710 



THE FAKxMERS' REGISTER. 



Moist Dried. 

 Dry muscular flesh - - . 3 13 



Cod salted .... 6 17 



Do., pressed and dried - - 2 10 



JBlood soluble .... 3 12 



Do., liquid .... 13 



Do. ..... 14 



Do., coagulated and pressed 

 Do., dry in-oluble . . - 

 Feathers .... 



Cow's hair .... 



Woollen rags . . . - 

 Horn raspings ... 



Cockchalers . . . . 



Bones, boiled (fondus") 



Do., moist .... 



Do., lat - - . • . 



Glue refuse .... 



Glue dross {rnare de colle) - 

 Graves - - - - . - 



Animal black of the manufacturers 



Animalized black 



Noir des camps (7) . . - 



11 

 11 

 11 

 12 

 9 



12 

 14 

 25 



2 

 2 

 2 

 2 



2 

 12 



5 



7 



6 



75 213 

 10 84 



3 15 

 37 95 

 36 98 

 32 65 



"THE STONE HOUSE. 



For the Fanners' Register. 



This building, whose history la now entirely 

 wrapped in the mystery of the past, after remam- 

 ing liar a century or more unknown to its nearest 

 neighbors or the oldest inhabitants, begins to 

 arrest the attention of the present day ; and nu- 

 merous and wild are the conjectures with regard 

 to the authors and the purposes of its construc- 

 tion. 



The Stone House (for such it is now familiarly 

 termed by every one in the vicinity) is situated 

 in the upper part of James city county, on the 

 land (an uncultivated tract) of Major Edmund 

 Christian, on the right bank of Ware creek and 

 about 5 miles Irom its junction with York river. 

 Recently finding himself at leisure, while in a 

 visit to King and Queen county, the wri er deter- 

 mined to visit this object of growing curiosity. 

 A party of four persons accordingly, with this 

 purpose, left, the King and Queen shore in the 

 morning of the 21st of November, and after a 

 delightful row across the beautiful York, landed 

 at the mouih of Ware creek. A strong ebb tide 

 opposed the ascension of the creek in the boat, 

 the party thence proceeded on foot, and it was 

 well they did, for had ihey gone up the creek, 

 (which was their original intention,) without a 

 guide, they would not have found the object of 

 their search, though they thought that they had 

 received all necessary instructions. With the 

 help of a guide, after a circuitous walk of six 

 miles, through the most broken and depcrt country 

 to be found east of the Blue Ridge, they reached 

 the object of their visit. 



The stone house is now in ruinp, more or 

 less of each wall having tumbled down, no trace 

 of either the roof or floor being left. It. was a 

 rectangular building 18J by 15 feet. The four 

 corners stand nearly at their original height, be- 

 ing 6 feet above the level of the floor. The 

 chimney rises in a good state of preservation 5 

 feet higher, but there is sufficient evidence that 

 it was originally still more elevated. Between 



the corners, the walls are yet in a sufficient state 

 o) preservation to enable one to come at an.ac- 

 curate idea of tlie building as it stood entire. Its 

 elevation was only one etory, wiih a basement 

 room half below and hall' above the surliace of 

 the earth. It stands nearly north and south. 

 At the south end is the chimney, which [)roject3 

 outside of ilie wall, lias no fire place in the base- 

 ment, but a well finished semi-circular fire place 

 in the room above, 3| (eet wide and 2 feet deep, 

 with only one Hue 12 by 12 inches. On the west 

 end is the doorway giving entrance into the 

 upper and also into the baeement room ; this door- 

 way is 6 feet wide. For what purpose could a 

 door 6 feet wide be needed in a house 18^ by 15 

 ieet? 



On the north there is a door 3 feet wide into 

 the basement, and on each side of the door a 

 hole through the wall (which is 2 feet thick) re- 

 sembling a small port-hole, measuring on the 

 inside 20 by 10 inches and on the outside 20 by 4 

 inches. Each hole is exactly the same size, and 

 constructed with care. If these holes were 

 merely intended for purposes of ventilation, why 

 were they made wider within than without, and 

 why were they both put on the same side with 

 the door? On the east side is seen one jamb of 

 a window or port- hole, and from its position not 

 being in the middle, there is every reason to be- 

 lieve there must have been a second opening cor- 

 responding there'o in the same side. A hall" 

 burned door lintel, which has recently fallen from 

 ihe door of the basement room, is the only rem- 

 nant of wood left ; it is of white oak and was 

 evidently sawed with a whip saw. The walls 

 of the house, which are 2 feet thick in the base- 

 ment, and 18 inches above, are constructed of 

 ferruginous sand stone, of which an abundance is 

 found in the hill on which the building stands. 

 The stones, which are not large, have generally 

 flat beds and are hammered to a true face, and all 

 the openings are finished with great care. The 

 cement used is lime mortar, and must have been 

 very good. The measurements are all very exact, 

 and the work bears ample testimony of great 

 care and nicety in its structure. 



This ruin stands in an extensive waste of 

 woods, on a high.knoll or promontory, around the 

 base of which winds Ware creek. It is at 

 least 100 feet above the level of the water and 

 300 feet from its margin. The site can be ap- 

 proached by land only by a long, wild and circui- 

 tous route, winding along on the ridge or back- 

 bone of this promontory, which is sometimes so 

 narrow that two carls could not pass abreast. 

 When the fiact is mentioned that there are many 

 svic.h promontories, equally wild, circuitous, abrupt 

 and separated fi"om each other by deep and gloomy 

 ravines whose precipitous sides are covered with 

 the dark evergreen laurel, it can be easily imagin- 

 ed how very difficult it would be to find the place 

 without a guide. By water, the Stone House 

 is almost equally difficult to find, from its height 

 above and distance from the creek. It stands 

 amidst the original growth of trees, and is ren- 

 dered still more secret by their deep foliage for 

 half of the year. Just over it a large chestnut oak 

 spreads out its extended branches, some of which 

 approach so near the top of the luia, that they 

 must have been the growth of a period posterior 

 to the erection, perhaps of the desertion ol the 



