FOREST AND STREAM 
335 
Thomas Lord Fairfax, Earl of Cameron, was lire auto¬ 
crat of the chase, and as ardent and determined a sports¬ 
man as ever lived, lie never was so happy tm when with 
his hounds, or surrounded by a jovial set of sportsmen, 
narrating their hunting exploits and trying to drink each 
other under the table. Lord Fairfax was a man of great, 
intellect, an accomplished scholar, and a great literary 
mao. lie graduated with high honors at Oxford College; 
he was a member of llie celebrated Kit, Kat Club, of Lou¬ 
don, where tili the wise men and wits ot' the metropolis 
most, congregated, and he was noted for his wildness and 
dissipation. Of great wealth, high lineage, with the whole 
world at his feet, as it were, that lie should have exiled 
himself from the gay court at Carlton Place, or tlie bril¬ 
liant salons of Paris, to spend the rest of his life in the 
w ilds of America, was wonderful indoed; but like every¬ 
thing else in this world good or bad, there was a ‘‘woman 
in tlie case.” He fell desperately in love, and the fair 
dame not smiling ou liis suit, lie, feeling that life had no 
further charms lor him, aud all that sort, of thing, in a fit 
of despair banished himself, and leaving friends and foe 
behind him, came to the new world in search of excite¬ 
ment and adventure, aud not like Ponce de Leon, to find 
the waters of youth. He gained both, and after all it 
suited him best,. He was a bora Bohemian, and loved 
Change and variety, and unquestionably this life of dash¬ 
ing rides aud excitiug hunts, brimful of stirring events, 
suited liis martial nature better than the dawdling noncha¬ 
lant dilettante existence of tlie Loudou lord. His lordship 
was a dark swarthy man, with eyes as black as sloes and 
hair of raven hue. He was six feel three inches in height, 
Ihick-built, long-limbed, and of prodigious strength. Many 
tales of personal prowess are told of hint. Like all strong 
tneu he was good nalured to a degree, and he had devoted 
and staunch friends; his tenants and slaves idolized him, 
and the women adored him. Surely he ought to have 
been a happy man, and doubtless was. His lordship, so 
fond of Diana, the goddess of the chase, was as equally 
ardent at the shriue of Venus, and llie veracious antiqua¬ 
rians relate that the blue blood of the Camcroita flows in 
tlie veins of many a mountaineer of to-day; however, I 
lttiow nothing of that. Cliailes tlie Second, of gracious 
memory, granted to Lord Fairfax all lands lying between 
the headwaters of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers 
aud Chesapeake Bay. This vast domain comprised about 
one-fourth of the present limits of Virginia. It was a 
kingly gift. The Earl did not oppress liis tenants; when 
in a generous mood, which was very often, he would give 
away whole farms, and it was a common custom to let his 
tenants off with their year’s rent for some trifle—a wild 
turkey for his Christmas dinner, a haunch of venison for 
his friends, or a huge watermelon for the noonday lunch, 
lie had two residences, one, his mansion propier, was called 
“Belvoir," situated ou Pohick Bay, about three miles from 
Mount Vernon; the other, “Greeuway Court,” his hunting- 
lodge, lay in the valley, thirteen miles from Winchester. 
