to elevate the new; but there was in the temper and disposition of those former times a beauty and a charm, from many points of view, which this progressive age cannot present.

Many years ago, when the writer was much younger than now, he well remembers seeing in its proper place upon an old ante-revolutionary map of North Carolina, a house marked "Hermitage, Burgwin's Seat," and upon the notes issued in 1815 by the Bank of Cape Fear, which was the only bank in Wilmington for many years, was engraved a picture of the Hermitage in vignette. A few of those notes are still in existence, and very highly prized by their possessors. The locality was the most prominent and best known, not only in this section, but throughout the State, and was the residence of Mr. John Burgwin, the ancestor of a family distinguished in our annals for wealth and intelligence, and which, from his day to the year 1861, when the Iliad of our Southern woes began, was the seat of a profuse and elegant hospitality. If I mistake not, it was the last survivor of the old-time country mansions of Cape Fear, and the plantation the only one in the State which has been owned by one family and occupied by them from the time of its original grant by the royal patentees, nearly two hundred years ago, down to the present day. Rev. Richard Marsden was the first owner, from the original Lords Proprietors, of the two plantations afterwards known as the Hermitage and Castle Haynes, lying on opposite sides of the old county road, eight miles north of Wilmington. His residence at Castle Haynes was adorned and beautified with great skill and taste. He was the first Episcopal clergyman settled on Cape Fear River. Prior to his coming to America he was chaplain to the Duke of Portland, whom he accompanied to Jamaica when the duke was appointed governor of that island. While residing there, he was induced by some planters from South Carolina to go to Charleston, then the chief importing city on the continent, with a view of taking charge of one of the churches in that city; but when he arrived, owing either to his delay or some other cause, he found the place filled by another. His friends, however, hearing that the people of Wilmington desired the services of a clergyman, interested themselves in having him called. He came in due course of time, and officiated for several years as rector of St. James' parish, and was the main agent in having the first church edifice built.

Mr. Marsden's only daughter and heiress married Roger Haynes of Lisbon, and had two daughters. One was married to General Hugh Waddell of the British army, and the other to Mr. John Burgwin, the younger son of an ancient Welsh family. By family settlements both of these plantations became vested in Mr. Burgwin, and the original patent or grant for

the Hermitage lands, on indented parchment, signed by Earl Craven, sealed with wax and bound together with red ribbons, is still, I believe, in the possession of Mr. Burgwin's descendants.

The mansion-house was beautifully located, and presented a very imposing appearance. It was about one hundred and twenty feet long; the north front faced a sloping lawn, extending about one hundred and fifty yards to Prince George's Creek, and the south front faced a large flowergarden, from which extended a broad avenue about half a mile long, with a double row of elms on each side, continued by a carriage-way of more than a mile in length, under ditch and banks, through the pines, until it entered the county road leading to Wilmington. The avenue was almost entirely destroyed by a tornado about sixty years ago. The house contained seventeen rooms, with a light, well-ventilated stone cellarage extending under the whole. The building was of the most substantial character. Instead of weather-boarding, the two wings were sided with cypress shingles, which, after the lapse of more than a hundred years, were as sound and solid as when first nailed on. It is stated that they were made under contract by Colonel Samuel Ashe of Rocky Point, then a young man, and subsequently of revolutionary fame. The framing timbers were very large and solid, and being of heart pitch-pine, stood for many hours. after the sides and roof had burned away, at the fire which destroyed it in

the year 1881, presenting a very striking appearance as they stood in relief against the sky, erect and in place, a mass of blaze and heat.

The furniture was of massive mahogany, the greater part of it imported from England, with none of the deceptive veneering now in general use, but solid and substantial, intended not simply for ornament but service, and for the use of future generations. During the late war the mansion was occupied by a regiment of Federal troops, and greatly desecrated. All of the books, papers, and family records were destroyed, and the venerable furniture broken up or given to negroes. The large and very valuable oil painting, set in a panel over the mantelpiece in the drawing-room, and which was so much admired by visitors, was picked to pieces with their bayonets by the soldiers, in search of concealed treasure, some of the fragments being afterwards found in the garden.

The history of that picture presents the character of Mr. Burgwin in such an admirable light that it well deserves to be recorded. On his return to America, after the close of the Revolutionary War, he found himself greatly embarrassed by the debts which he owed in England, incurred before the war, while a great part of those which were due him in America could not be collected, owing to insolvencies and the Statute of Limitations, and other obstacles interposed by his debtors. His English debts were barred by law, and wholly uncollectable, as his creditors well knew. Yet, notwithstanding his great losses on this side, which nearly sacrificed his whole estate, such was his high sense of honor and indomitable energy that he did not rest until he had paid off every dollar he owed, although the struggle continued through one-half of his remaining years. It was to mark their appreciation of his honorable conduct that the merchants of the celebrated "Lloyd's Coffee-House" had the picture painted and sent to him.

