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Chapter I. Childhood, Girlhood, Marriage.
A Bit of Family History—Plantation Scenes in North Carolina and Alabama—A Caravan of the Early Thirties—“De Year de Stars Fell”—I Partially “Scalp” My Cousin—The Strange Experience of an Early Alabama Instructress—Miss Brooks, a Distinguished Educator—My Uncle Takes My Training in Hand—A First Flight into the Beautiful World—Charles Kean and Ellen Tree—I Meet a Famous Belle—Mme. Le Vert Instructs Me in the Dance—An Intense Love Affair—My Knight Fails Me—A Gallant Lover Appears—Social Doings at a Primitive Capital—Poetswains in the Early Forties—A Dance with William L. Yancey—My Premonitions Are Realised and “My Own Comes to Me”—Marriage in the Morn of Life—The Homecoming of the Bride[3]
Chapter II. Washington Personages in the Fifties.
Journey to the Capital—An Early “Congressional Limited”—A Stump Orator of Alabama, the “Maker of Senators”—Arrival at the Capital—The Night Clerk Refuses Us Accommodations at the National Hotel—Undercurrents of Strife in Society—Mrs. Pierce—Pennsylvania Avenue in the Fifties—Survey of Washington’s Hostesses—Mme. de Bodisco and the Glacées—Her Second Marriage at Old St. John’s—Foreign Legations—Reminiscence of Octavia Walton in Washington—Mrs. Riggs Gives a Midnight Supper to Patti—Heller Appears; Likewise the Grand Elephant Hannibal[19]
Chapter III. A Historic Congressional “Mess.”
Our Mess at Historic Brown’s Hotel and at the Ebbitt House—Mrs. Pugh and the Baron Hulseman—The Boy Henry Watterson—Congressmen Clopton, Curry, Dowdell, L. Q. C. Lamar, and Shorter, Senator Fitzpatrick, and Their Wives—Mr. Dowdell Goes to Hear Gottschalk—Circumstances of the Sudden Death of Preston Brooks—The Stockton Mansion and Its Romances—Our “Mess” Considers the Prudence of Calling on a Certain Lady—Retribution Overtakes Us—Master Benny, the Hotel Terror[42]
Chapter IV. The Cabinet Circles of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan.
Washington in 1856—Secret Visit of President Pierce—Personal Recollections of Him—Secretaries Marcy, Cushing, and Dobbin—Incidents of the Latter’s Kindness of Heart—Secretary of War Jefferson Davis—Postmaster-General Brown—Secretary of State Guthrie—Story of the Conquest of Chevalier Bertinatti[58]
Chapter V. Solons of the Capital.
Society of Supreme Court Circles—Chief Justice Taney—Judge Campbell—Professors Henry and Maury—A Visit to the Latter’s Observatory—Thomas Hart Benton—George Wallace Tones: His Romantic History as Surveyor-General of the Great Northwest. At the Age of Ninety-one He Recalls a Day When He Meant to Kill Seward—Meeting with Myra Clarke Gaines—Senator and Mrs. Crittenden, a “Perfectly Happy Woman”[73]
Chapter VI. Fashions of the Fifties.
Aspect of Fashionable Society of the Pierce and Buchanan Administrations—Perditas of the Period—Low Necks and Lace Berthas—Kind Offices of American Consuls—Mr. Thomson and Miss Lane’s Toy Terrier—He Reports Upon the Petticoats at Brighton—Washington Dressmakers as Miracle-Workers—Mrs. Rich, a True Reconstructionist—Belles and Beaux of the Period—Barton Key—His Murder—Mrs. Sickles at Home—Revival of Moustaches—General Sam Houston; His Strange Attire—A Glimpse of This Hero in the Senate and in Society[86]
Chapter VII. The Relaxations of Congressional Folk.
Public Recreation—Flights to New York—Jenny Lind—Charlotte Cushman—Mrs. Gilbert and the Comedian Brougham in “Pocahontas”—Mr. Thackeray—Dr. Maynard—Blind Tom at the White House—Marine Band Concerts on the White House Lawn—President Pierce and the Countryman—President Buchanan and the Indians—Apothleohola, a Cherokee Patriarch—Dr. Morrow and the Expedition to Japan—Return of Same—Ruse of the Oriental Potentate to Prevent Our Securing Germinating Rice—A Plague of Japanese Handkerchiefs[101]
Chapter VIII. The Brilliant Buchanan Administration.