Belvoir was a great stately place built fronting the river, 
and surrounded by a noble group of trees on each side ot 
the mansion, leaving a clear view from the front. On the 
right, half concealed by the trees, could be seen the “quar¬ 
ters" aud shops of the estate, and in the rear was a huge 
Stone barn, with its tin-covered cupola rising high in tlie 
air. The house was built of brick brought out from Eng¬ 
land, aud the two wings added on each side were compos¬ 
ed of immense oak logs, as solid and massive as granite it¬ 
self. A wide and spacious portico ran the whole length 
of the front that formed a flue promenade, and standing in 
the porch one could let his eye wander at will, and drink 
in the whole beauty of the scene; the river winding on¬ 
ward and looking in llie far distance like a silver thread 
in the sunlight; the endless succession of cultivated fields 
and woudlaods—a picture of ran® loveliness. Entering 
the ball into the spacious passage which ran from front to 
rear, you would see that the walls were covered with 
trophies of the chase—antlers of the deer, Indian weapous 
of warfare aud the implements of the chase, fishing rods, 
guns, rifles, flasks, hunting ltoras, pictures of celebrated 
lace horses, that had, In their time, won and lost many a 
fortune; spurs, riding-hoots, fencing-foils, rapiers, whips, 
swords in all the variety of gill—gold, silver, ivory, alu¬ 
minum, chiseled and embossed hills—all mingled together, 
either hanging on the walls, or lying heaped up on tlie ta¬ 
bles. A broad stairway, as wide as a turnpike gate, led to 
the upper regions, where the guests’ bed-rooms were- On 
the lull was the great dining-room, running the whole 
length of tlie house, which was decorated with great good 
taste; a carved oak wainscot extended from the floor to 
Ihe ceiling, curiously carved, where quaint faces and grim- 
iooking heads would stare you out of countenance. The 
fireplace was wide and capacious enough to hold easily 
halt a cord of wood, aud the andirons were immense af¬ 
fairs, always kept bright by constant polishing. An old 
niahogany'sidehoard niled a large space in the room; it, 
too, was elaborately carved, and was brilliant with its ar¬ 
ray of old family silver, gold plate, and fancy cut glass, 
prominent among which was the old Fairfax driDkiug- 
liorn, a big silver goblet used only in times of feast and 
wassal. A dozen decanters, always full, stood outside, 
and each guest as he arrived waB flrst brought to this side¬ 
board, and drank the health of his host in his Own liquor. 
The walls were ornamented with many pictures, chiefly 
hunting scenes: A steeple chaser, by Peel; one or two of 
Herring’s hunters; a couple of greyhounds, by Harry Hall. 
The furniture was heavy and solid, of the kind known as 
the Louis IV Style. The parlor ou the left was a formal, 
tiitieL place, elegantly and richly furnished. It was always 
kept close and darkened, except in times of balls and re¬ 
ceptions, and then its quiet walls resounded with mirth 
and laughter. On its walls hung the family portraits, 
among which was tlie grandfather of Lord Fairfax, the 
great Angus Cameron, aud his kiusmaD “Fairlax,” the fa¬ 
mous general of Cornwall, whose advance in war waB like 
the dash of the thunderbolt. A score or so of haughty 
patriciau dames set off the grim knights in armor. 
The kennel was attached to the stable, and contained 150 
hounds, one-third of the number being used to hunt deer 
only, it is said that his lordship knew nearly every hound 
byname. The leaders of this immense pack were Jupe 
and old Riugwood, two famous dogs raised by Lord Fair¬ 
fax himself, and worth their weight in gold. They wore 
fox-hounds, known in those days as the Devonshire 
hounds, a cross between the English and Scotch breeds, 
renowned for their bottom and endurance. 
The other place of Lord Fairfax, Greenway Court, near 
■Winchester, was a much less pretentious edifice—along, 
wide, low building with Dutch gabled roof and small win¬ 
dows, very much'such a house at Mount Vernon. There 
were but 150 slaves on this estate, living in the woods in log 
cabins. They did hardly any work, for oulv enough laud in 
and around Greonway Court was cultivated for the wants 
of the plantation. It was a rough life, indeed, that the 
owner led here, with no neighbors, and isolated from all 
humanity except Indians and the poor mountaineers, whose 
humble cabins he freely visited. He would take long ex¬ 
cursions iu the wilds, staying sometimes for a week at a 
time, submitting willingly to every hardship of a hunter’s 
life, subsisting entirely on the flesh he killed. Vet this 
hard, roviug, coarse way of living suited him beat, and he 
spent most of his time at Green way Court. Sometimes liis 
lordship would return to Belvoir, and the house would 
speedily he filled with the beauty and fashion of the land, 
and its rooms crammed to overflowing with the cavaliers 
and planters, when pleasure and mirth would reign su¬ 
preme. At Christmas the grand “meet” would take place, 
aud then the hall was in its glory. 
