That same trail or “trace” from Nashville to Natchez is 500 miles of consecutive beauty spots along continuous acres of parkways and historic highways.
Mrs. Roan Fleming Byrnes, serving as President of the Natchez Trace Highway Committee, in a recent publication says:
“The ancient trail was traveled by most of the well-known figures in the history of our country: Jefferson Davis; Peggy and Lorenzo Dow, the revivalists; the fast riding John Morgan; the famous Audubon. Lafayette rode over the Trace during his visit to the Natchez country; Aaron Burr was given his preliminary trial for treason under two liveoaks just beside the Trace; Meriwether Lewis died at an inn on the Trace when returning from his Western explorations.
“The life of Andrew Jackson is closely interwoven with the windings of the Natchez Trace. At Springfield plantation, in Jefferson county, Mississippi, Jackson was married to Rachael Robards; and, near Nashville, Tennessee, is the ‘Hermitage’, the home he built for Rachael.
“It was when marching his rejected Tennessee militia homeward over the Trace from Natchez to Nashville in 1813 that Jackson acquired his famous nickname, ‘Old Hickory’.”
The unusual beauty of the deep cut roadways, worn down by travel throughout the years, and the overlapping, moss-draped trees, will be preserved as far as possible.
Many of these old roads running into Natchez lead through deep, tunnel-like ways whose sides are sheer walls ten to eighty feet high and draped with long fronds of overhanging Spanish moss.
These roadways of tunnels and curves are weird and beautiful, affording an irresistible attraction for all travelers.
Airlie
Built prior to 1790, “Airlie” is a rambling, wide-spread building of cottage type, on a rolling elevation at the end of Myrtle street. It attracts attention through its unusual simplicity of exterior. Its architecture is entirely different from other ante-bellum homes in the community.
This great departure from the usual style is due to the age of Airlie. Its original building date is ahead of all the available history of Natchez.
Additions have been made, from time to time, until today Airlie stands twelve rooms broad, reaching a row of venerable cedars with their swaying moss which sweeps the eaves of this old home of the Ayres P. Merrill family.