The preacher told me that I might travel ten miles in any direction from Pohick (except to Alexandria) and not find a school-house! A few northern farmers are now redeeming some of the upper portions of Fairfax county; and it is to be hoped that the circles of their influence may enlarge until Pohick Church is included, and its walls saved from destruction.
When I left the church, a slight drizzle omened an approaching storm, and I hastened to Alexandria, where I ascertained that I could not get. upon the Potomac steamer with my horse without going to Washington City.
Damp, weary, and vexed, I gave Charley a loose rein, for the day was fast waning. When within half a mile of the Long Bridge, a vivid flash of lightning, followed by a loud thunder-peal, burst from the clouds, and seemed to open "the windows of heaven," and set free all the "treasures of the cherubim." Another flash and thunder-peal, with the accompanying deluge, came while I was crossing the drawbridge, and I reined up at the "Indian Queen," on Pennsylvania Avenue, at twilight, with all the concomitants of a disappointed disciple of Isaack Walton. A thunder-shower in December is a phenomenon so rare that I almost enjoyed the misery.
The steam-boat for Aquia Creek left Washington the following morning at two o'clock. I was upon her deck in time, but a careless servant having left a part of my baggage behind, I was obliged to return and remain in Washington another day. It proved a fine one for traveling, and the very reverse of the next day, when I was upon the road. The dawn opened with sleet and rain, and a raw east wind. This was sufficiently unpleasant for a traveler; yet a more vexatious circumstance awaited my debarkation at Aquia Creek. From the landing to a plantation road leading to the Fredericksburg pike, almost two miles, there was no wagon-track, the rail-road being the only highway. I mounted my wagon upon a hand-car, employed two stout negroes as locomotives, and, leading my horse along the rough-ribbed iron way, finally reached a plantation lane on the edge of a swamp. Where the rail-way traverses a broad marsh, deep ditches cross it transversely. My horse, in attempting to leap one of these, fell between the iron bars, with a hinder leg over one of them, which prevented the use of his limbs in efforts to leap from the ditch. I momentarily expected to hear the thigh-bone snap, for almost the entire weight of his body rested upon it. The salvation of the animal depended upon getting that leg free. I had no aid, for the negroes had neither will nor judgment to assist. At the risk of being made a foot-ball, I placed my shoulder in the hollow of the hoof, and with strength increased by solicitude, I succeeded in pushing the limb over the rail, and the docile animal, who seemed to feel the necessity of being passive, stood erect in his prison of iron and soft earth. Within a rectangle of a few feet, and a bank, shoulder high, he was still confined. He made several efforts to spring out, but his knees would strike the margin. At length, summoning all his energies, and appearing to shrink into smaller compass, he raised his fore-feet upon the bank, gave a spring, and, to my great joy, he stood safe and unhurt (though trembling in every limb) upon the road. With a light and thankful heart I traveled the sinuous pathway, through gates and bars, for five or six miles, to the high road, the storm increasing.
The distance from Aquia Creek to Fredericksburg is fifteen miles. When about halfway, I passed the ruins of old Potomac Church, once one of the finest sacred edifices in Virginia. The plan of the interior was similar to that of Pohick. The roof is supported by square columns, stuccoed and painted in imitation of variegated marble The windows are in Gothic style. The Law, the Prayer, and the Creed were quite well preserved upon the walls, notwithstanding the roof is partly fallen in, and the storms have free passage through the ruined arches. It is surrounded by a thick hedge of thorn, dwarf cedars, and other shrubs, festooned and garlanded with ivy and the wild grape, which almost effectually guard the venerable relic from the intrusion of strangers. With proper care, this church might have been a place of worship a century longer, but like many other old churches, consecrated in the appreciating mind of the patriotic American, this edifice is moldering through neglect.
The Rappahannock.—Fredericksburg.—Washington's Birth-place.—First Monumental Stone.—Notables of Westmoreland