Miss Lane Becomes Lady of the White House—Her Influence on Washington Life—The Coming of Lord and Lady Napier—Their Hospitality—They Give a Ball to Lords Cavendish and Ashley—Mrs. Crittenden Puts to Rout a Younger Belle—Lord Napier Proposes a Toast to the Chevalier Bayard—Washington Citizens Give a Ball to the Napiers, at Which James Gordon Bennett Is Seen in the Dance—Some Prominent Citizen Hostesses—Lilly Price, the Future Duchess of Marlborough—Mr. W. W. Corcoran—His Lavish Entertainments—Howell Cobb’s Appreciation—A Stranger’s Lack of It—I Take the Daughter of a Constituent to See the Capitol[114]
Chapter IX. A Celebrated Social Event.
Mrs. Gwin’s Fancy Ball—To the White House for Inspection—Aunt Ruthy Partington Presents Herself to Mrs. Gwin—Mrs. Pendleton is Mystified—Senator Gwin and “My Boy Ike”—Lord and Lady Napier and Others of “Our Furrin Relations”—The Squelching of a Brave Baltimorean—Senator Seward Gives Welcome to the Stranger from Beanville—Mr. Shillaber Offers “to Immortalise” Me[126]
Chapter X. Exodus of Southern Society from the Federal City.
Gayety Begins to Wane in the Capital—A Wedding in Old St. John’s—Lord Lyons Replaces the Napiers—Anson Burlingame Rescues Me from a Dilemma—Political Climax—Scenes in the Senate—Admiral Semmes Declares His Intentions—Mr. Ruffin’s Menacing Arsenal—Ex-President Tyler’s Grief—We Hear News from Morris Island—Senators Clay, Davis, Fitzpatrick, Mallory, and Yulee Withdraw from the Senate—Visits of Representatives Pendleton and Vallandigham, and Senator Pugh, of Ohio—Joseph Holt Writes Deploring the Possible Loss to Our Country of Senator Clay’s “Genius and Patriotism” “A Plain New Hampshire Minister” Writes of the Times—We Leave the Federal City—Mrs. Philip Phillips Describes It a Few Weeks Later—Blair’s Alarm at Loss of Lee, Magruder, and Other “Good Officers”[138]
Chapter XI. War Is Proclaimed.
I Go with Senator Clay to Minnesota—“Let’s Mob the Fire-eater”—We See Our First Federal Soldiers at Cairo—Echoes of Sumter—Once More in the Blossomy South—In Picturesque Huntsville—We Hear from Montgomery of President Davis’s Unceasing Industry—A Survey of Huntsville—The “Plebs” and Aristocrats Compete for the Naming of the Town, and the Descendants of a Poet Give Way before Its Discoverer—A Nursing Mother of Alabama’s Great Men—The Fascinations of the Fair Vixens of the Early Nineteenth Century—A Baptism at the Big Spring—The Make-up of Our Army in ’61—We Hear from a Hero at Harper’s Ferry—Letters from Washington—We Prepare to Go to Richmond[153]
Chapter XII. Richmond as a National Capital.
We Arrive in Richmond, Where We Meet Many Old Friends—An Evening at the Mallorys’—We Establish Our Mess at Mrs. Du Val’s—Some of Our Heroes—We Feast on Oysters and Terrapin—Greenbacks, Canvas-backs, and Drawbacks—We Hear of the Fall of Nashville, and General Buell’s Designs Upon Huntsville—Some of Richmond’s Hostesses—Mrs. Stannard entertains; and the Famous Private Theatrical Performance of “The Rivals”—Mrs. Burton Harrison Recalls Her Triumph as Lydia Languish—The Caste—Mrs. Drew Acts as “Coach”—Mrs. Ives, Our Hostess, Is Saved from Stage Fright by a Bonnet Which Has Run the Blockade[168]
Chapter XIII. Glimpses of Our Beleaguered South Land.
