Virginia Illustrated: Containing a Visit to the Virginian Canaan, and the Adventures of Porte Crayon and His Cousins
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
Virginia: Containing a Visit to the Virginian Canaan, and the Adventures of Porte Crayon and His Cousins; Illustrated (Classic Reprint)
(Excerpt from Virginia: Containing a Visit to the Virginia...)
Excerpt from Virginia: Containing a Visit to the Virginian Canaan, and the Adventures of Porte Crayon and His Cousins; Illustrated
The sprightly sketches which illuminate this unskillful narra tive are the most appropriate and shall be the only introduction of our friend porte crayon. He has rendered the subjects with great truthfulness, and has exhibited even some tenderness in the handling of them. If he has nothing extenuated, he has, at least, set down naught in malice. Porte, indeed, modestly remarks that his poor abilities were entirely inadequate to do justice either to the sublimity of the natural scenery or the preposterous absurdity of the human species on that memorable expedition.
Mr. Smith, a gentleman of imposing presence, of few words, but an ardent and determined sportsman, and a zealous promoter of the expedition, completes the catalogue.
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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
Virginia Illustrated: The Adventures of Porte Crayon and His Cousins
(In this classic piece which was serialized in Harper's du...)
In this classic piece which was serialized in Harper's during the 1850's, David Hunter Strother, also known as Porte Crayon, travels his native state in the company of his cousins and his driver Mice. The piece is richly illustrated with Porte Crayon's Original sketches. The Illustrations show Virginia as it was to the traveler in antebellum Virginia. Crayon travels with his three female cousins visiting Caverns, Spas, Peaks and Valleys at a time when roads were deplorable, and visiting many parts of the state was an adventure filled will mishaps on the roads and accommodations that were often less than luxurious, but often comfortable and homey.. His sketches of the places and people of Virginia are classics.
Virginia illustrated : containing a visit to the Virginian Canaan, and the adventures of Porte Crayon and his cousins
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
Virginia Illustrated: Containing a Visit to the Virginian Canaan, and the Adventures of Porte Crayon Pseud. and His Cousins
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
This book was originally published prior to 1923, and represents a reproduction of an important historical work, maintaining the same format as the original work. While some publishers have opted to apply OCR (optical character recognition) technology to the process, we believe this leads to sub-optimal results (frequent typographical errors, strange characters and confusing formatting) and does not adequately preserve the historical character of the original artifact. We believe this work is culturally important in its original archival form. While we strive to adequately clean and digitally enhance the original work, there are occasionally instances where imperfections such as blurred or missing pages, poor pictures or errant marks may have been introduced due to either the quality of the original work or the scanning process itself. Despite these occasional imperfections, we have brought it back into print as part of our ongoing global book preservation commitment, providing customers with access to the best possible historical reprints. We appreciate your understanding of these occasional imperfections, and sincerely hope you enjoy seeing the book in a format as close as possible to that intended by the original publisher.
David Hunter Strother was an American journalist, artist, soldier, innkeeper, politician and diplomat.
Background
David was born on September 26, 1816 in Martinsburg, Berkeley County, Virginia (now West Virginia), United States. His parents were colonel John Strother and his wife Elizabeth Pendleton Hunter, David Strother was the first of their eight children and the only male to reach adulthood. The Strothers, since their arrival in Virginia from Northumberland, England, about 1650, had been a family of soldiers. David's grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War, his father in the War of 1812, David himself in the Civil War, and one of his sons in the Spanish-American War.
Education
He was educated at the Old Stone Schoolhouse in Martinsburg, and at Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, studied art in Philadelphia, and continued his studies in France and Italy during the years 1840-43.
Career
On his return to America in 1844 he began making drawings for magazines. He illustrated the 1851 edition of Swallow Barn, by his cousin John P. Kennedy, who had assisted him in his artistic endeavors. Next he made the drawings for The Blackwater Chronicle (1853), by Pendleton Kennedy, a brother of John P. Kennedy; this book has sometimes been attributed to Strother himself.
In December 1853 he contributed to Harper's New Monthly Magazine an article called "The Virginian Canaan, " in which he gave an account of a visit to the Blackwater region of Randolph County. This was the first of a series of sketches dealing with life in the South which, with numerous pen drawings, appeared from time to time in Harper's under his pseudonym, "Porte Crayon. "
Three characteristic series of articles, appearing at irregular intervals, were "North Carolina Illustrated" (1857), "A Winter in the South" (1857 - 58), "A Summer in New England" (1860 - 61). At the outbreak of the Civil War, Strother, a Unionist, offered his services to the North, and because of his knowledge of the Shenandoah Valley and his skill with the pen was assigned to the topographical corps. He served at different times on the staffs of Generals McClellan, Banks, Pope, and Hunter, went through thirty battles unwounded, and received one promotion after another until his resignation in September 1864. After the close of the war, he was brevetted brigadier-general.
He now made his home at Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, devoting his time to literature and art. During the years 1866-68 he contributed to Harper's a series of articles entitled "Personal Recollections of the War, by a Virginian, " based on his diary and pen sketches made on the battlefields.
Between 1872 and 1875 he contributed to the same magazine a series on "The Mountains, " but by this time a change in the literary taste of the reading public had reduced the demand for writings of the sketchbook and diary type.
He was appointed United States consul-general in the city of Mexico in 1879, returned to West Virginia in 1885 - making his home at Charles Town - and at the time of his death was writing a book on the Mexicans.
Strother died in Charles Town, West Virginia three years later.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
Views
Strother's writings are in the Irving tradition - slow-moving, humorous, picturesque accounts of people and places, with numerous quotations from other writers. Illustrated with copious pen drawings, they preserve a record of the old South, portraying such places as Hot Springs, White Sulphur Springs, and the University of Virginia as they appeared in the fifties and sixties of the nineteenth century.
Connections
In 1849 he married Anne Wolfe, by whom he had a daughter, Emily, who married John Brisben Walker; in 1861 he married Mary Hunter, by whom he had two sons.