Some distance above Point Lookout, at the mouth of the Potomac River, up the western shore of Maryland, there is a beautiful inlet, or small bay, making up about three miles into the land, called St. Clara’s Bay by one of the early Roman Catholic settlers. At the headwaters of this inlet is a small, very old hamlet, the site of one of the first settlements of the State, intended once, no doubt, for a great colonial seaport, and christened by the same sponsor St. Clarasville. With its fine harbor and great commercial facilities, whatever could have arrested its growth and withered it in its prime I do not know—possibly the very abundance of other good harbors on the coast—probably the frequent and violent dissensions between the pre-emption freebooters of the Bay Isles and the legal proprietors and settlers of the mainland. Lying two miles off the mouth of this inlet, and stretching across in front of it, is an oblong, sandy, and nearly barren island—rich, however, in fish, crabs, oysters, and water-fowl, and upon this account a great resort in early colonial times, and baptized by the same devout claimant of the bay and town St. Clara’s Isle, in honor of his patron saint.
But there was another claimant of the island, inlet, and township; a freebooter, who, believing in and acknowledging no greater personage than himself, had named the isle, the bay, and town also, when it was laid out, after himself. So they were first and most frequently called Hutton’s Island, Bay, and Town.
THE DISCARDED DAUGHTER
CHAPTER I.
MOUNT CALM.
A proud, aristocratic hall it seems,
Not courting, but discouraging approach.
—Moultrie.
Let me introduce you to Mount Calm, the seat of General Aaron Garnet. Even from the bay you can see the mansion house, with its broad white front, as it crowns the highest of a distant range of hills. After passing through the village of Hutton, and going up and down the grassy hills that rise one above the other beyond it, you enter a deep hollow, thickly grown with woods, and passing through it, begin to ascend by a heavily shaded forest road, the last and highest hill of the range—Mount Calm. When about halfway up this hill you come to the brick walls inclosing the private grounds, and passing through the porter’s gate you enter a heavily-shaded carriage drive, that, sweeping around in an ascending half-circle, brings you up before the mansion house.
Behind the house was a green slope and a thick grove that concealed from view the extensive outbuildings connected with the establishment. Extensive fields of corn, wheat, rye, oats, tobacco, etc., spread all over the undulatory land. The estate itself comprised several thousands of the best acres in old St. Mary’s County, and there were several hundred of them under the best cultivation and in the richest state of productiveness.