prowess and power in the annual deer hunt “over the mountains.”  Skill in horsemanship was essential, and breaking colts was naturally followed by broken limbs; but manhood found a race of trained horsemen, both graceful and skillful in the saddle, unexcelled, I dare venture to assert, by any civilized people.  A child of nature, the Virginia boy communed with her as his mother, and from her purest depths drew the richest inspirations.  To him no mountains were so blue as hers, no streams so clear, no forests so enchanting, no homes so sweet.

    While others hailed in distant skies the glories of the Union
    He only saw the mountain bird stoop o’er his Old Dominion.

How vividly the picture comes to me now (never to be effaced) of a learned professor in one of Virginia’s highest schools, himself three-score years and ten, a soldier of two wars, as he led the way through a quiet Virginia town on horseback, followed by two sons, distinguished ministers of the gospel, and they in turn by a younger son and the grandson of the leader, with a goodly train of friends, amid the blasts of horns and baying of hounds, who followed, eager for the chase among the beautiful hills which surrounded the town of Lexington, even as the mountains stand “round about Jerusalem.”

Religion—­the duty of man to his Creator, not sectarianism—­was scrupulously taught, and Sunday morning found the family alive in preparations for attending religious service at Zion or Trinity, as it might happen to be the first or the fourth Sunday of the month.  From this duty none were exempt from the least to the greatest.  The pastor was the friend on whom all troubles both temporal and spiritual were cast, and his visits were long remembered and talked of in the life of each family.  Deference to his wishes and reverence for his character were well-nigh universal.

    A man he was to all the country dear,
    And passing rich with forty pounds a year;
    Remote from towns he ran his godly race,
    Nor e’er had changed, nor wished to change his place.

    Unskillful he to fawn, or seek for power,
    By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour;
    Far other aims his heart had learned to prize,
    More bent to raise the wretched than to rise.

Such was the atmosphere in which our deceased friend was reared.  He was a trustee in the venerable institution of Washington and Lee University at Lexington, Va., founded by Gen. Washington, and presided over by Gen. Robert E. Lee during the last years of his life; he was faithful to the trust, and ever watchful of the best interests of the school.  The loss sustained by this institution in his death has been most fittingly expressed in the appended minute of the faculty of the university, adopted on the 19th of October, 1891: 

     At a meeting of the faculty of Washington and Lee University, held
     October 19, 1891, the following minute was adopted: