were ranges of high mountains, interspersed with cultivated spots, and then terminating in piles of mountains, following in successive ranges, until they were lost also in the haze. Above and below, the Blue Ridge and Alleghanies ran off in long lines; sometimes relieved by knolls and peaks, and in one place above us making a graceful curve, and then again running off in a different line of direction. Very near us stood the rounded top of the other peak, looking like a sullen sentinel for its neighbor. We paused in silence for a time. We were there almost cut off from the world below, standing where it was fearful even to look down. It was more hazy than at the time of my last visit, but not too much so to destroy the interest of the scene.

There was almost a sense of pain, at the stillness which seemed to reign. We could hear the flapping of the wings of the hawks and buzzards, as they seemed to be gathering a new impetus after sailing through one of their circles in the air below us. North of us, and on the other side of the Valley of Virginia, were the mountains near Lexington, just as seen from that beautiful village-the Jump, North, and House Mountains succeeding each other; they were familiar with a thousand associations of our childhood, seeming mysteriously, when away from the spot, to bring my early home before me-not in imagination, such as had often haunted me when I first left it to find another in the world, but in substantial reality. Further on down the valley, and at a great distance, was the top of a large mountain, which was thought to be the great North Mountain, away down in Shenandoah county-I am afraid to say how far off. Intermediate between these mountains, and extending opposite and far above us, was the Valley of Virginia, with its numerous and highly cultivated farms. Across this valley, and in the distance, lay the remotest ranges of the Alleghany and the mountains about; and I suppose beyond the White Sulphur Springs. Nearer us, and separating eastern and western Virginia, was the Blue Ridge, more than ever showing the propriety of its cognomen of the "backbone;" and on which we could distinctly see two zigzag turnpikes, the one leading to Fincastle, and the other to Buchanan; and over which latter we had travelled a few days before. With the spyglass we could distinguish the houses in the village of Fincastle, some twenty-five or thirty miles off, and the road leading to the town.

Turning towards the direction of our morning's ride, we had beneath us Bedford county, with its smaller mountains, farms and farm-houses-the beautiful village of Liberty, the county roads, and occasionally a mill-pond, reflecting the sun like a sheet of polished silver. The houses on the hill at Lynchburg, twenty-five or thirty miles distant, are distinctly visible on a clear day, and also Willis' Mountain away down in Buckingham county.

I had often visited Bedford, and had been more or less familiar with it from childhood; but at our elevation, distances were so annihilated, and appearances so changed, that we could scarcely recognise the most familiar objects. After some difficulty, we at length made out the residence of Dr. M., we had that morning left, and at that moment rendered more than usually interesting, by containing, in addition to the other very dear relatives, two certain ladies, who sustained a very interesting connexion with the doctor and myself, and one of whom had scarcely laid aside the blushes of her bridal hour.

A little beyond this, I recognised the former residence of a beloved sister, now living in a distant southern state. It was the same steep hill ascending to the gate, the same grove around the house, as when she lived there, and the same as when I played there in my boyhood. And it was the first time I had seen it since the change of owners. I then saw it from the Peaks of Otter: but it touched a thousand tender cords; and I almost wept when I thought, that those I once there loved were far away, and that the scenes of my youthful days could not return.

Myself and companions had, some time before, gotten on different rocks, that we might not interrupt each other in our contemplations. I could not refrain, however, from saying to one of them, “What little things we are! how factitious our ideas of what is extensive in territory and distance!" A splendid estate was about the size I could step over; and I could stand and look at the very house whence I used often to start in days gone by, and follow with my eye my day's journey to the spot where, wearied and worn down, I dismounted with the setting sun. Yet I could look over what seemed so great a space, with a single glance. I could also look away down the Valley of Virginia, and trace the country, and, in imagination, the stage-coach, as it slowly wound its way, day and night for successive days, to reach the termination of what I could throw my eye over in a moment. I was impressively reminded of the extreme littleness with which these things of earth would all appear, when the tie of life which binds us here is broken, and we shall be able to look back and down upon them from another world. The scene and place are well calculated to excite such thoughts.

It is said that John Randolph once spent the night on these elevated rocks, attended by no one but his servant; and that, when in the morning he had witnessed the sun rising over the majestic scene, he turned to his servant, having no other to whom he could express his thoughts, and charged him, "never from that time to believe any one who told him there was no God."

I confess, also, that my mind was most forcibly carried to the judgment-day; and I could but call the attention of my companions to what would, probably, then be the sublime terror of the scene we now beheld, when the mountains we saw and stood upon, should all be melted down like wax; when the flames should be driving over the immense expanse before us; when the heavens over us should be "passing away with a great noise;" and when the air beneath and around us should be filled with the very inhabitants now dwelling and busied in that world beneath us.

BERKELEY.

