) VISITS TO OOUNTBY PLACES, 



trees. History presses a volume into a word wlicn tlie unliendiiifj hickory is 

 taken to represent tlie hero wiiose will is enthusiasni to an army, and law to a 

 nation. The fitness of a tree to symbolize and commemorate u character should 

 not be distrusted, until we cease repeating and admiring that requiem-toned out- 

 burst of Shenandoah's rustic oratory : " I am an aged hemlock. The winds of a 

 hundred winters have whistled through uiy branches. I am dead at the top." 



In the adorning and keeping of a grave-garden, everything impertinent and 

 offensive, everything at variance with severe taste and the Christian's hoi)eful 

 sorrowing at the loss of friends, will be carefully excluded. 'So tipsy, reeling 

 monuments will offend the sight, no rank weeds or tangled briers, no neglected 

 walks or unshaven lawns, will force the suggestion that the buried are farther 

 away from memory than from sight. It is to be hoped that the time is coming 

 when no bin-like unsightly fences, or hard iron palisades will surround the lots 

 apj)ropriated to families ; such close unrural circumvallations, with their pickets, 

 padlocks, and paint, have an unsocial expression. They look as if neighbors 

 were suspicious of each other, even in their graves ; while those having lived, 

 suffered, and rejoiced together as kindred, finally sleep together in family groups, 

 the divisions of the ground, marked possibly by low evergreen hedges, should be 

 such as to recognize a brotherhood in Christian faith and a common humanity. 



VISITS TO COUNTRY PLACES. — NO. 10. 

 AROUND BALTIMORE, MD. 



Hampton, the seat of John Ridgley, Esq., some nine miles north of Baltimore, 

 towards the Pennsylvania line, will strike the visitor, accustomed to the cottage 

 ornee only, as expressing more grandeur than anything in America. The mansion, 

 situated on a domain of five or six thousand acres, was Erected soon after the 

 Revolution, 1783 we think, is one of those elegant and yet substantial dwellings 

 which our fathers knew so well how to enjoy. It brings at once to the mind the 

 " Republican Court," as Mr. Griswold calls General Washington's establishments, 

 and one expects to see Martha Washington issue from the door in the dress of the 

 portraits in that veritable book. The facade is one hundred and eighty feet in 

 length, with offices attached ; it is all of the best materials, and in the finest pre- 

 servation. The entrance hall is of great width, and passes the visitor to the south 

 front, where is the terraced garden. This hall is furnished as a large living-room, 

 and is, in fact, such, with the addition of its being a noble picture gallery, where 

 are collected some of the best specimens, including family portraits in full lengths 

 by Stewart and the best painters of the day. The large windows at the sides of 

 the doors are embellished with fine colored glass in elaborate figures and pictures, 

 and take it altogether we do not hesitate to pronounce the lout ensemble of the 

 very finest kind ; the expression involuntarily occurs — 



"And Grandeur, a magnificent abode." 



If all this strikes you as new and beautiful and rare, the impression is soon en- 

 hanced by the kind greeting and the suavity of the lady of the mansion, who 

 would grace a palace, or make a kingdom of a cottage ; other members of a large 

 family could be particularized, if it were our duty, or it were modest to paint 

 portraits; and it is just here that our difficulty occurs as we attempt descriptions 

 where the best half has to be entirely omitted. Suffice it, then, to say that at the 



ansion of " John Ridgley of Hampton" there is everything that the human 

 need covet, and that it fully represents at this day, the scenes of what, for 



