About the lichened rocks—and floods
Of sunshine fill the shady places.
Then, when the sky, the air, the grass,
Sweet nature all, is glad and tender—
Then bear me through the Goshen Pass,
Amid the hush of May-day splendor”.[27]
It was the following autumn, however, before Maury’s wishes could be carried out. In bearing his remains to Richmond at that time, the family were escorted as far as the river, about a mile from Lexington, by the corps of cadets, the professors of the Institute, and a great many other friends who thus wished to show their love and respect for the great scientist. Some, among whom was Superintendent Francis H. Smith of V. M. I., accompanied the cortege as far as Goshen Pass. In going from Lexington to what was then the nearest station on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, one passed through this lovely gorge where the North Anna River forces its way through the mountains some fifteen miles from Lexington. When the cortege reached the Pass, the carriages were stopped and members of the family gathered branches of the rhododendron and laurel and bright yellow maple, and decked the hearse with them, as Maury had requested.
Courtesy of Governor Byrd and of the Virginia State Chamber of Commerce.
Maury Monument in the Beautiful Goshen Pass, on the Bank of the North Anna River, Erected by the State of Virginia in 1923
See [page 246]