where Washington himself lived as a boy and where notables took quarter at the Rising Sun Tavern; at Rosegill, Sabine Hall, Mount Airy, and elsewhere were homes of splendor and charm, the master, himself, as well as his lady, a lover of fine trees, rare shrubbery and blooming flowers. There too, doorways flung wide, opening into paneled halls and showing furniture of distinction, either local-made or pieces of foreign importation, influencing that type which we seek in the South today.
On the Virginia side of the Potomac, with Alexandria as a center of trade and shipping, although each plantation maintained its separate wharf, as time progressed, little towns sprung up. On down the river, the homes of the planters increased, the list indeed a royal one, with the Washingtons first in Westmoreland on the Northern Neck, and George and Martha later at Mount Vernon; farther inland the Fairfaxes, George Mason among his books at Gunston Hall, and lower still, overlooking the river, Stratford, the home of the Lees. On the Maryland side, Marshall Hall; near by old Port Tobacco, Rosehill, Habre de Venture, home of Thomas Stone, the signer; La Grange, built by Doctor Thomas Craik; Mulberry Grove, home of the Hansons; Mount Victoria, Hard Bargain, Tudor Hall, Porto Bello, and Clocker's Fancy might be found.
Annapolis, having shaken itself into a dreamy existence on the banks of the Severn, with its quaint and winding streets, rare shops and homes of affluence, built in finest English style, where the Pacas, the Hammonds, the Chases vied with each other in the elegance of their surroundings, became the center of business and social life of the colony. It was to lead in the making of Maryland furniture for years.
Maryland, a royal colony in close touch with the mother country, imported rare pieces which were often used for examples, and perhaps, more than any of the colonies, clung to the English ideas in furniture making. Life was lived at the best, and fine furniture was a necessity. Throughout the State might be mentioned other manor houses and settlements contributing to the general need: between the Patuxent and the Potomac, in Calvert and Anne Arundel Counties, Tulip Hill, overlooking the bay; Belair, with its wealth of fine furniture and other spots through Prince George, and the upper bay counties and finally, Baltimore, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Kent County, Queen Annes, Talbot, Caroline, Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset, Worcester, each with its share.
In Virginia, the Eastern Shore jutting almost into Maryland, Accomac and Northampton Counties, early opened up, where many relics of the past survive today, seems almost a part of it. Hand in hand, the two colonies, Virginia and Maryland—Leah and Rachel, they were called—moved together, bound by mutual ties of blood, descent and marriage, defense and material interest in commerce and shipping, with the Potomac, the theatre of mutual business and social pleasure, a dividing line that served rather to bring together than to set them apart.
That certain piece of land in 1663, lying between Florida and Virginia, was granted by Charles II of England to Lord Clarendon and a number of noblemen, and they
