lewis and Craven each asked $17 per acre, and
Perry, $12. That was a mighty big price in those days....
They took Perry's forty acres, at $12 per acre. It was a poor
old turned-out field, though it was finely situated. Mr.
Jefferson wrote the deed himself. Afterwards Mr. Jefferson
bought a large tract near it. It had a great deal of timber
and rock on it, which was used in building the University.
"My next instruction was to get ten able-bodied hands to
commence the work.... Mr. Jefferson started from Monticello
to lay off the foundation, and see the work commenced. An
Irishman named Dinsmore, and I, went along with him. As we
passed through Charlottesville, I ... got a ball of twine,
and Dinsmore found some shingles and made some pegs.... Mr.
Jefferson looked over the ground some time, and then stuck
down a peg.... He carried one end of the line, and I the
other, in laying off the foundation of the University. He had
a little ruler in his pocket that he always carried with him,
and with this he measured off the ground, and laid off the
entire foundation, and then set the men at work."
This foot-rule was shown to Dr. Pierson by Mr. Bacon, who explained
how he secured it:
"Mr. Jefferson and I were once going along the bank of the
canal, and in crawling through some bushes and vines, it
[the ruler] fell out of his pocket and slid down the bank
into the river. Some time after that, when the water had
fallen, I went and found it, and carried it to Mr. Jefferson.
He told me I ... could keep it.... When I die, that rule can
be found locked up in that drawer.
"After the foundations were nearly completed, they had a
great time laying the corner-stone. The old field was covered
with carriages and people. There was an immense crowd there.
Mr. Monroe laid the corner-stone. He was President at that
time.... He held the instruments, and pronounced it square. I
can see Mr. Jefferson's white head just as he stood there and
looked on.
"After this he rode there from Monticello every day while the
University was building, unless the weather was very
stormy.... He looked after all the materials, and would not
allow any poor materials to go into the building if he could
help it."
A letter from Jefferson to John Adams, written on October 12, 1823,
spoke of the "hoary winter of age." "Against this _tedium vitae_," he
said, "I am fortunately mounted on a hobby, which, indeed, I should
have better managed some thirty or forty years ago; but whose easy
amble is still sufficient to give exercise and amusement to an
octogenary rider. This is the establishment of a University, on a
scale more comprehensive, and in a country more healthy and central
than our old William and Mary, which these obstacles have long kept in
a state of languor and inefficiency."
In designing the buildings Jefferson acknowledged his indebtedness to
Palladio, who guided him in his adaptation of Roman forms. The visitor
who is familiar with Rome is reminded of the baths of Diocletian, the
baths of Caracalla, and the temple of Fortuna Virilis, while a
reduction of the Pantheon, with a rotunda, is the central feature of
the group.
The University was opened in March, 1825. Forty students were in
attendance, though at the beginning of the second year the number was
increased to one hundred and seventy-seven.
The central feature of the collection of buildings, the wonderful
Rotunda, was badly injured in the fire of 1895 which destroyed the
Annex. The Rotunda was soon rebuilt according to Jefferson's original
plan, and the group of buildings is more beautiful than ever.
SEVEN: THROUGH THE SUNNY SOUTH
_The long, grey moss that softly swings
In solemn grandeur from the trees,
Like mournful funeral draperies,--
A brown-winged bird that never sings._
ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE.
_O Magnet-South! O glistening perfumed South! my South!
O quick mettle, rich blood, impulse and love! good and evil! O all
dear to me!
O dear to me my birth-things--all moving things and the trees
where I was born--the grains, plants, rivers,
Dear to me my own slow sluggish rivers where they flow, distant,
over flats of silvery sands or through swamps._
_O the cotton plant! the growing fields of rice, sugar, hemp!
The cactus guarded with thorns, the laurel-tree with large white
flowers,
The range afar, the richness and barrenness, the old woods charged
with mistletoe and trailing moss,
The piney odor and the gloom, the awful natural stillness (here in
these dense swamps the freebooter carries his gun, and the
fugitive has his conceal'd hut;)_
The mocking bird, the American mimic, singing all the forenoon,
singing through the moonlit night,
The humming bird, the wild turkey, the raccoon, the opossum;
A Kentucky corn-field, the tall, graceful, long-leav'd corn,
slender, flapping, bright green, with tassels, with beautiful
ears each well-sheath'd in its husk;
O my heart! O tender and fierce pangs, I can stand them not, I
will depart;
O to be a Virginian where I grew up! O to be a Carolinian!