I now am going to tell you how they hunted the fox in 
those days, and the names of some celebrated sportsmen 
who carried their paoks to Belvoir, and made the woods 
and valleys resound with the deep baying of the hounds 
and the stirring notes of the hunting horns. 
Alexander Hunter. 
[To he continuc.il.] 
A REMINISCENCE OF, THE RACQUET 
/ IN J8$3. 
A FEW weeks ago in one of the issues of Forest 
X"V Also Stream, I read a reminiscence of Racquet 
River which brought to my mind, so strongly, my flrst 
visit to that stream, that 1 immediately commenced a 
search among old journals for an account of ruy flrst vifflt 
to that then happy liuuting ground- 
It was on the 16th day of September, 1853, that. George 
F. and the writer left school and home at Glenn’s Falls, 
for a visit to Bill Calkin’s, whose log shanty was then 
situated near the junction of Stony Creek with the 
Racquet, an unknown land at that time to most people ex¬ 
cept through Headley’s volume. Ah! how little George and 
1 knew of camp life ut that time! With each of ua a light 
new sporting rifle, direct from the manufactory at Worces¬ 
ter, how many hours oach day, after school, we practiced, 
trying to rival Natty Bumpo, and then the lisLs of neces¬ 
sary arLicles to take with us wo made! It makes my back 
ache now when I think of the Indian carry around the 
falls. I remember one thing in the Commissary Depart¬ 
ment we included among the ’ ‘necessaries” in our verdancy 
—sweet potatoes! Think of that, ye who have carried a 
light load around those falls, and you can imagine our 
greenness. Imagine us starting early that September 
morning with one of the farm ponies between the shafts of 
a light lumber wagon, a large dry goods packing box filled 
with provisions, &c., and all the remaining available 
spaae in the wagon box filled with bedding, cooking uten¬ 
sils, &c., the result of a memorandum concocted through 
many along consultation. We were both dressed in hunt¬ 
ing suits of green broadcloth throughout, and tadiaut with 
tlie exnbcrslice of boyish Spirits, we bade our friends 
“good, bye” and reached Root’s Inn about 8 o'clock in the 
evening, eight miles north of Schvoon Village, and fifty 
miles from Glen’s Falls. There has been a new route 
opened since, branching off at Chester, through Minerva, 
to the Lower Adirondack Works, shortening the distauce 
many miles. 
The next morning we took an early start in a rain 
storm and soon struck the corduroy “road. Twelve miles 
over that old worn out corduroy brought us to the Lower 
Adirondack Works. I don’t know how many times we 
had to unhitch in the rain, and lead the horse round, and 
draw the wagon over by hand after partially filling up the 
holes where the logs had rotted out. I know wo thought 
it was the worst road we had ever interviewed until we 
were off from it. We liad been anticipating getting up a 
trot after we left the log road, but, delusive hope! We 
found the mud up to the wagon hubs, and as we floundered 
ou through mud and water, we voted cordury roads charm¬ 
ing. We reached Daniel Bissell’s, seven miles beyond the 
Lower Works, some time after dark and were soon enjoy¬ 
ing a good supper and rousing fire. The next morning 
after breakfast, we pushed on through the rain, the road a 
complete mud-hole. Hour after hour the old horse floun¬ 
dered on almost as discouraged as the boys behind him. 