Richmond in ’62—John A. Campbell Gives an Opinion on Confederate Money—An Exodus from the Capital—Mrs. Roger A. Pryor Rebukes a Contemptuous Lady—Our Mail a Pandora’s Box—News of New Orleans—William L. Yancey Returns from a Fruitless Trip to England—And Mr. Lamar from Russia—An Astronomer Turns Martinet—A Careful Search Is Made for General Pope Walker—Our Pastor’s Prayers Curtailed—The Federals Are Worried by General Roddy—Miss Mitchell “Confiscates” Some of My Property—“Hey! Git off ’Ginie Clay’s Mare!”—General Logan, a Case of Mistaken Identity—My Refugee Days Begin—A Glimpse of North Carolinian Hospitality—And of the Battle of Seven Pines—The Seed-corn of Our Race Is Taken—Return to Huntsville[178]
Chapter XIV. Refugee Days in Georgia.
Detained in Macon—General Tracy Tells of Conditions at Vicksburg—Senator Clay Writes of Grave Conditions in Richmond—A War-time Dinner with President Davis—My Sister and I Turn Seamstresses—Looking for Big Battles—Travel in ’63—Cliff and Sid Lanier Write from “Tented Field”—News from “Homosassa”[193]
Chapter XV. Clement C. Clay, Jr., Departs for Canada.
A Memory of Dahlgren’s Raid—Mr. Clay Accepts a Mission to Canada—Mr. Lamar’s Ideas on National Friendships—My Husband Takes His Departure—Troubled Petersburg and Still More Troubled Richmond—Hospital Experiences—My Sister Accuses Me of “Running from Yankees,” and Overtakes Me—We Nurse a Sick Soldier—I Get a Passport, but Fail to Use It—A Distinguished Watermelon Man[203]
Chapter XVI. The South’s Departed Glories.
A Typical Plantation—Senator Hammond’s Little Republic on Beech Island—Its General Influence—The Mill and the Miller—My Cousin, Mrs. Paul Hammond, Writes a Description of “Redcliffe”—The Hammond Negro as I Have Found Him—She Wins Them by Subterfuge—Senator Clay Dances a Highland Fling and Startles Some Gentle Methodists—St. Catharine’s; a Solemn Service There—A Sight for Abolitionists—Choristers of the Field—A Comparison[211]
Chapter XVII. Conditions in ’63 and ’64.
Cost of Clothing—Scarcity of Necessities—Memphis in Yankee Hands—Revival of Spinning and Weaving—A Salt Famine—Senator Hammond’s Sagacity—Potato Coffee and Peanut Chocolate—Mrs. Redd Weaves Me a Notable Dress—London Takes Note of Richmond Fashions—I Send a List of “Desirables” to Mr. Clay in Canada—Novelties for the Toilette and Writing-Table—Difficulties of Getting News—The President Writes Me of My Absent One, and Secretary Mallory Rejoices at His Conduct of Canadian Interest—Postal Deficiencies—Adventures of an Editor—Price of Candles Rises—Telegrams Become Costly and My Sister Protests—“Redcliffe” Mourns Her Master—Gloom and Apprehension at News of Sherman’s March—We Are Visited by Two of Wheeler’s Brigade—They Give Us Warning and the Family Silver Is Solemnly Sunk in the Ground—I Hear a Story of Sherman and Wheeler[222]
Chapter XVIII. The Death of Mr. Lincoln.
Conflicting Advice Reaches Me from the Capital—Also Sad News from Huntsville—Our Brother Tells of Political Opposition to the President—Soldiers and Citizens Desire the Presence of General Johnston in the Tennessee—Mr. Clay Communicates with Me by “Personals”—I Beg to Be Sent to Canada, but am Met by Opposition—The President Bids Me Take Refuge in the Capital—But Another Urges Me to Leave the Line of Sherman’s Army—I Place Myself Under General Howell Cobb’s Protection and Go to Macon—My Husband Runs the Blockade, but Is Shipwrecked Off Fort Moultrie—After Some Adventures He Reaches Macon—At the Home of General Toombs—We Hear News from Richmond—Mr. Clay Makes for the Capital and Reaches It—He Returns to Georgia—The Death of Mr. Lincoln: “The Worst Blow Yet Struck at the South!”[235]
Chapter XIX. C. C. Clay, Jr., Surrenders to General Wilson.
We Go to Lagrange—A Nest of “Rebels”—We Hear of President Johnson’s Proclamation Concerning Mr. Clay—My Husband Resolves to Surrender—He Telegraphs to General Wilson—We Proceed to Atlanta—Courtesy of Colonel Eggleston—He Gives Us a Guard—On to Macon—“Madam, Your Chief Is Taken”—Arrival at Macon—General Wilson Relieves Us of Our Guard—The Generosity of Women Friends—We Drive to Station—And See a Pathetic Cortege—“Say, Johnny Reb, We’ve Got Your President!”[246]
Chapter XX. Prisoners of the United States.