It represented a forest scene, a dark thunder-storm arising in the distance, and in the foreground two horses drawing a heavy load-straining every muscle in their efforts to get it in before the storm should be upon them. It was greatly admired by connoisseurs, but its beauties were lost on the vandals who destroyed it, their sordid nature not being capable of seeing in a beautiful work of art anything but a supposed place of concealment for hidden treasure. Its loss has naturally been greatly deplored by the surviving members of the family, for they felt a just pride in possessing such a souvenir of their ancestor, reflecting so much honor upon him. The subject of the picture was happily chosen, symbolizing, as it did, the herculean efforts of Mr. Burgwin to relieve himself of embarrassments when surrounded by the dark clouds of adversity. About the year

1767, Mr. Burgwin was appointed Treasurer of the Province of North Carolina, and held the office with credit and honor to himself under the royal governors Tryon and Martin, during the stormy years which preceded the Revolution.

The writer has been permitted to copy from a family record, written for her children by the late Mrs. Caroline B. Clitherall, only daughter of Mr. Burgwin, and mother of Major George Burgwin Clitherall, of Mobile, and of Judge Alexander B. Clitherall, of Montgomery, Alabama, the following interesting account of the Hermitage and incidents connected with it. Mrs. Clitherall writes: "My father had received, in right of his wife, a large tract of land situate eight miles from Wilmington, divided and settled as two plantations. Upon one of these was a comfortable twostoried dwelling-house. Here, in 1753, with his young wife, he resided, and Castle Haynes was the seat of comfort and hospitality. On the other tract he put up a small house, intending to enlarge, as inclination directed. The health of Mrs. Burgwin declining, the physicians recommended change of climate and a sea-voyage. She soon, however, returned to die, and Castle Haynes was shut up. My father having much time at his command, continued his improvements at the other place. The land was soon made to produce abundance of vegetables, fruits, and shrubs. The original building became a wing to the large two-storied centre now erected. Taking up his residence there, and comparing his solitary life to that of a recluse, he named his residence The Hermitage.' Other additions were made from time to time, the workmen being his own slaves, directed by an English architect. Alcoves, bowers, a hothouse and fishpond, adorned the six acres laid off for pleasure grounds; a large vegetable, or, as it was called, cook's, garden, yielded plentifully for the table. But where is the possessor of wealth with a hospitable disposition suffered to reign alone? It was a retreat for the married men of business from Wilmington, and the tired traveler found no lock on the great gate which led to the mansion-house. A room at the east end was especially for travelers, and so named.

"How often have I heard my dear father relate anecdotes of those days when the Hermitage was the resort of those seeking for rest or pleasure within its hospitable doors. The urbanity of his manners, his liberality, general information, and cheerful disposition could not fail to attract guests for the day and often for the week. At one of these parties-it was in 1775-during a game of blind-man's-buff, in the large room known as the Long Hall, my father fell and broke his leg. It was unskillfully set, and for eleven weeks the poor patient could not be moved, but lay ex

tended on a mattress in the same room where he fell. Next year, under surgical advice, he went to England to have the broken leg reset."

The following extract from a letter written by Mr. Burgwin while in London, to a friend in Bristol, shows that our forefathers were subjected to the horrors of war, though to a much less degree than their descendants nearly a century afterwards, and that, too, in face of the opinion that we are a more enlightened and a more highly civilized people than those of the eighteenth century:

"He left Carolina last month, had seen Mrs. De Rossette, and said that as yet my Haynes and Hermitage places were safe, but that Marsh Castlet had been fired and some of my slaves carried off; that a marauding party had been at the Hermitage, and while the officers were reveling in my old wines under a threat of general plunder, Graham, the tenant, instructed old Robert where he had secreted the chest of plate and my papers. Robert, shrewdly, and to curry favor, produced a dusty quart bottle of what he told them was master's best old Madeira. This they took with an oath, and a toast to his Majesty King George, and among them emptied the precious bottle of-antimonial wine. When the desired effect was had, the faithful old negro, with Pompey's assistance, carried off the chest and buried it.",

In 1797, whether from a desire to return to England or for other reasons, Mr. Burgwin wished to dispose of his place, and wrote a friend in Bristol, requesting him to look out for a purchaser, and describing the property as follows. It will be seen that he was a man of substance, and his possessions large and valuable:

"The mansion-house is large, elegant, and commodious for a large family, with barn, stabling for twenty horses, cowhouses, pigeonhouse, and every other outhouse convenient or necessary. Near three thousand acres of land, all within a ring fence, double ditched and between a navigable river and creek, at the distance of eight miles from Wilmington. There are upwards of three hundred acres of rice land, near one hundred acres of which are clear, and under good dams and flood-gates, and there are upwards of three hundred acres of upland under tillage in corn, peas, * A clergyman he had just met.

An estate he owned on Lake Waccamaw.