The Brandon plantation passed from John Martin's possession to the estate of Lady Frances Ingleby, and a deed from her conveyed it in turn to Nathaniel Harrison of Surrey Co., Virginia. His name appears in the Westover MSS. (to which we shall presently refer further) in conjunction with those of "His Excellency Alexr. Spotswood, Governor of Virga" and "Colo. William Robinson, a Member of the House of Burgs of Virga." The three were deputed to conduct negotiations with the Five Nations, September 1722. Colonel Harrison is therein styled, “a Member of His Majestie's Council of Virga."

The southeast and older wing of the manorhouse was built by him about 1712; a few years later he erected the northwest wing. These, with the main dwelling, are of dark red brick, imported from England. Benjamin Harrison, his son and heir, was a room-mate of Thomas Jefferson at William and Mary College, Williamsburg. The intimacy was continued in later years, and after Mr. Jefferson's return from France he planned the square central building of his friend's residence. One suspects that the proprietor's taste may have modified his accomplished

associate's designs, when we compare the inconvenient incongruities of Monticello with the

HARRISON COAT-OF-ARMS.

solid, sensible structure before us. The one eccentricity is the ornament on the peak of the roof a white conical cap, set about with drooping pennate leaves. It may be a pine-apple or a pointed variety of Dutch cabbage.

The house was comparatively modern when

Benedict Arnold entered the mouth of the James, striking right and left with the mad zeal of a newly fledged pervert. He landed at Brandon, destroyed crops, stock, poultry, and fences, allowed his men to use cows as targets, and was guilty of other fantastic atrocities, the traditions of which are preserved by those who had them from the lips of eyewitnesses. At a subsequent date of the Revolution a body of English troops under General Phillips bivouacked here en route for Petersburg, at which place he died. His remains lie in Blandford Cemetery.

Various modest freeholds purchased from small farmers in the neighborhood, were added by Nathaniel Harrison to the original Martin grant, until the plantation was one of the largest and most valuable on the James. Yellow jasmine, periwinkle, and the hardy bulbs known to our grandmothers as "butter-andeggs," are still found in places where no house has stood for a century, brave leal mementoes of cottage and farmstead levelled to make way for the growth of the mighty estate.

Children were born, grew up, and died in the shadow of the spreading roofs; accomplished men of the race stood before counsellors and kings, served State and nation, and left the legacy of an unsullied name to those who came after them. Women, fair and virtuous, presided over a home the hospitality of which was noteworthy in a State renowned for good cheer and social graces. Presidents and their cabinets; eminent statesmen of this country; men and women of rank from abroad; neighbors, friends, and strangers found a royal welcome in the fine old Virginia house. The rich lands, tilled by laborers whose grandfathers had occupied the comfortable " quarters" for which Brandon was celebrated.

produced harvests that added yearly to the master's wealth. A neat hospital for the sick and infirm, the services of a regular physician, the ministry of a salaried chaplain and, most of all, the parental care of the owners, made of the family and farm-servants a contented and happy peasantry. It was a golden age of feudalism upon which the cyclone of another war swooped with deadlier effects than when Arnold directed the destructive forces.

In 1863, Mrs. Isabella Harrison, the widow of Mr. George Evelyn Harrison, late proprietor of Brandon, was warned by sagacious advisers that it would be prudent to remove her family, with such valuables as were portable, to Richmond. Reluctant to leave home and dependants, she delayed until danger of invasion was imminent before she took a house in town and filled it with furniture, pictures and other effects sent up the river from the plantation. There were left behind her brother, Dr. Ritchie, a son of the famous "Nestor of the Virginia Press," Thomas Ritchie of The Enquirer,-two white managers, and 150 negroes, -field-hands and their families,-the houseservants having accompanied the ladies to Richmond.