"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."