BERKELEY was formed in 1772, from Frederick. Its mean length is 22 miles; mean breadth, 13 miles. The surface is much broken and mountainous. Back and Opequan creeks run through the county and empty into the Potomac. Some of the land bordering these streams and the Potomac River, is very fertile. Anthracite coal is found in the western section of this county. Population: 1830, 10,528; 1840, whites 8,760, slaves 1,919, free colored 293; total

10,972. Darksville and Gerardstown contain each from 30 to 40 dwellings. Martinsburg, the county-seat, lies on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, 169 miles NNW. of Richmond, 77 from Washington, and 20 from Harper's Ferry.

It is compactly built, and contains 2 newspaper printing offices; 7 stores; a market; 1 Presbyterian, 1 Lutheran, 1 Episcopal, 1 German Reformed, 1 Methodist, and 1 Catholic church; and a population of about 1700. This town was laid out by Adam Stephen, Esq., and established by law in 1778, when the following gentlemen were appointed trustees: James M'Alister, Joseph Mitchell, Anthony Noble, James Strode, Robert Carter Willis, William Patterson, and Philip Pendleton. It derived its name from the late Col. T. B. Martin. The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad passes through the village.

The public building, in the centre of the view, is the court-house, which was built a year after the formation of the county, in the reign of George III. The jail at this place is rarely tenanted, and but one individual has been sent to the penitentiary within the last 12 years. Traces of the road cut by Braddock's army on their unfortunate expedition to the west, are discernible near the town. In St. Clair's defeat, about 80 citizens of the county were killed. In the vicinity of Leetown, (in the adjoining county of Jefferson,) there lived within a few miles of each other, after the war of the revolution, three general officers of the American army-Alexander Stephens, Horatio Gates, and Charles Lee. The will of the latter is now in the clerk's office, in this county. The accompanying extract from it, is in keeping with its eccentric author:

"I desire most earnestly that I may not be buried in any church or church-yard, or within a mile of any Presbyterian or Anabaptist meeting-house, for since I have resided in this country, I have kept so much bad company while living, that I do not choose to continue it when dead."

General Lee's unbounded ambition led him to envy the great fame of Washington, and it was supposed his aim was to supersede him in the supreme command. He wrote a pamphlet, filled with scurrilous imputations upon the military talents of the commander-in-chief. In consequence, he was challenged by Col. Laurens, one of Washington's aids, and was wounded in the duel which ensued. Degraded in the opinions of the wise and virtuous, he retired to this section of country, where, secluded from society, he lived in a rude hovel, without windows or plastering, or even a decent article of furniture, and with but few or no companions but his books and dogs. In 1780, Congress resolved that they had no further occasion for his services in the army. In the autumn of 1782, wearied with his forlorn situation and broken in spirits, he went to Philadelphia, where, in his lodgings in an obscure public-house he soon died, a martyr to chagrin and disappointment. In his dying moments, he was, in imagination, on the field of battle: the last words he was heard to utter were, "Stand by me, my brave grenadiers!"

Gen. Gates, of whom the prediction of Gen. Lee was verified, "that his northern laurels would be covered with southern willow," was, after the disastrous battle of Camden, suspended from military command until 1782, when the great scenes of the war were over. Gates was one of the infamous cabal who designed to supplant Washington: but he lived to do justice to the character of that great man.

After the war, Gates lived about seven years on his plantation in Virginia, the remainder of his life he passed near New York city. In 1800, he was elected to the legislature of that state by the anti-federal party. He died in 1806, aged 78 years. "A few years before his death, he generously gave freedom to his slaves, making provision for the old and infirm, while several testified their attachment to him by remaining in his family. In the characteristic virtue of a planter's hospitality, Gates had no competitor, and his reputation may well be supposed to put this virtue to a hard test. He had a handsome person, and was gentlemanly in his manners, remarkably courteous to all, and carrying good humor sometimes beyond the nice limit of dignity." Both Lee and Gates were natives of England, and all three, Lee, Gates, and Stephens, had command of Virginia troops.

Mr.

Many of the early settlers of the county were Scotch-Irish, who were Presbyterians. "It is said that the spot where Tuscarora meeting-house now stands, is the first place where the gospel was publicly preached and divine service performed, west of the Blue Ridge. This was, and still remains, a Presbyterian edifice. Semple, in his history of the Virginia Baptists, states that in the year 1754, Mr. Stearns, a preacher of this denomination, with several others, removed from New England. They halted first at Opequon, in Berkeley county, Va., where he formed a Baptist church, under the care of the Rev. John Gerard.' This was probably the first Baptist church founded west of the Blue Ridge."

