The Ghost of Guir House - Page 69/80

"In the early settlement of this State, an Englishman by the name of

Guir pre-empted a large body of land, near the center of which he

erected this house. Although his intention in coming from the old

country was to make his permanent home in the colony, his reasons for

doing so were quite different from those which usually induce

immigration. Guir was an artist, and a man of some means; and his

object in colonizing was not so much to cultivate the soil, or to

trade with the Indians, or engage in any business enterprise, as to

gratify a craving for nature and surround himself with such scenery

as he loved to paint. It would be folly to pretend that Guir was a

man of ordinary tastes and disposition; for had he been such, he

would never have undertaken a journey, with a family of girls, into

such a wilderness as Virginia was at that time. No; from the very

circumstances of his birth and education, he was unfitted to live

with his countrymen; hence his early adoption of the colony as a home

for himself, wife, and daughters. This happened a hundred and fifty

years ago."

"He was an ancestor of yours, I presume," said Paul, hoping to gain

some clew to the man's identity.

"No," answered Ah Ben, "he was not."

"Pardon the interruption," added Paul, fearing he had annoyed the

speaker.

"Naturally, in a country without roads, or even wagon trails,"

continued the old man, without noticing the apology, "it was years

before a house of this size could be completed, as every brick and

nearly every stick of timber was brought from England. These, of

course, were conveyed by water as far as the rivers permitted, the

rest of the journey being performed upon sleds drawn by oxen. But it

was Guir's hobby, and in the course of a dozen or fifteen years the

job was completed, and the house stood as you see it now. Then the

owner set himself to work with brush, canvas, and chisel to decorate

his home, and make it, according to his ideas, as beautiful and

suggestive of his early youth as imaginable. With his own hands, Mr.

Henley, he painted most of these pictures, although his three

daughters, inheriting his tastes, assisted him. And thus, as the

years rolled by, Guir House became more and more a museum of artistic

efforts, embracing many unusual subjects, and in every degree of

perfection. The broad acres of the estate produced much that was

necessary toward the maintenance of life, and what they lacked was

supplied once a year from a distant settlement near the coast. As you

can readily understand, there were no neighbors, and but occasional

visits from the red man, who looked distrustfully upon the pale-face.

This feeling became mutual, and trifling acts of hostility on the

part of the natives grew both in frequency and magnitude.

Depredations upon Guir's fields and cattle were at first ignored, in

the effort to maintain peace, but in time it became necessary to

resist them. Upon one occasion, a raid upon a distant field was

successfully repulsed, with the aid of his wife and three daughters,

attired in men's clothing and mounted upon fast horses. The Indians

were so completely surprised by the ruse, being apparently attacked

by five men, where they had believed there was only one, that they

fled, completely routed, nor did they return for several years.

Meanwhile, fearing another and closer attack, Guir converted one of

the lower rooms of his house into an impenetrable and unassailable

place of refuge. The windows were walled up, to correspond with the

stonework of the house, leaving no suspicion of there having been

once an opening. Likewise the doors were treated, and then carefully

plastered both within and without, with the exception of one, which

he made anew, to communicate with a private stairway leading from one

of the upper bedrooms. This was the only entrance to the dark

retreat, and a heavy bolt was placed upon the inside, to be used by

the family in case of attack. There was no reason to suppose that a

marauding party would ever find the way to this secret chamber, as

the entrance was carefully covered by a scuttle in the floor of a

dark closet; and the place being thoroughly fire-proof, the family

felt unusually secure in the possession of their new retreat."