We Have an All-Night Ride to Augusta—Our Party of Prisoners Augments—I am Made Responsible for My Husband’s Appearance and We Go Visiting—We Return to Captivity—I Board the Boat Somewhat Hastily—And Unexpectedly Find Myself in the Arms of General Wheeler—He Gives Me a Lesson in Forbearance—A Dismal Voyage—We Reach Savannah and Are Transferred to the Clyde—Extracts from My Diary—Mr. Davis’s Stoicism—We Anchor Off Fortress Monroe—Mr. Clay Is Invited “to Take a Ride in a Tug”—Pathetic Separation of the Davis Family—Little Jeff Becomes Our Champion—We See a Gay Shallop Approaching—Two Ladies Appear and Search Us in the Name of the United States Government—A Serio-comic Encounter—And Still Another in Which “Mrs. Clay Lost Her Temper and Counselled Resistance!”—We Undertake to Deceive Lieutenant Hudson, but “Laugh on the Other Side” of Our Faces![258]
Chapter XXI. Return from Fortress Monroe.
On Board the Clyde—I Find a Guard at My Door—An Unknown Hands Me the Daily Papers—The News—I Write to Thirteen Distinguished Men—To Joseph Holt—A Friendly Soldier Posts My Letters—We Arrive in Savannah and Make Our Way to the Pulaski House—Savannah’s Generous People—Soldiers, Black and White—The Chaining of Mr. Davis—I Write to General Miles—Little Jeff Makes a Friend—“Bully for Jeff”—“Mordecai and Haman”[269]
Chapter XXII. Reconstruction Days Begin.
I Arrive in Macon After Various Discomforts—My Baggage Is “Examined” by General Baker—A Curious Oversight of the Government’s Agents—I Am Rescued from a Dilemma by John A. Wyeth, Knight-Errant—I Recover My Letters from the War Department, but with Difficulty—A Stricken Patriarch and a Spartan Mother—Huntsville Metamorphosed—“Reconstruction” Signs Appear—A Slave Emulates His New Masters—He, too, in Time, Is Metamorphosed—The Freedman’s Bureau versus “Ole Missus’s”—Southern Ladies and Camomile Flowers[278]
Chapter XXIII. News from Fortress Monroe.
We Hear Discouraging News of the Nation’s Prisoners—Denunciation of Joseph Holt and His Witnesses by the Reverend Stuart Robinson—He Exposes the “Infamous Perjuries of the Bureau of Military Justice”—Their Confession and Flight from the Country—Charles O’Conor Writes Me; Also Ben Wood, Who Offers to Advance the Cost of Mr. Clay’s Defense; Also Judge Black Writes Cheeringly—I Hear Through R. J. Haldeman of the Friendliness of Thaddeus Stevens; and from General Miles; Also, in Time, from Mr. Clay—His Letter Prophesies Future Racial Conditions, and Advises Me How to Escape the Evils to Come—Freed from Espionage, He Describes the “Comforts” of Life in Fortress Monroe—One of the Tortures of the Inquisition Revived[286]
Chapter XXIV. Once More in the Federal Capital.
Communications Are Reopened with Washington—Duff Green Makes Application to the President on My Behalf—I Hear from Mrs. Davis of Her Misfortunes—I Borrow $100 and Start for the Capital—Scenes on Cars and Boat—I Meet Many Sympathisers—And Arrive at Last at Cincinnati—Yankee Ideas and Yankee Notions—Mrs. Pugh Visits Me—Also Senator and Mrs. Pendleton, Who Take Me Home—Once More en Route for Washington—Within Its Precincts[300]
Chapter XXV. Secretary Stanton Denies Responsibility.
Arrival at Willard’s—Expecting Enemies, I Find Many Old Friends—General Ihrie, of Grant’s Staff, Calls On Me—Also a Nameless Lady—Judge Hughes and Judge Black Counsel Me—I Visit the White House to Plead with Mr. Johnson—Mrs. Douglas Is My Companion—Mr. Johnson “Lives up to His Reputation” and Tells Me to See Mr. Stanton—Which I Do—The Secretary’s Manner—“I am Not Your Husband’s Judge, Neither am I His Accuser”—I Call Upon General Grant, Who Writes to President Johnson on Behalf of Mr. Clay[307]
Chapter XXVI. Mr. Holt Reports upon the Case of C. C. Clay, Jr.
