94 HISTORICAL AND SOCIAL SKETCH OF 



to the imagination the idea of a city of the dead. 

 But the neat church, with its modest belfry, suggests 

 the idea of a Christian life ; while, on clearing the 

 skirts of the village, a well-beaten track, with all the 

 appointments of a race-course, indicates that this 

 eminently southern sport has its votaries. The road 

 now leaves all vestiges of life, but it is good, and 

 there is a something about it, its firm and well- 

 beaten track nearly overgrown with turf, contrasting 

 curiously with the neglected ditches which define its 

 limits on either side, that mysteriously recalls the 

 notion of ancient grandeur. Now it crosses one of 

 the great highways to the metropolis ; and now ap- 

 pears a low wooden building, containing one apart- 

 ment, with a table extending nearly its whole length, 

 and benches on either side. This is the club-house, 

 where the citizens meet from time to time for 

 the unrestrained enjoyment of social and convivial 

 intercourse. At every step as you proceed you find 

 traces of former industry. Large circular tumuli 

 abound, bearing on their surface trees of venerable 

 age, which have grown up since the mounds w^ere 

 formed in the process of making tar. And now, 

 too, you see the trunks of trees, with their barks 

 neatly and carefully stripped to a great height, pre- 

 senting to a lively imagination the appearance of an 

 innumerable assemblage of tombstones. These are 

 the marks of the turpentine gatherers, and this dis- 

 play of the presence of recent. activity heightens the 



