SOLON ROBINSON, 1845 431 



roof steep and ornamented by three high peaked pro- 

 jections or turrets, in the face of which were small win- 

 dows or loop-holes, that look as though designed to recon- 

 noitre for savage foes that might be lurking in the ro- 

 mantic valley of this location. The vallies of this region 

 are all fertile, and ever will continue to be, while the 

 limestone hills continue to disintegrate and send down the 

 best of manure. Col. Snowden, a gentleman whom I met 

 with to-day upon one of these rich bottom farms, tells 

 me that he raises as fine hemp as he ever raised in Ken- 

 tucky. I also was informed by Dr. Cooley, (with whom 

 I dined,) another gentleman in the same valley, who lives 

 upon an "old grant," that the long and continued crop- 

 ping of this land had no perceptible effect upon it. In 

 buying an "old grant," a man has a great advantage over 

 one who enters land surveyed by the United States, be- 

 cause the old settlers having no rigid rules to confine 

 them to straight lines, have run them in all kinds of 

 curious angles so as to make up the amount of their 

 claim entirely of the best lands contiguous. 



At Hillsboro, the County seat of Jefferson county, I 

 very unexpectedly met with a warm friend of agricul- 

 tural improvement, who not only reads himself, but in- 

 duces others to subscribe for such papers; and yet this 

 man is not a cultivator himself, but as is often the case, 

 is a much more efficient friend of every thing that tends 

 to improve the condition of that class than they them- 

 selves are. The reason is soon told. He reads — and what 

 is all important, he knows just enough to know that he 

 yet can learn more. The most difficult class to contend 

 with, being those that already know so much that they 

 cannot be taught any more. This gentleman, John S. 

 Matthews, Esq. clerk of the county, has a very fine cabi- 

 net of minerals, nearly all of which he has collected him- 

 self. It was here that I saw some beautiful specimens 

 of shell marble, quantities of which exist in the neigh- 

 boring hills, and which might be profitably worked. He 

 also showed me some specimens of cannel coal of excel- 