I Send General Grant’s Letter to Mr. Johnson—And Beg to Be Allowed to Visit Fortress Monroe—I Begin to Feel the Strength of a Concealed Enemy—I Refuse to Go to Mr. Stanton, and Have a First Pass-at-Arms with the President—Mr. Holt Presents His “Report on the Case of C. C. Clay, Jr.”—His Several Opinions of Mr. Clay in Parallel—Denied an Examination of the Infamous Document by the War Department, the President’s “Official Copy” Is Placed at My Disposal—Some of Its Remarkable Features—The President Promises Me He Will Not Deliver My Husband and Mr. Davis up to the Military Court, and Agrees to Issue on His Own Responsibility a Permit to Visit Fortress Monroe—I Go to New York and Hobnob with “An Old Abolitionist”[317]
Chapter XXVII. President Johnson Interposes.
President Johnson Issues a Permit on His Own Responsibility—I Leave Washington for Fortress Monroe—And Meet with Kindness on the Way—Dr. Craven Admonishes Me to Look for No Favours from His Successor—I Meet General Miles in His Headquarters, Which Have Been Furnished by General Butler—I Experience a Weary Delay—Am Refused Explanation or Use of Telegraph Wires—Dr. Vogell Intercedes—At Nightfall I Am Taken to My Husband’s Cell—I Return to the Capital—Death of Mrs. C. C. Clay, Sr.—I Report to the President the Incidents of My Visit to the Fortress—He Assures Me They Shall Not Be Repeated—He Issues Another Permit and Promises to Read a Letter in His Cabinet[331]
Chapter XXVIII. The Prison.
Again at the Fortress—My Husband’s Cell and Room in Carroll Hall—Some of the Comforts of Fortress Monroe and of Mr. Clay’s Position—I am Told of Some of His Experiences—A Statement of Others—Mr. Davis at the Fortress—An Exchange of Notes—My Husband Turns Caretaker—With a Soft Answer He Turns Away a Soldier’s Wrath—I Have a Curious Adventure in Which I Meet a Lamb in Wolf’s Clothing[345]
Chapter XXIX. President Johnson Hears What “the People Say.”
President Johnson Is Kind but Vacillating—Straws That Show a Veering of the Wind—Colonel Rhett Talks with Mr. Bennett, and the Herald Grows Curious as to the Mysteriously Detained Prisoners—Thaddeus Stevens Writes to Mr. Johnson on Behalf of Mr. Clay—I Have a Nicodemus-like Visitor—Mr. Wilson, Vice-President of the United States, Writes to the President on Mr. Clay’s Behalf—Signs of Political Disquiet—Parties and Partisans—I Receive Some Political Advice and Determine to Act Upon It—I Have a rencontre in the Corridors of the White House—And Tell Mr. Johnson What “the People Say”[354]
Chapter XXX. The Government Yields Its Prisoner.
