. Picturesque America; or, The land we live in. A delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, cañons, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of our country . rtimes, aroused the echoes of the mountains on the calm Sabbath, while the worshipperswound their slow way up the steep hill, and perhaps paused at the church-door to takea last look at the glorious scene below, the wooded heights, the shining river, the sleep-ing town, and to thank God that their little home, secure among its sheltering peaks,was so peaceful and unthreatened. We p
. Picturesque America; or, The land we live in. A delineation by pen and pencil of the mountains, rivers, lakes, forests, water-falls, shores, cañons, valleys, cities, and other picturesque features of our country . rtimes, aroused the echoes of the mountains on the calm Sabbath, while the worshipperswound their slow way up the steep hill, and perhaps paused at the church-door to takea last look at the glorious scene below, the wooded heights, the shining river, the sleep-ing town, and to thank God that their little home, secure among its sheltering peaks,was so peaceful and unthreatened. We pass by the side of the Episcopal church, which,in its time, must have been an imposing structure. We scramble over the rubbish andlook in, and find all foulness and pollution. The four bare walls are open to the sky;the windows are seamed and broken; the place where the altar stood is vacant, and the HARPERS FERRY. 327 marks of the gallery-stairs still wind their way upward into vacancy. Every trace ofwood-work has vanished. It was not burned, but torn away gradually in the mere wan-ton riot of desecration and destruction. A few steps farther bring us to Jefferson Rock, a remarkable stratified formation that. Maryland Heights. rises abruptly from the street below. It is the pride of the town, and, among the towns-people, is almost a name to conjure by. Upon it, according to one account, Jeffer-son inscribed his name; other authorities say that it was here that he wrote his Noteson Virginia, in answer to a foreigner of distinction. The first is, of course, the fact,and the other the accretion that time has added. Here we have the best view attain- 328 PICTURESQUE AMERICA. able of the mountains from their base, and of the meeting of the waters in this Valeof Avoca. Beyond the town loom up the Maryland Heights ; to the left, Loudonfrowns, crowned with its wealth of shaggy foliage, its sides seamed with innumerablefissures and dry ravines made in the crumbling rock by the winter-t
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1872
