244 VIRGINIA 



the players must have come from a consid- 

 erable distance, it seemed, as there was no 

 sign of a village or even of a hamlet, so far 

 as I had discovered, anywhere in the neigh- 

 borhood. The Bridge is not in any township, 

 but simply in Rockbridge County, after a Vir- 

 ginia custom quite foreign to a New Eng- 

 lander's notions of geographical propriety. 



The prospect from Mount Jefferson was 

 beautiful, as I have said, but on my return 

 I happened upon one that pleased me better. 

 I had been down through Cedar Creek ra- 

 vine, and had taken my own way out, up 

 the right-hand slope through the woods, 

 noting the flowers as I walked, especially 

 the blue-eyed grass and the scarlet catchfly 

 (battlefield pink), a marvelous bit of color, 

 and was following the edge of the cliff to- 

 ward the hotel, when, finding myself still 

 with time to spare, I sat down to rest and 

 be quiet. By accident I chose a spot where 

 between ragged, homely cedars I looked 

 straight down the glen — over a stretch of 

 the brook far below — to the bridge, throusfh 

 which could be seen wooded hills backed by 

 Thunder Mountain, long and massive, just 

 now mostly in shadow, like the rest of the 