Old Friends and New—Mme. Le Vert and Other Famous Personages Return to the Capital—General Lee is Lionised—I Secure the Liberty of the Fort for My Husband, and Indulge in a Little Recreation—I Visit the Studio of Vinnie Reames and the Confederate Fair at Baltimore—I Return to Washington and Resume My Pleadings with the President—Mr. Mallory, Admiral Semmes, and Alexander Stephens Are Released—Mr. Mallory and Judge Black Counsel Me to Take Out the Writ of Habeas Corpus—The Release Papers Are Promised—I Visit the Executive Mansion to Claim Them and at Last Receive Them—“You Are Released!”—Congratulations Are Offered—The Context of Some of These—“God Has Decreed That No Lie Shall Live Forever”—We Turn Our Faces Once More to the Purple Mountains of Alabama[367]

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Mrs. Clay, of AlabamaFrontispiece
Facing Page
Mrs. Benjamin Fitzpatrick, of Alabama[26]
Adelina Patti, aged sixteen[38]
Mrs. Roger A. Pryor, of Virginia[44]
Mrs. George E. Pugh (Thérèse Chalfant), of Ohio. “The most beautiful woman in Washington”[46]
Franklin Pierce, President of the United States, 1853–’57[60]
Mrs. William L. Marcy, of New York[62]
Mrs. J. J. Crittenden, of Kentucky[84]
Mrs. Chestnut, of South Carolina[94]
Jenny Lind[102]
James Buchanan, President of the United States, 1857–’61[108]
Miss Harriet Lane, mistress of the White House, 1857–’61[114]
Lady Napier and Her Sons[116]
Mrs. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi[134]
Lord Lyons, British Ambassador to the United States[140]
Clement C. Clay, Jr., United States Senator, 1853–’61[148]
L. Q. C. Lamar, 1862[164]
Mrs. Philip Phillips, of Washington, D. C.[166]
Senator James H. Hammond, of South Carolina[212]
General Joseph Wheeler, of Alabama[232]
Dr. Henry C. Vogell, Fortress Monroe, 1866[334]
Dr. George Cooper, Fortress Monroe, 1866[350]
Mrs. A. S. Parker, of Washington, D. C.[368]
Jefferson Davis and Clement C. Clay, Jr. (after release from Fortress Monroe)[374]

A BELLE OF THE FIFTIES

CHAPTER I
Childhood, Girlhood, Marriage

My infant days were spent in North Carolina among the kinsmen of my mother. I do not remember her, save that she was young and fair, being but twenty when she died. She was the twenty-fifth child of the family united under her father’s roof, which remarkable circumstance may be explained as follows:

My grandfather, General William Arrington, who won his title in the Revolutionary War, having been left a widower with twelve children, wearying of his solitude, mounted his horse and rode over to visit the comely widow Battle, whose children also numbered twelve. The two plantations lay near together in the old “Tar Heel” State. My gallant ancestor was a successful wooer, and Mrs. Battle, née Williams, soon became Mrs. Arrington. Thus it happened that the little Anne—my mother—the one daughter of this union, entered the world and simultaneously into the affections of one dozen half-brothers and sisters Arrington, and as many of the Battle blood. This was a fortunate prevision for me, for, though orphaned at the outset of my earthly pilgrimage—I was but three years old when my girl-mother passed away—I found myself by no means alone, though my dear father, Dr. Peyton Randolph Tunstall, grief-stricken and sorrowful, left my native State at the death of his wife, and I was a half-grown girl ere we met again and learned to know each other.

My recollections of those early days are necessarily few; yet, were I a painter, I might limn one awful figure that lingers in my memory. She was a mulatto, to whose care for some time I was nightly confided. This crafty maid, Pleasant by name, though ’twas a misnomer, anxious to join in the diversions of the other domestics among the outlying cabins on the plantation, would no sooner tuck me into bed than she would begin to unfold to me blood-curdling stories of “sperrits an’ ghoses,” and of “old blue eyes an’ bloody bones” who would be sure to come out of the plum orchard and carry me to the graveyard if I did not go quickly to sleep. Fortunately, old Major Drake, of whose family I was then a member, chanced one evening to overhear this soothing lullaby, and put an end to her stories ere serious harm had been done; yet so wonderful is the retentive power of the human mind that though seventy and more momentous years have passed since I, a little fearsome child, huddled under the coverings breathless in my dread of the “bogie man,” I still recall my heartless, or perhaps my thoughtless, nurse vividly.

At the age of six I was carried to Tuscaloosa, then the capital of the young State of Alabama, where I was placed in the care of my aunt, whose husband, Henry W. Collier, then a young lawyer, afterward became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of his State, and its Governor. That first journey stretches out in my memory as an interminable pilgrimage. Mr. Fort, of Mississippi, his wife, my mother’s sister, and their two children, Mary and Martha, accompanied by a large following of Negroes, being en route for their plantation in Mississippi territory, I was given into their care for delivery to my kin in Tuscaloosa. No palace-car of later days has ever eclipsed the wonders of the cavalcade our company made as we passed along through towns and villages and the occasional Indian settlements that here and there dotted the untilled lands of those early nineteenth-century days!

My uncle drove in his gig at the head of the procession, while my aunt and the children made the journey in a big pudding-shaped carriage in charge of a trusty driver, beside whom my aunt’s maid sat. The carriage was built with windows at the sides, and adjustable steps, which were let down when we halted and secured in place by our Negro attendants. These followed behind the vehicles and were at hand to serve us when need arose.