Friday 25th May 2007. Orange, Virginia.

History of the times...In 1749 when George Washington was commissioned to survey the new county of Culpeper he was only 17 years old.
1760 saw the silk top hat was first introduced in Florence

AND John Brown's body helped ignite the Civil War with his bloody insurrection at Harpers Ferry.


After breakfast with Nan and Myrtle at the Greenock House Inn, Alice and I headed off for the day to Montpellier, the home of the United States fourth President and the Father of the Constitution James Madison.

Today this is a 2,650 acre estate that is home to both a flat track and a steeplechase course built by the last private owner Marion DuPont Scott. However the real history here pre-dates the DuPont era to the days when Montpelier was home to several generations of enslaved families who worked the plantation of Madison’s time.

The estate began life as Mount Pleasant with Madison’s grandfather Ambrose but it was James the gentleman farmer, who was to thrust the family into the limelight.

As father of the American Constitution and architect of the Bill of Rights (one wonders what Madison would think of the current erosion of civil liberty under the Bush administration?), he also served as Secretary of State for his friend, mentor and neighbour, Thomas Jefferson.

The Madison’s though were equally famous for the role played by Dolley, James’ wife and the only First Lady to serve a total of four full terms in office…(as Jefferson was a widow Dolley had fulfilled this role for the presidency that pre-dated her husbands).

Dolley was actually the first President’s wife to be given the title of First Lady and she is still considered to have been one of the most astute political hostesses of modern America.

It was Dolley who as First Lady refused to leave what we know today as the White House, until the portrait of George Washington had been secured, when the British burnt the city in 1814. The name White House only dates from around 1900 and the reason for the colouring of the building was a simple attempt to cover the burn marks stemming from the War of 1812.

I am lucky enough to be visiting this home at a time when it is being restored to the 1820’s era of James and Dolley.

The icon of the property remains The Temple which still shines out as a beacon of Madison’s notion of liberty and learning each leaning on the other for mutual support. His temple though is no folly. Madison was a practical man and whilst his temple reflected visually his dreams of an agrarian republic, it served practically as an ice-house.

The grounds of this property tell as many tales as the home and a stroll through the Landmark Forest gives you an idea of the resource base on which the new empire would be built.

A man of reason in an age of enlightenment, Madison saw the United States as taking its lead from the two great political experiments that were the Roman Republic and Ancient Greece. What may be telling for modern America is that both of these empires were brought down not by enemies from without, but from the enemy within.

The grounds also tell the social history of the time offering up a wealth of knowledge about the death ritual.

We have the family cemetery (the only resident non family member is one Frank Carson of Lislee, Ireland who owned the home in the mid-1800’s) and it is indistinguishable from any other European cemetery of the time; but we also have the slave cemetery with its markers at head and foot of the body and the rituals from night-time burial to the freeing of the spirit. Slave funerals were a celebrated blending of European and African tradition mixing both traditional beliefs and Christianity.

We headed on to round off our day with lunch at Mama’s in Gordonsville where Alice and I explore the town before heading back to Orange and evening supper with Nan and Drea.