Had the condition of the country admitted of it, his home would have been surrounded by the learned, as was the Tuscan Capital when the Turks scattered the wise men of the Lower Empire, who took refuge thither, yet he was not a pedant, but what our fathers used to call an elegant scholar. His company and manner of life recalled to mind the life of Lord Falkland, of whom Clarendon thus speaks, "His house being within little more than ten miles from Oxford, he contracted familiarity and friendship with the most polite and accurate men of that University, who found such an immenseness of wit, and such a solidity of judgment in him, so infinite a fancy, bound in by a most logical ratiocination, such a vast knowledge, that he was not ignorant in any thing, yet such an excessive humility as if he had known. nothing, that they frequently resorted and dwelt with him, as in a college situated in a purer air, so that his house was a University in a less volume, whither they came, not so much for repose as study, and to examine and refine those grosser propensities which laziness and consent made current in vulgar conversation."

The universality of his learning, its accuracy, and the manner in which he discoursed upon even professional topics recalled the lines of Henry:

Hear him but reason in divinity,

And, all-admiring, with an inward wish
You would desire (he) were made a prelate.
Hear him debate of commonwealth's affairs,
You would say,—it has been all and all his study.
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear

A fearful battle rendered you in music;
Turn him to any cause of policy,

The Gordian Knot of it he will unloose
Familiar as his garter; that when he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still,

And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences.

Much of the happiness, indeed, of his life was derived from the companionship of his friends, from indulging in this most grateful tie of human society; to him to have lived without friends, would have been not to live. A maxim which cannot be understood by those, who, entirely devoid of regard for others, have no friends and do not deserve to have any, because they only live for and love themselves.

His mansion was like so many others in Virginia, timber-built, and though altogether an extensive edifice was composed of many disjointed parts. These separate buildings were connected by halls and verandahs, which gave a picturesque appearance to the exterior, while protecting it from the sun, wind, and rain. The rooms were spacious and furnished with all the riches of the Eastern world, nor was there anything in the embellishment of the house, the furniture, or articles of vertu like ostentatious display-the arrangements were such that the idea suggested by the tout ensemble was that of classic grace. It was replete with not only every comfort, but, indeed, every luxury, and surrounded by park-like grounds, which were improved with exquisite taste, and yet so consummate was the art by which it was done, that the hand of man was unseen, and it appeared but nature's work.

M

Shaded by noble trees and intricate bowers, enamelled with flowers and all kinds of herbs and plants, which basked in the sunshine of the slopes or bloomed in the dark vales, ornamented with water which sparkled in the light and glided away with refreshing sound, the whole aspect of the scene was enchanting.

To this house he brought his extensive collection of books, paintings, prints, medals, coins, statues, china etc., and when not surrounded by society or engaged in superintending the affairs of his estate, was either occupied with these objects of art and curiosity or in composing essays on some moral, philosophical, scientific or practical subject. Some of these on agricultural chemistry and its application to the growing of crops were published in the "Southern Planter," of Richmond, and the "Farmers Register."+

In one series he discussed the question of rust in wheat, and demonstrated the unsoundness of the popular theory upon the subject, at the same time putting forth his own views to the effect that it was due to an exuberant growth of straw, stimulated by repeated showers of rain followed by very warm weather immediately

* This valuable and recherche collection, the costly furniture, heirlooms, etc., which survived the civil war, was burnt with Colonel Peyton's mansion, in May, 1870.

†The latter was edited by the late Edmund Ruffin author of an interesting essay on Calcareous Manures, who fired the first shot against Fort Sumter, S. C., thus opening the civil war of 1861-65 in the U.S. Mr. Ruffin committed suicide in 1865, when seventy years of age, unable to bear up under the subjugation of the south. He thus proved that he wanted true magnanimity, for it shows the most exalted courage to support the accumulated ills of life without despondency.

preceding the time of harvest, a theory which is now almost universally accepted as correct. Of course, his attack on the popular theory was not allowed to pass unnoticed and a warm discussion arose in the Register, between him and Mr. Jessie Turner, a successful planter and agricultural chemist.

His time was further occupied in a series of kindly actions. His wealth was dispensed with an unsparing hand. As magistrate for the county, and sitting regularly at the Quarter Sessions, he had opportunities of knowing the business and affairs of the county and thus becoming acquainted with many real cases of want. These for his generosity was judicious not indiscriminate -he invariably relieved. Honest tradesmen, whose operations were restricted by lack of means, were assisted by him. He paid the debts of prisoners and set them free to labour for the support often of dependent families, relieved the distress of poor widows and orphans, and redressed, whenever an opportunity presented, the wrongs of the oppressed. Numberless were the quiet obscure distresses he thus succoured. He did not merely understand what was good, but practised it.

From these remarks the reader will not be surprised to learn that he enjoyed great popularity, and that the people of Botetourt were anxious to give form and substance to their appreciation of his merits by securing his services in the public councils.

This remote section of Virginia was almost wholly without public improvements. There were no navigable

streams, no canals, no railways, no macadamized turnpike roads. People were virtually imprisoned, except during the summer. In winter the roads were almost impassable, and it was a common thing to see the four-horse mail coach floundering in the mud, the passengers walking in the fields, taking it by turns to carry a rail.*.

The people of eastern Virginia, whom the beneficent author of nature had supplied with many navigable streams, and a porous, sandy soil, which drinks up rain, leaving the roads firm and smooth, were unwilling to vote funds from the State Treasury for constructing high ways in the transmountain country. By this ungenerous conduct they had kept the western counties unimproved for upwards of a century. To break down this selfish policy and inaugurate a moré liberal and generous system of internal improvements, had long been the cherished object of the western people. They had sent to the legistature, from time to to time, their ablest men, hoping to succeed through their efforts in securing a system of general state improvement out of a common fund, for the common good. Among the able men, west of the Blue Ridge, whom they elected with this view, were Robert Y. Conrad, James M. Mason, General Briscoe, G. Baldwin, Thomas J. Michie, George W. Summers, Robt. Trigg, Benjamin Smith, Gov. J. P. Preston, General Samuel Blackburne, and J. W. Brokenborough. Their efforts

*A rifled log or long piece of split timber used as a lever to raise the coach wheels out of ruts and mud holes.