FLAT ROCK COMMUNITY 113 
taking to go to Flat Rock from Charleston than it 
now is to go to Europe, and much more romantic, 
for Flat Rock, more than two weeks' journey dis- 
tant, had to be reached by way of the country roads 
over which the people drove in their own carriages, 
accompanied by a retinue of servants and provision 
w^agons. 
At the west side of Hogback, there comes up from 
the lowlands a road that, crossing a gap in the moun- 
tains, makes its way over and about and between 
them, passing Flat Rock on its way to Asheville. 
This is the old Buncombe Pike, or rather what is 
left of it, for since the war it has been allowed to fall 
into disrepair, only parts of it here and there hinting 
at any period of prosperity. From the opening of its 
first tollgate, in 1827, this road became the great 
artery of passage between the rich Southern lands 
and the new and prodigiously fertile West. Over it 
passed droves of horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs, as 
well as whatever produce the mountains and the 
lands beyond them might have to exchange for the 
products of the more civilized East, products that in 
their turn came up and over the mountains to the 
people of the West. To the romance of this old road 
was added a charming touch when, with the spring 
flowers, there came every year that migration from 
Charleston, like a flock of birds winging their way 
over the blue mountains in search of their summer 
homes. 
One can imagine these processions of young and 
old starting out for the two weeks' picnic along the 
