| | 101 | Author: | Kennedy
John Pendleton
1795-1870 | Add | | | Title: | Swallow Barn, or A sojourn in the Old Dominion  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | In the time of the Revolution, and for a good
many years afterwards, Old Nick enjoyed that solid
popularity which, as Lord Mansfield expressed it,
follows a man's actions rather than is sought after
by them. But in our time he is manifestly falling
into the sere and yellow leaf, especially in the
Atlantic states. Like those dilapidated persons who
have grown out at elbows by sticking too long to a
poor soil, or who have been hustled out of their profitable
prerogatives by the competition of upstart numbers,
his spritish family has moved off, with bag and
baggage, to the back settlements. This is certain,
that in Virginia he is not seen half so often now as
formerly. A traveller in the Old Dominion may
now wander about of nights as dark as pitch, over
commons, around old churches, and through graveyards,
and all the while the rain may be pouring
down with its solemn hissing sound, and the thunder
may be rumbling over his head, and the wind
moaning through the trees, and the lightning flinging
its sulphurous glare across the skeletons of dead
horses, and over the grizzly rawheads upon the tombstones;
and, even, to make the case stronger, a
drunken cobbler may be snoring hideously in the
church door, (being overtaken by the storm on his
way home,) and every flash may show his livid,
dropsical, carbuncled face, like that of a vagabond
corpse that had stolen out of his prison to enjoy the
night air; and yet it is ten to one if the said traveller
be a man to be favoured with a glimpse of that old-fashioned,
distinguished personage who was wont to
be showing his cloven foot, upon much less provocation,
to our ancestors. The old crones can tell you
of a hundred pranks that he used play in their day,
and what a roaring sort of a blade he was. But,
alas! sinners are not so chicken-hearted as in the
old time. It is a terribly degenerate age; and the
devil and all his works are fast growing to be forgotten. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 102 | Author: | Kennedy
John Pendleton
1795-1870 | Add | | | Title: | Rob of the Bowl | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | It is now more than one hundred and forty-four
years since the ancient capital of Maryland was
shorn of its honours, by the removal of the public
offices, and, along with them, the public functionaries,
to Annapolis. The date of this removal, I think, is
recorded as of the year of grace sixteen hundred
and ninety-four. The port of St. Mary's, up to that
epoch, from the first settlement of the province, comprehending
rather more than three score years, had
been the seat of the Lord Proprietary's government.
This little city had grown up in hard-favoured times,
which had their due effect in leaving upon it the visible
tokens of a stunted vegetation: it waxed gnarled
and crooked, as it perked itself upward through the
thorny troubles of its existence, and might be likened
to the black jack, which yet retains a foothold in this
region,—a scrubby, tough and hardy mignon of the
forest, whose elder day of crabbed luxuriance affords
a sour comment upon the nurture of its youth. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 103 | Author: | Kennedy
John Pendleton
1795-1870 | Add | | | Title: | Rob of the Bowl | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | The festival of St. Therese, Blanche's birth-day,
so anxiously looked for by the younger inhabitants
of St.Mary's, and scarcely less heartily welcomed
by the elder, at length came round. Towards sunset
of an evening, mild in temperature and resplendent
with the glorious golden-tipped clouds of the
October sky, the air fraught with that joyful freshness
which distinguishes this season in Maryland,
groups of gay-clad persons were seen passing on the
high road that led from the town to the Rose Croft.
The greater number, according to the usage of that
day, rode on horseback, the women seated on pillions
behind their male escort. Some of the younger
men trudged on foot, and amongst these was even
seen, here and there, a buxom damsel cheerily making
her way in this primitive mode of travel and
showing by her merry laugh and elastic step how
little she felt the inconvenience of her walk. “ORDER OF COUNCIL. “I, Gilbert Travers, sergeant of musqueteers, who
formerly served in the Walloon Guard of his Highness
the Prince of Orange, and hath held the degree of
Master of the Noble Science of Defence in forty-seven
prizes, besides four that I fought as a provost
before I took said degree, will not, in regard to the
fame of Stark Whittle, fail to meet this brave inviter
at the time and place appointed; desiring a clear
stage and from him no favour. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
| 104 | Author: | Kirkland
Caroline M.
(Caroline Matilda)
1801-1864 | Add | | | Title: | Western clearings | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | Wiley and Putnam's library of American books | wiley and putnams library of american books | | | | Description: | The wild new country, with all its coarseness and all its
disadvantages of various kinds, has yet a fascination for the
settler, in consequence of a certain free, hearty tone, which has
long since disappeared, if indeed it ever existed, in parts of the
country where civilization has made greater progress. The
really fastidious, and those who only pretend to be such, may hold
this as poor compensation for the many things lacking of another
kind; but those to whose apprehension sympathy and sincerity
have a pre-eminent and independent charm, prefer the kindly
warmth of the untaught, to the icy chill of the half-taught; and
would rather be welcomed by the woodsman to his log-cabin, with
its rough hearth, than make one of a crowd who feed the ostentation
of a millionaire, or gaze with sated eyes upon costly feasts
which it would be a mockery to dignify with the name of hospitality.
The infrequency of inns in a newly settled country leads
naturally to the practice of keeping “open house” for strangers;
and it is rare indeed that the settler, however poor his accommodations,
hesitates to offer the best he has to the tired wayfarer.
Where payment is accepted, it is usually very inconsiderable;
and it is seldom accepted at all, unless the guest is manifestly
better off than his entertainer. But whether a compensation be
taken or refused, the heartiness of manner with which every thing
that the house affords is offered, cannot but be acceptable to the
visitor. Even the ever rampant pride, which comes up so disagreeably
at the West, where the outward appearance of the
stranger betokens any advantage of condition, slumbers when
that stranger claims hospitality. His horse is cared for with
more solicitude than the host ever bestows on his own; the table
is covered with the best provisions the house affords, set forth in
the holiday dishes; the bed is endued with the brightest patchwork
quilt—the pride of the housewife's heart; and if there be
any fat fowls—any white honey—any good tea—about the premises,
the guest will be sure to have it, even though it may have
been reserved for “Independence” or “Thanksgiving.” | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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