There is an interesting anecdote, related by Kercheval, in his account of Indian incursions and massacres in this region, of a young and beautiful girl, named Isabella Stockton, who was taken prisoner in the attack on Neally's fort, and carried and sold to a Canadian in Canada. A young Frenchman, named Plata, becoming enamored with her, made proposals of matrimony. This she declined, unless her parents' consent could be obtained-a strong proof of her filial affection and good sense. Frenchman conducted her home, readily believing that his generous devotion and attachment to the daughter would win their consent. But the prejudices then existing against the French, made her parents and friends peremptorily reject his overtures. Isabella then agreed to elope with him, and mounting two of her father's horses, they fled,

The

but were overtaken by her two brothers in pursuit, by whom she was forcibly torn from her lover and protector and carried back to her parents, while the poor Frenchman was warned that his life should be the forfeit of any farther attempts.

The Hon. FELIX GRUNDY was born on the 11th of Sept., 1777, in a log house on Sleepy Creek, in this county. His father was a native of England. When Felix was but two years of age, his family removed to what is now Brownsville, Penn., and in 1780 to Kentucky, where he lived from childhood to maturity, and in 1807 or 1808, removed to Tennessee.

Mr. Grundy was one of the most distinguished lawyers and statesmen of the western states. When in the councils of the nation, he had but few superiors. He was always a zealous and most efficient supporter of the democratic party. "His manners were amiable, his conversation instructive, abounding in humor and occasionally sarcastic. His cheerful disposition gained him friends among his political opponents, and rendered him the delight of the domestic circle. His morals were drawn from the pure fountain of Christianity, and, while severe with himself, he was charitable to others. Integrity and justice controlled his transactions with his fellow-men."

ness.

"COL. CRAWFORD emigrated from Berkeley county in 1768, with his family, to Pennsylvania. He was a captain in Forbes' expedition, in 1758. He was the intimate friend of Washington, who was frequently an inmate of his humble dwelling, during his visits to the then west, for the purpose of locating lands and attending to public busiCol. Crawford was one of the bravest men on the frontier, and often took the lead in parties against the Indians across the Ohio. His records and papers were never preserved, and very little else than a few brief anecdotes remain to perpetuate his fame. At the commencement of the Revolution, he raised a regiment by his own exertions, and held the commission of colonel in the continental army. In 1782, he accepted, with great reluctance, the command of an expedition to ravage the Wyandott and Moravian Indian towns on the Muskingum. On this expedition, at the age of 50, he was taken prisoner, and put to death by the most excruciating tortures."

BRAXTON.

BRAXTON was formed in 1836, from Lewis, Kanawha, and Nicholas, and named from Carter Braxton, one of the signers of the Declaration of American Independence: it is about 45 miles long, with a mean width of 20 miles. It is watered by Elk and Little Kanawha Rivers, and their branches. The country is rough, but well watered, and fertile. Pop. 1840, whites 2,509: slaves 64 free col'd. 2; total, 2,575.

Sutton, the county-seat, on Elk River, 289 miles w. of Richmond, is a small village; the only public buildings being those belonging to the county. The locality called Bulltown, where there is a post-office, was so named from the fact that about sixty years since, it was the residence of a small tribe of Indians, the name of whose chief was Captain Bull.

BROOKE.

BROOKE was formed from Ohio co., in 1797. It is the most northerly county in the state, and is a portion of the narrow neck of land lying between Pennsylvania and the Ohio River called the "panhandle." Its mean length is 31 miles, mean breadth 6 1-2. The sur

face is hilly, but much of the soil is fertile. The county abounds in coal. Large quantities are quarried on the side hills on the Ohio. There is not at the present time, (Sept. 1843,) a licensed tavern in the county, for retailing ardent spirits, and not one distillery; nor has there been a criminal prosecution for more than two years. Pop. 1830,7,040; 1840, whites 7,080, slaves 91, free col'd. 77; total, 7,948. Fairview, or New Manchester, lies on the Ohio, 22 miles N. of Wellsburg, on an elevated and healthy situation. It contains about 25 dwellings. The churches are Presbyterian and Methodist. Holliday's Cove is a long and scattering village, about 7 miles above Wellsburg, in a beautiful and fertile valley, of a semi-circular form. It contains 1 Union church, 1 Christian Disciples' church, an academy, and about 60 dwellings. Flour of a superior quality is manufactured at the mills on Harmon's Creek, in this valley. Bethany is beautifully situated, 8 miles E. of Wellsburg. It contains a few dwellings only. It is the residence of Dr. Alexander Campbell, the founder of the denomination generally known as "the Campbellite Baptists:" a name, however, which they themselves do not recognise, taking that of "Disciples, or Christian Baptists."

Bethany College was founded by Dr. Alexander Campbell, in 1841. Its instructors are the president, (Dr. Campbell,) and 4 professors. The institution is flourishing, numbering something like a hundred pupils, including the preparatory department. The buildings prepared for their reception are spacious and conve

nient.

The following historical sketch of "the Disciples of Christ," with a view of their religious opinions, is from Hayward's Book of Religions: