. Virginia, the Old Dominion, as seen from its colonial waterway, the historic river James, whose every succeeding turn reveals country replete with monuments and scenes recalling the march of history and its figures from the days of Captain John Smith to the present time . draw^eror chest or closet, another treasure will ap-pear and lure you away with another storyof the long ago. With the inimitable sheenof old silver still in our eyes, our ears caughtthe crackle of ancient parchment; and weturned to the fascinations of venerable recordsand dingy red seals and queer blue taxstamps. The paper
. Virginia, the Old Dominion, as seen from its colonial waterway, the historic river James, whose every succeeding turn reveals country replete with monuments and scenes recalling the march of history and its figures from the days of Captain John Smith to the present time . draw^eror chest or closet, another treasure will ap-pear and lure you away with another storyof the long ago. With the inimitable sheenof old silver still in our eyes, our ears caughtthe crackle of ancient parchment; and weturned to the fascinations of venerable recordsand dingy red seals and queer blue taxstamps. The papers were delightfully quaintand yellow and worn, but from their veryage a little awesome too. The most valued one of them all is theoriginal grant of Martins Brandon bearingdate 1616 — four years before the Pilgrimslanded at Plymouth. The grant covers apage and a half of the large sheets of heavyparchment, and the ink is a stronger blackthan that on records a century younger. On a worn paper dated 1702 is a plat ofBrandon plantation. It shows that at thattime the central portion of the manor-househad not been built as only two disconnectedbuildings (the present wings) are given. Apart of the sketch is marked a corner ofthe garden. So, for two hundred years (and 136. TREASURED PARCH-MEXTS, IXCLUDIXG THE ORIGINAL GRANT OF1616. OLD SILVER, OLD PAPERS, AN OLD GOWN who knows how much longer?) there has beenthat garden by the river. Off at one side ofthe old map, we found our landing-place inthe woods beside some wavy lines that, a neatclerkly hand informed us in pale brown ink,were the meanderings of Chippoak Creek.* Poring so intently over those ancient pa-pers with their great Old English capitals,their stiff flourishes, their quaint abbrevia-tions, we should scarcely have been startledto see a peruked head bend above them anda hand with noisy quill go tracing along thelines of those long-ago Whereases * and Be it knowns. But, instead, something quite different cameout of the past
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjecthistori, bookyear1921