O longings irrepressible! O I will go back to old Tennessee and
never wander more.
WALT WHITMAN.
SEVEN: THROUGH THE SUNNY SOUTH
LXXV
THREE OLD CHURCHES IN CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA
ST. MICHAEL'S, ST. PHILIP'S, AND THE HUGUENOT CHURCH, RELICS OF
COLONIAL DAYS
The oldest church building in Charleston, South Carolina, St.
Michael's Protestant Episcopal Church, is a relic of three wars. At
the beginning of the Revolution the rector and the vestry disagreed;
the rector was a loyalist and most of the members were patriots.
Accordingly the rector resigned. Later the beautiful tower, which is
unlike any other church tower in America, was painted black, lest it
become a guiding beacon to the British fleet. Unfortunately the black
tower against the blue sky proved a better guide than a white tower
would have been.
The clear-toned bells, which were cast in London in 1757, were taken
from the tower when the British evacuated the city in 1782, and were
sold in London as spoils of war. Fortunately a Mr. Ryhiner, once a
merchant in Charleston, learned of this, bought them, and sent them to
Charleston as a business venture.
When the bells were landed on the wharf from the brig _Lightning_, on
November 20, 1783--according to Johnson's "Traditions of
Charleston"--"the overjoyed citizens took possession, and hurried them
up to the church and into the steeple, without thinking that they
might be violating a private right." In June, 1785, Mr. Ryhiner asked
for payment for the bells. Later a subscription was ordered to pay the
merchant.
During the British occupation of the city horses were stabled in the
church, and the lead roof was removed, for use in bullet making.
In 1811 and 1812 the church figured in the second war with Great
Britain. The vestry, whose patriotism was as great as ever, opened the
building more than once for meetings of the citizens who wished to
consider what they could do to help their country in the impending
conflict.
During the Civil War the bells were taken to Columbia, to be cast into
cannon. Fortunately they were not used for this purpose, but during
Sherman's march to the sea they were burned and broken into small
pieces. A friend of the church in London, on learning of the disaster,
searched records of the bell-founders till he learned who had cast the
bells. These records told the proportions of metal used and the sizes
of the bells. Then the Londoner wrote to Charleston and asked that the
fragments be sent to him. When these were received in London they were
recast in the original moulds, which were discovered by an old
employee. The cost of recasting the bells and restoring them to their
places in the steeple was $7,723, of which sum the City Council
contributed $3,000; $2,200, the charge made for import duty, was later
returned to the church by special Act of Congress.
For nearly twenty years after the receipt of these new-old bells,
they were used to sound fire-alarms, as well as for calling to the
services of the church.
The venerable building has suffered from fire, wind, and earthquake,
as well as from war. In 1825 a cyclone damaged the spire and the roof,
and in 1886 earthquake cracked the walls, destroyed a portion of the
tower, and did so much further damage that a Charleston paper spoke of
it as the "saddest wreck of all." At first it was feared that the
building would have to be demolished, but repairs were found to be
possible at a cost of $15,000.
The structure dates from 1752, when Governor Glenn of South Carolina
laid the corner stone. The cost was $32,775.87.
St. Michael's parish was set off in 1751 from St. Philip's parish. The
first St. Philip's Church was burned in 1681 or 1682. A second church
was opened in 1723. This famous building survived until 1835, in spite
of wars and fires. The building was saved during the fire of 1796 by a
slave who climbed to the tower and threw to the ground a burning
brand. As a reward the vestry purchased his freedom. But during the
great fire of February 15, 1835, the edifice was destroyed.
The old church had been so much a part of the life of the city and was
so thoroughly identified with the history of the country, that the
citizens rejoiced when the decision was reached to rebuild it in
practically every detail like the original, with the addition of a
chancel and spire.