Lynchburg Virginian

A VIRGINIA HOMESTEAD
-The Editor of the Methodist Herald is traveling in Virginia. He thus describes an ancient domicile in Sussex county:-

Dickens complained when in this country that everything looked new. Had he visited Virginia his taste might have been gratified. I sit now in the attic of one of those old peaked roof domiciles, so common in this part of Virginia—unpromising on the outside, but inside full of hospitable cheer. It is only about ninety years old, and has never been painted. Its corner engbuenro and old-fashioned secretary are highly venerable. Nothing can exceed the neatness in which these aged dwellings are kept—the stairs are polished and without stain—every old-fashioned rush-bottomed chair is in its place. Not an atom of dust rests upon anything. The beds, with their pure white, beautifully wrought counterpanes, almost make you lethargic. Everything is clean, still and serene.

The owner of this tenement, an old man aged sixty-six, of great moral worth, died a few weeks since, and is now the tenant of a small family grave yard, just in sight, ornamented by four or five cedar trees. For sixty-five years without change, or thought of change, had he occupied this dwelling: and there now lies before me a Bakewell's Company Prayer Book, nearly a century old, containing the family records since 1783. Everything about it has a grave aspect, which is enhanced by the saddened light and shadows of autumn.

On my way here this morning, we passed through a forest of pines. In 1819, said a venerable old lady, this was planted in corn. Just to our left two tenements, deserted,— The plantations will soon be covered with pine, which seems to delight in relieving desolation. The pine forests; my first breath was drawn amid their shadowy, and when a boy nothing was more pleasant than to dive into one of their deep recesses. The wind never makes such music as when it sighs through their peculiar fringe.