Arnold's Tempter

by Benjamin F. Comfort

A handsome porch and steps led up to the massive front door, which entered into the great hall that extended through the middle of the building. A double staircase, starting in the middle of the great central hall, met on a common landing, which led to the sleeping chambers. Large double parlors on each side of the hallway were connected by folding doors. The large, well-lighted front room on the east side was used as the library, and the large hallway to the rear of the staircase was used as the dining and living-room. All the apartments had vast chimney-places, commodious enough in the openings to receive huge logs of wood for good cheer in winter. Grotesque blue and white tiles, imported from Holland, embellished the massive brick-work of the chimney, and above the mantels were arched niches adorned with rare old china and heavy silver-ware, which on state occasions saw service at table.

The furniture of a Colonial house in 1730 partook, like the house itself, of simplicity, and in design was more useful than ornamental. Mahogany was little known in Pennsylvania, yet used to some extent in the West Indies; oak and black walnut served for the cabinet woods. Chairs in profusion were found only in the houses of the most substantial. Choicely carved chests-of-drawers, cupboards, high-backed chairs and tables found their way from Europe only by the grace of ship-masters, so that imported Colonial furniture was rare and expensive. However, each town of importance had its list of cabinet-makers and joiners who fashioned their handiwork after the design of articles imported and thus supplied the needs of the new country.

At Dorminghurst everything which was possible to be constructed from material found on the estate was made and fashioned right there. The timbers for the mansion and outbuildings were hewn in the forest, and the lumber for finishing the interior was sawed by hand on the spot. Any pieces of oak or walnut that were choice were saved and seasoned for the cabinet-work and for the furniture. Half a dozen skilled artisans were hired by the year and the workmanship put upon the doors, the wainscotting and the staircase was marvellous.

The front part of the great hallway had a lofty ceiling, and was lighted by windows in the second story.

The great double staircase flared out at the foot and ascended by graceful curves, thus forming an elliptical center space between the two banisters. The effect upon entering the well-lighted and lofty hallway was to command respect for the mansion. After passing between two massive and richly-carved newel posts, the elliptical opening between the two staircases had hall seats in comfortable nooks and the rear hall had a huge fireplace and mantel at the very end. Two massive oak settles, high in back, faced each other on each side of the chimney-place, and one could stretch out and lie down on either one of them and be comfortable. A lengthy oaken table with bandy legs stood in the center of the hall. Two long forms or benches without backs were on each side, and two massive, high-backed chairs were at each end of the table. A damask cover was on the table, and the floor was bare and scrupulously white. In entertaining company the great hall was in popular favor.

At this table James Greydon used to entertain his intimates, and he loved to sit and discourse upon topics of the day. He was a Latin scholar and scientific writer of no mean ability. In the ripeness of his attainments he produced a translation of Cicero’s “De Senectute,” which was the first production in America of classical scholarship. At Dorminghurst he collected, for a Colonist, a wonderful library of classical authors.

The well-lighted front room on the first floor was lined with shelves, on which rested shining lights of literature, to guide the effort and ambition of struggling genius in the wilderness of Pennsylvania. An untimely accident had crippled James Greydon, so that for thirty years of his latter life his time was spent almost entirely among his books and in his farming pursuits. He wrote valuable treatises on agriculture, for the then primitive Colonists, and collected precious editions of Cicero, Virgil, Seneca, Pliny and Horace, to say nothing of the lesser lights of Latin literature.

He also collected valuable editions of Greek writers on philosophy, history, verse and the drama. These were the most distinguished collections of classical works to be used at this early date for the benefit of American learning. James Greydon was one of the fathers of scholarship in the New World. He was in correspondence with many scholars and men of letters in Europe. He was the great friend and co-laborer of Franklin, who acquired his knowledge of Latin and Greek from Greydon’s hands.

The quadrant, of such benefit to mariners and explorers, was invented by an artisan under the encouragement of Greydon, at Dorminghurst.

The numerous pamphlets and treatises produced by Greydon on the science of agriculture and on politics were the products of Franklin’s press. Even the noted work of the translation of “De Senectute” which was printed by Franklin (to whom credit at the time was sometimes given for the authorship of the work) was performed by James Greydon.