We found one lumber shanty on the road, where we fed 
the horse aud lunehed. About 3 o’clock in the afternoon, 
a road branched off and a piece of board nailed to a tree 
with an inscription in red chalk, informed us that it was 
oneandahalf miles to Long Lake. We turned off, and 
by dint of a deal of boosting, wo helped the old nag up 
the hill where we found an irishman named Shaw, located 
with a house and barn. Here we expected to meet old 
Bill C., to whom we had written several weeks before ac¬ 
cording to a previous arrangement. No person could im¬ 
agine two more forlorn individuals than George and myself 
alter we had unharnessed and fed the horse, and climbed 
up on Bitaw’s bay mow to talk it over—both wet through, 
George with a touch of the asthma, and one of my teeth 
trying to ache—the nut that held the hammer on my rifle 
irrevocably lost; with a Block of information from every 
person we had seen, that in all probability the road would 
be much worse on our return, although that seemed impos¬ 
sible to us unless the bottom dropped completely out; and 
to cap the climax, here where we expected to meet Bill 
and be relieved of all farther trouble, no William was 
present, and Shaw had informed us that he had no boat, 
nor knew of any that he could procure, aud that he could 
not spare the time to take us mi. Aul old man, how well 
you played it on us. I verily believe that but for the 
dread of the scoffs and jeers of our school mates at home, 
we should have then aud there taken the back track out. 
We finally interviewed Shaw again, and after doubling* 
our persuasion induced him to think, that he might per¬ 
haps, procure a boat and take us on next day. While 
Shaw was absent for the boat, the rain ceased. The clouds 
began to break away, and we strolled up the hill to get a 
view of ihe lake, just as we reached the brow of the 
hill, the sun burst forth in all its glory, and Long Lake in 
all itB autumnal beauty lay spread out below us. What a 
magnificent scene that was, and in the reaction from llie 
gloom of tlie past two days to tile glory of that sunset, we 
snouted and danced like a pair of lunatics, and tf our 
spirits were at zero as we went up the hill, they were at least 
lflO degrees above as we came down and found that Shaw 
“Noth by the Editor.— Poor kaaimt Nutate was the same In 1858 
that ins la I8t0. 
had procured a boat, of which we have sinee surmised be 
may have been sole proprietor. All dirt and discomfort iu 
accomodations were overlooked in the anticipations of tlie 
morrow. 
l'he next morning was bright and beautiful. By 8 o'clock 
we iiad carted our traps to the lake, and were ready to em¬ 
bark. llie boat was a flat bottomed lumberman’s skiff, and 
loaded to the water’s edge. At that time there was a shanty 
oposite Shaw’s, and one near the outlet, occupied by 
a bachelor named Brown. Willi what anxious eyes we 
scanned every rod of the shore to see our flrst deer! We 
arrived at the carry, at the head of the falls, a little after 
noon. 1 cannot do justice to our experience in getting 
across; suffice it to say we embarked at the foot of the 
fails just at sunset, leaving our packing box of provisions 
aud various heavy articles, at tlie head of the falls, to be 
brought across at some future day. On down the river 
we glided in the darkness, Sltnw, as well as ourselves, iu 
perfect ignorance as to the whereabouts of Bill's Bhanty, 
ouly knowingil was some miles below the falls. We made 
the woods ring with our shouts, for fear that we and Shaw 
might pass unnoticed in the darkness, and what a relief 
wo felt, as a light popped into view, through four panes of 
7x9 glass, aud two minutes after we were graspiug, not ex¬ 
actly the hand of Providence, but next to it in point of size, 
the band of old Bill C. Ahl What happy days and glori¬ 
ous sport we had for the next two weeks! Doer'were 
plenty, and partridges innumerable; trout were spawning, 
and there was a spawning bed just above tlie shanty; but 
we only took two or three occasionally, lo keep our baud 
in, and for a change in our bill of fare. It was hard work 
to restrain ourselves at that age but Bill dilated so strongly 
about distroying game for the fun of it, that we listened 
kindly*. 
We only saw two persons during tlie two weeks we were 
there, and they came iu from Martin’s to see about a lum¬ 
ber job; and brought in the letter we had mailed to Bill 
some weeks before we started. The postal facilities at 
that time were not very complete, and Bill had but few 
neighbors. Bill’s shanty was a log house, of one room, 
just below where Stony Greek empties into the Racquet. 
Bowen, at the Long Lake outlet, was the neatest neighbor 
up the river. There was a shanty sixteen miles below, 
and two families on the carrying places between Bill’s and 
and Marlin’s, at HameUstown. Hardly a day passed with¬ 
out our seeing deer. 
