In addition to the authors named, much help was derived from Mr. John Alexander Binns' treatise on his agricultural experiments, from the war-books of Major General Henry Lee, Col. John S. Mosby, Col. E. V. White, Rev. J. J. Williamson, Captain F. M. Myers and Mr. Briscoe Goodhart, although in the case of the two latter authors their writings are measurably impaired by the rancour which controlled their pens. Dr. E. G. Swem's Virginia Historical Index was of constant assistance as were the publications of the Virginia Historical Society, those of the College of William and Mary and similar historical magazines as well as Virginia's Colonial records and the records of Loudoun County. The resources of the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution and those of our little Thomas Balch Library in Leesburg have all been available to me. In short, I had intended to append a bibliography of volumes consulted and relied upon for many of the views hereafter expressed; but when those volumes grew in number to five or six hundred I realized that limited space would permit no such project. Therefore I have contented myself with frequently indicating in footnotes the principal sources from which my information has been derived.
To my acknowledgment of aid obtained from books, pamphlets, newspapers and magazines, official records and documents, must be added my appreciation of the help of many friends. Mr. Thomas M. Fendall of Morrisworth and Leesburg, of distinguished Virginia background himself, has made such careful and comprehensive studies of Loudoun's past that he was and is the logical prospective author of a book thereon; but his modesty equals his industry and scholarship to the very obvious loss, in this instance, to the County and its people. From him I have had such constant and constructive assistance and cheerful response to my frequent appeals that without his aid this book could not have attained its present form. To Loudoun's present County Clerk Mr. Edward O. Russell and to his deputy Miss Nellie Hammerley; to Mrs. John Mason; Mrs. E. B. White and Miss Elizabeth White of Selma; Mrs. Frederick Page; the Rev. G. Peyton Craighill, the present Rector of Shelburne Parish; the Rev. J. S. Montgomery; Miss Lilias Janney; Judge and Mrs. J. R. H. Alexander of Springwood; Mrs. Ashby Chancellor; Mrs. John D. Moore; Mr. Frank C. Littleton of Oak Hill, and his long studies of the history of that estate and of President Monroe; Trial Justice William A. Metzger; Mr. J. Ross Lintner, Loudoun's County Agent; Hon. Charles F. Harrison, Commonwealth's Attorney; Mr. Oscar L. Emerick, Superintendent of Schools, for permission to use the map of the County prepared by him; Mr. E. Marshall Rust; Mr. George Carter; Hon. Wilbur C. Hall and his efficient official staff; Mr. Valta Palma, Curator of the Rare Book Collection of the Library of Congress, and Mr. Hirst Milhollen of the Fine Arts Division of the same great institution; Mr. John T. Loomis, Managing Director of Loudermilk and Co. of Washington, as well as to very many others, my sincere thanks are again tendered for the valuable help they all so willingly have given me.
The illustrations used to embellish the text deserve a word of comment. The portrait of the Right Honourable John Campbell, 4th Earl of Loudoun, Captain-General of the British forces in America and Governor-in-Chief of Virginia, in whose honour the County of Loudoun was named, is reproduced from an engraving that appeared in the London Magazine of October, 1757, when Loudoun was at the height of his career. It was copied from the engraving by Charles Spooner of an earlier painting of the Earl by the Scotch artist Allan Ramsay (1713-1784), who later became the principal portrait painter to King George III and his court. I have in my collection two copies of this London Magazine engraving, one of which I found in the hands of a dealer in New York and the other in London. No other copies, so far as I can learn, have recently been offered for sale.
The fine portrait of the Right Honourable William Petty-FitzMaurice, Earl of Shelburne and 1st Marquess of Landsdowne, for whom Shelburne Parish was named, is by Sir Joshua Reynolds and is now in the National Portrait Gallery in London to which it was presented by his son Henry, 3rd Marquess of Landsdowne, K. G., in June, 1858. I obtained an official photograph of this painting at the National Portrait Gallery in the summer of 1937, and permission to reproduce it in this book.
The portrait of Sir Peter Halkett, Baronet, of Pitfiranie, Scotland, who commanded that part of Braddock's army that passed through the present Loudoun on its way to the fatal battle near Fort DuQuesne, is from P. McArdell's engraving of the portrait painted by Allan Ramsay in 1740, and is considered by me one of my most fortunate discoveries.
The pictures of Oak Hill in the body of the book and that of the meeting of the Middleburg Hunt on its spacious lawns, reproduced on the dust-jacket, are from the extensive collections of Mr. Frank C. Littleton. The original of the portrait of General George Rust of Rockland (1788-1857), builder of that cherished family seat in 1822, belongs to and is in the possession of a grandson, Mr. John Y. Rust of San Angelo, Texas, but a carefully executed copy hangs on Rockland's walls. During the two administrations of President Andrew Jackson, General Rust was in command of the United States Arsenal at nearby Harper's Ferry and for many years he was one of the most respected and influential of the County's citizens. The photograph of the original portrait herein used I owe to another grandson, Mr. E. Marshall Rust of Leesburg and Washington, as I do the picture of Rockland itself and that of the old John Janney residence in Leesburg, later so long the home of the late Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Edwards, the latter a sister of Mr. Rust. They were all photographed in this masterly fashion by Miss Frances Benjamin Johnston of Washington. The pictures of Foxcroft, Oak Hill and the old Valley Bank in Leesburg are from the Pictorial Archives of Early American Architecture in the Division of Fine Arts of the Library of Congress and the negatives are also the work of Miss Johnston.
Reproduction of the portrait of Nicholas Cresswell, the Journalist, is due to the courtesy of the Dial Press, of New York, publishers of the American edition of his journal. The original portrait is owned by Mr. Samuel Thorneley of Drayton House, near Chichester, West Sussex, England, a descendant of Cresswell's younger brother, Joseph Cresswell. The map of Loudoun is based on that prepared by Mr. Oscar L. Emerick in 1923, and is used by his kind permission.
And now, gentle reader, step with me into the pleasant land of Loudoun.
Harrison Williams.
Roxbury Hall
Near Leesburg, Virginia
March, 1938.