LETTERS FROM VIRGINIA. - NO. 3. 
51 
ment, in September, 1846. The spring was from 
ten to twelve rods from the buildings, and down a 
bank, the descent of which was about forty feet. 
At the bottom of this bank the farm animals had 
been obliged to travel through storm, wind, snow, 
and mud, and over ice, for a full half century or 
more, and up this doleful way the water for the 
family use had been carried in buckets, by hand 
(who does not feel himself growing stooping, while 
he thinks of it), for the same long period. The 
operation of the machine was so satisfactory that 
the farmer became the purchaser, and in the No¬ 
vember following, made it a fixture of his premises, 
and since that time, has had through its agency, an 
abundant supply of water for his stock in his yard, 
and for household purposes, at his door. In a re¬ 
cent conversation with him upon its utility, after a 
year’s trial, he expressed his full satisfaction in its 
operation and thought that no consideration would 
induce him to forego the convenience it affords. 
And thus we see, that a way is fully and com¬ 
pletely provided whereby those whose springs are 
situated lower than their buildings can have them 
brought within a convenient distance, or if they 
choose, carried into every stable, or every apart¬ 
ment of the dwelling, with as much facility as 
convenience requires, at but a little more expense 
in the outfit than water can be brought down hill in 
a common aqueduct, and with as great prospect of 
permanent success in the former as in the latter in¬ 
stance. W. Bacon. 
Richmond , Mass., Jan. 1848. 
letters from Virginia.—N o. s. 
The county of Loudon is situated in nearly a 
north-westerly direction from Fairfax, and bounds 
it on the west—extending to Harper’s Ferry on the 
north, with the Potomac on the east, and the Blue 
Ridge on the west, which separates it from Jeffer¬ 
son and Clarke counties. With rare exceptions, 
in Virginia, the subdivision of territory into town¬ 
ships is unknown. There are upwards of one 
hundred and fifty counties, many of them occupy¬ 
ing not more space than some of our larger towns. 
In each county one or two villages may be found 
- -seldom more—the residue constituting planta¬ 
tions and farms. Providence, or Fairfax court 
house, as it is indifferently termed, the county seat 
and only village of Fail fax county, consists of a 
straggling collection of buildings, mostly of wood, 
and several, even among the principal shops and 
stores, of logs—and rather resembles what you are 
accustomed to term cross roads, than the flourish¬ 
ing villages which dot the surface of the Empire 
State. The court house, clerk’s office, jail, one or 
two of the hotels, and a few of the dwellings of the 
more wealthy citizens, are of brick. 
Leesburg, the capital of Loudon, is quite a large 
town—neatly built—principally of wood and stone 
—with narrow and execrably paved streets—and a 
population of some two thousand. It has a very 
fine academy, a bank, four or five good hotels, two 
printing establishments, fifteen or twenty stores, a 
court house and jail, clerk’s office, &c. The country 
around is exceedingly beautiful, and well cultivat¬ 
ed. On the principal thoroughfare, leading from 
Georgetown, through Fairfax to Leesburg and Win¬ 
chester, after leading the Fairfax boundary, you are 
at once transported into the midst of a rich, luxuri¬ 
ant, and highly cultivated region. The endlc ■; 
succession of pines which presents itself in nee ■ 
every portion of Fairfax, here disappears ; and 
its place, pastures, meadows, and arable fields : 
agreeably and pleasantly diversified with nohb* mu. 
extensive forests of chestnut, oak, wai; and 
cedar. The mountain scenery is very beautiful and 
frequently magnificent. Large herds of cattle are 
seen grazing on every hill—flocks of sheep are by 
no means unfrequent—with stock of every descrip¬ 
tion—while crops of corn ranging from one hun¬ 
dred to a hundred and fifty bushels to the acre, and 
of wheat, from twenty to thirty, with other crops 
in proportion, are often realized. In short, this 
portion of Loudon is universally regarded as the 
garden of Virginia • and I cannot conceive of any 
more ample development of fertility and beauty 
combined, than is here presented. 
North and west of Leesburg, in every direction t 
may be found farms of from five hundred to a thou¬ 
sand acres, in the highest state of cultivation, with 
costly and magnificent buildings, grounds, parks, 
palings, &c., affording ample evidence of the 
wealth, no less than the intelligence and taste of 
their proprietors. These proprietors arc, with rare 
exceptions, gentlemen of the old Virginia school— 
a school, I venture to say, unequalled in the wide 
world for the cultivation and development of all 
those qualities which adorn and beautify human 
life, and elevate and exalt modern civilization. Un¬ 
bounded hospitality— a hospitality which seems 
never to become burdensome either to its dispenser 
or its recipient—which, unlike much that often 
passes for this sterling quality elsewhere, leaves its 
subject perfectly free in all his motions-, and at 
liberty to follow the bent of his own inclinations, 
while it relieves the host from all that embarrass¬ 
ment and fatigue which an exclusive devotion to 
his guests and a perpetual attendance upon his foot¬ 
steps, necessarily involve. Genuine, old fashioned 
southern hospitality of this sort, constitutes a lead¬ 
ing and prominent characteristic of this delightful 
region. With this is combined, especially in the 
higher classes, an unaffected and pervading spirit of 
kindness, benevolence and urbanity—rendering a 
residence in their midst a constant source of plea¬ 
sure and satisfaction. I am free to confess, that for 
the mere purposes of social enjoyment, including, 
of course, intellectual and moral companionship, 
and all those nameless charms and graces which 
adorn and dignify an advanced civilization. I should 
be inclined greatly to prefer the south to the north 
—even those portions most refined and longest set¬ 
tled. The mildness and benignity of the climate— 1 
the fertility and variety of the soil—the usages and 
habits of the people derived with scarcely a percep¬ 
tible alteration from their ancestors of two centu¬ 
ries since—the leisure which their institutions af¬ 
ford for the cultivation of the highest faculties of 
the mind—and the opportunities they present for 
the constant exercise of all those qualities of the 
heart which constitute the noblest patrimony of our 
nature—all these causes combine to the develop¬ 
ment of a state of society far in advance of that 
which is ordinarily found under other and less aus¬ 
picious circumstances. 
After what I have said of the appearance and 