We camped at Racquet Falls, on onr return, (where I un¬ 
derstand (here is now a hotel and baggage express). No one 
checked baggage there then, but there was a lot of smash¬ 
ing done. 
We left Bill’s, after dinner, September 37th, on our 
return, with our impedimenta that we had brought from 
borne, greatly reduced iu bulk and weight, but each of us 
had a “big buck,” that we were bound to take to Glen’s 
Falls, under any and all circumstances. We carried the 
boat ami deer over the carry during the afternoon, and 
came back to the foot of the falls to spend the night, Bill, 
having come so far with us, lo enable us to get an early 
start in the morning. There was a remnant of an old camp 
there, and while Bill repaired the covering, and I gathered, 
houghs for bedding, George, stepping out ou the 
boulder, captured five or six trout from the river. Wc 
soon find everything fixed for the night, our supper dis¬ 
posed of, and our wearied limbs stretched towards the 
roaring, crackling fire. We were lapsing into forgetful¬ 
ness, when Bill, suddenly said, “Hark! the wolves!” 
George and 1 were instantly on our feet, listening with 
erect ears; the moon was shining brightly, aud not a sound 
could lie heard but the monotono'us roar of the falls. 
Presently there arose sueb a prolonged fearful howl, that 
duo lad’s hat that I know of, was raised at least three inches 
above its ordinary location. Three times the wolves eom- 
ifienced low and tremulous, and as one after anoiher joined 
ip, swelling the sound, it was fearful in the stillness. Each 
time as they ceased, a screech owl, in the spruce overhead, 
sent forth Ills hooting shriek for a doxology. Bill said: 
“They were holding town meeting, and it would rain be¬ 
fore morning.” And Bill was right. It is hard for me to 
realize that one would now be more apt to hear the sunny 
laughter of a maiden’s voice, or the notes of a piano, titan 
the howi of a wolf, at the Indian Carry, and that the shoot¬ 
ing of a deer is now the grand exception of a hunt on the 
Racquet, and that when you fish for trout you catch a 
pickerel. But over twenty yeurs have passed away, aud 
BiU C. has gone to liis long home, but his kindness and 
eccentricities will long he remembered, by the two boys 
that shot at their flrst deer on the Racquet in the fall of 
1858. Fritz. 
*Note.— The editor puts down two white murks to the credit of Bill, 
For Forest and Strains. 
HUNTING IN WEST VIRGINIA. 
I ^IVING, as I do, in the backwoods of West Virginia, 
j cut off from tlie pleasures that most gentlemen en¬ 
joy who have the constant change that city life affords, I 
have to seek my pleasure with the rod and guo, and as the 
country iu which I live affords all the sports that one could 
desire, I have thought that a description would be enter¬ 
taining to some of your many readers, and bring some of 
them to a new field to enjoy the pleasures that afford mo 
recreation and game. 
These springs are situated in Morgan county, 110 miles 
from Baltimore, on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, in 
one of the wildest aud most primitive countries east of the 
Rocky Mountains. During the summer season they are 
the resort of five or six hundred visitors, who come for the 
purpose of eujoyiug the baths and healthy mountain air. 
The hunting is of greater variety than at any other place I 
itave ever been, consisting of bears, deers, turkeys, phea¬ 
sants, raffed grouse, woodcock, squirrel, and other game, 
or “varmints, as the natives call such auimals as coons, 
foxes, and wild cats. Our streams are the Potomac River, 
Caeapon River, Sleepy Creek, and Back Greek, all of them 
well stocked with the black bass, affording fine sport to 
those who are fond of fishing. I have seen some taken 
that will kick the beam at six pounds, hut they ruD from 
one to four pounds most frequently. The catch has not 
been large this spring, on account of tlie muddy condition 
of the waters, caused by heavy rains. We anticipate line 
sport when it clears up. in the Turf, Field and Farm of 
August 13th, 1875, you will see an editorial headed “Happy 
Hunting Grounds in Virginia,” giving a description of one 
season’s hunt by my father (Mr.Dludon) and myself, winch 
I refer you to, or to Mr, Skinner, who wrote it, and had 
