VI
The Holly Tree
It was while on a mountain climbing trip in the French Alps, when stormstayed at a small inn at Grenoble, that a chance acquaintance showed The Viscount Adare a copy of “The Travels of Thomas Ashe,” a book which had recently appeared in London and created a sensation in the tourist world. The Viscount had already perused “Travels Beyond the Alleghenies,” by the younger Michaux, but the volume by Ashe, so full of human interest, more than sharpened his old desire to travel in the United States, now that a stable peace between the young republic and the Mother Country was a matter of some years standing.
The mountains, as described by both Michaux and Ashe, seemed stupendous and inspiring, wild game and mighty forests were everywhere, and a glimpse might be caught of the vanishing redmen, without journeying as far west as the Mississippi River.
Thomas Ashe excelled in descriptions of the life along the mountain highways, though nothing could be more vivid than Michaux’s pen picture of his feast on venison cooked on the coals on the hearth at Statler’s stone tavern on the Allegheny summits, near Buckstown. This ancient hostelry is, by the way, still standing, though misnamed “The Shot Factory,” by modern chroniclers, much to the disgust of the accurate historian of Somerset County, George W. Grove.
All during his trip among the Alps of Savoy, and Dauphiny, The Viscount Adare was planning the excursion to Pennsylvania. His love of wild scenery was one compelling reason, but perhaps another was Ashe’s description of his meeting and brief romance with the beautiful Eleanor Ancketell, daughter of the innkeeper on the Broad Mountain, above Upper Strasburg, Franklin County.
It was well along in August, the twenty-first to be exact, when Ashe’s book was first shown to him, therefore it seemed impracticable to make the journey that year, but the time would soon roll around, and be an ideal outing for the ensuing summer. From the time of his return to London, until almost the date set for the departure, The Viscount Adare busied himself reading every book of American travel and adventure that he could lay his hands on, besides accumulating a vast outfit to take along, although the trip was to be on foot, and without even a guide.
Needless to say, with such an interesting objective, the year passed very rapidly, not that The Viscount had no other interests, for he had many, being a keen sportsman and scientist, as well as a lover of books, paintings and the drama.
It was on the twenty-third of August, a little over a year after his first acquaintance with the writings of Ashe, that The Viscount embarked for Philadelphia, on the fast sailing ship “Ocean Queen.” Very few Englishmen went to America for pleasure in those days as the sting of the Revolution was still a thorn in their sides. Many Britishers did go, but they were mostly of the commoner sort, immigrants, not tourists.
The Viscount Adare, even before sailing, had his itinerary pretty well mapped out. He would tarry a week in Philadelphia to get rid of his “sea legs,” then proceed by carriage to Louisbourg, then beginning to be called Harrisburg, and go from there to Carlisle, Shippensburg, and Upper Strasburg, at which last named place he would abandon his conveyance, and with pack on back, in true Alpine fashion, start overland, traversing the same general direction of Michaux and Ashe towards Pittsburg. At Pittsburg he planned to board a flat boat and descend the Ohio, thence into the Mississippi, proceeding to New Orleans, at which city he could set sail for England.