University of Virginia Library

CHAPTER II.

Within the range of the Virginia Springs,
the climate is much more uniform than that
of the Atlantic region in the same latitudes.
The severe north-easterly winds which extend
over the tide-water districts, are arrested in
their westward career by the Blue Ridge
Mountains; or if they partially affect the
Valley of Virginia, the Alleghanies oppose an
insuperable barrier. The air, though keen,
is always pure, bracing, and exhilarating;
nor is there ever that alternation of a close,
suffocating atmosphere, with intense cold,
which is so well known on the Atlantic borders,
and proves so depressing to the vital
powers. Extremes of cold or heat are seldom
felt, and may be considered exceptions to the
general character of the climate.

We have never seen, at our residence, the
thermometer lower than 6° below zero, and
we have been used to consider 6° above as
very cold weather. The greatest degree of

heat we have observed has been 97°, but it
seldom exceeds 86°, and but for a few hours
at mid-day. The usual summer atmosphere
is from 57 to 78°. The nights and mornings
are almost always agreeably cool. It will be
readily seen, that where there is often a difference
of 30° in the temperature of the morning
and afternoon, it becomes necessary to
adapt the clothing to the different conditions
of the atmosphere; it would therefore be imprudent
to go abroad in the early morning
clothed in nankeen. Our fogs, always indices
of fair weather, though perfectly free from
miasma, are nevertheless humid, and render
woollen clothing perfectly comfortable. With
this precaution there is nothing to prevent
early rising and exercise.

The rainy season in the Virginia Mountains
sets in about the 15th of March, and
sometimes extends into the month of June.
The season for using the waters may be said
to commence on the 1st June, and terminate
on the 1st October. About the 15th September,
it is not uncommon to see a heavy rain
succeeded by two or three cold nights and
white frosts. The visiters, alarmed by this

little equinoctical demonstration, disperse
like migrating birds, and leave those beautiful
valleys, lately the abodes of gaiety, solitary
and silent as a deserted village. They
have scarcely crossed the Blue Ridge, however,
ere they find that their apprehensions
of a permanent change in the weather were
premature, and now earnestly wish themselves
back again among the scenes and
friends from which they have just departed.
In truth, the most delightful period of the year
in the Mountains, is that between the 20th
September and 1st November. It is the sweet
season of Indian summer, when the woods are
clothed in their most gorgeous livery,—when
Nature seems to enjoy a calm repose, as if to
prepare herself for the buffeting storm of the
approaching winter.

The society which frequents the Virginia
Springs is for the most part the élite of the

country. Saratoga and other northern watering-places
being accessible by railroads
to persons in every condition of life, and at
a trifling expense, the mass of visiters is of
course composed of all sorts of people. The
knowledge of this fact makes men distrustful
of each other's standing, and shy and reserved.
At the Virginia Springs, on the contrary,
there is an entire feeling of equality, a
relinquishment of formality, a republican
simplicity of manners, a recriprocity of kind,
courteous, but unpretending civility, and an
easy, unaffected, social intercourse, that renders
those places peculiarly agreeable. No
one can have failed to observe the difference
between large and small communities, as regards
sociability; the latter, being in some
degree individually dependent on each other,
cultivate kindly feelings, and form strong
attachments, whilst it is not uncommon for the
resident of a city to be ignorant of the name
of his next-door neighbour. So it is at the
Mineral Springs: the more populous they are,
the less sociable.

The great novelist from whom we have
already quoted, makes indeed the following

correct observations on this subject: "The
society of such places is regulated by their
very nature, upon a scheme much more indulgent
than that which rules the world of
fashion, and the narrow circles of rank in the
metropolis. The titles of rank, birth, and
fortune are received at a watering-place without
any very strict investigation, as adequate
to the purpose for which they are preferred;
and as the situation infers a certain degree
of intimacy and sociability for the time, so, to
whatever height it may have been carried, it
is not understood to imply any duration beyond
the length of the season. No intimacy
can be supposed more close for the time,
and more transitory in its endurance, than
that which is attached to a watering-place
acquaintance." Yet there are numerous instances
of permanent and ardent friendship
originating among those rural retreats, and
even the wily Cupid not unfrequently speeds
his arrows from the shade of some majestic
oak. "Hither come also," says the same author,
"the unprincipled gamester, the imposter,
the heartless fortune-hunter. But, besides
these characters, who are actually dangerous
to society, a well-frequented watering-place
generally exhibits for the amusement
of the company, and the perplexity and
amusement of the more inexperienced, a
sprinkling of persons called by the newspapers,
eccentric characters—individuals,
namely, who either from some real derangement
of their understanding, or, much more
frequently, from an excess of vanity, are ambitious
of distinguishing themselves by some
striking peculiarity in dress or address, conversation
or manners, and perhaps in all.
"Hither too comes the saunterer, anxious to
get rid of that wearisome attendant, himself;
and thither come both males and females,
who, upon a different principle, desire to
make themselves double."

Whatever may be the motive of the visit,
whether pleasure or health, it will readily be
conceded that a cheerful spirit, a disposition
to be pleased, sympathy with the feelings of
others, an entire suspension of care, and a
fondness for rural scenes and enjoyments, are
essential to the attainment of the object.
The moody, selfish man can have no real
enjoyment, his heart beats in unison with

no human being, he measures mankind by
the standard of his own sullen disposition, he
is suspicious of motive when treated with
cordiality, and when not caressed, he deems his
merits overlooked, his pride is wounded, and
he takes revenge upon the world by shrouding
himself in his offended dignity and burying
himself alive in his own melancholy
reflections. Whilst we shed a tear for a fellow-being
afflicted with so direful a malady
of the mind, we should pray God to bless us
with a happy spirit of cheerfulness.

The invalid is especially prone to be low-spirited
and home-sick, and when the latter
feeling possesses the mind, farewell to improvement!
All the faculties of the mind
seem absorbed in that one thought, and it is
utterly useless to oppose it. So frequent is
it, indeed, especially in mothers who have
left young children, and so easily excited,
that we have for several years forbidden the
song called "Home," to be sung or played by
the band.

Let us therefore advise those who visit the
Springs for health, to do so with the firm resolution
not to make themselves unhappy

about home; or if they distrust their own
firmness, let them take with them the objects
of so much interest; otherwise their friends
and themselves will be disappointed of happy
results. The man who considers the vast
influence of the passions and the affections
over that wonderfully contrived machine,
the human body, will not think that we
have attached too much importance to this
matter. Would to God, it were more generally
taken into view by medical men! and
we should then see many of the maladies
that are now treated, and aggravated too, by
the villanous compounds of the apothecary,
readily yield to the more rational prescription
of pure air, free exercise, freedom from care,
and cheerful society.

Having thus far indulged in generalities,
it is now time we should be more specific.
Although we must reserve detail until we
come to treat of the different diseases for
which those Springs are visited, and the
water adapted to each case, yet there are general
principles which apply to all watering-places,
and to the mode of using them, and
thus far we shall treat this matter at present.