Edgar Allan Poe spent many of his boyhood days in Richmond, with John Allan, a rich merchant of Scotch descent who adopted him. Until recently, the fine old residence of Mr. Allan was standing on Fifth Street, and near by was the residence of William Wirt, who loved the place and thus writes of it: “I never met with such an assemblage of striking and interesting objects as here, the town dispersed over hills of various shapes, the river descending from west to east, and obstructed by a multitude of small islands, clumps of trees and myriads of rocks--the same river, at the lower end of the town, bending at right angles to the south and winding many miles in that direction, its polished surface caught here and there by the eye, but more frequently covered from the view by trees, among which white sails exhibit a curious and interesting spectacle; then again, on the opposite side, Manchester, built on a hill, which, sloping quickly to the river, opens the whole town to view, interspersed with flourishing poplars and surrounded to a great distance by green plains and stately woods,--all these objects falling at once under the eye constitute by far the most finely varied and most animated landscape I have ever seen.” The Valentine Museum, which was given to the city by one of its most valued citizens, the late Mann S. Valentine, contains archæological specimens numbering more than one hundred thousand, also an art collection and a number of original works donated by his brother, Edward V. Valentine, Virginia’s talented sculptor. A short walk brings you to the studio of this artist, where, among many beautiful and interesting figures, the chief interest centres in the model for the recumbent statue of General Robert E. Lee, the marble of which is in the annex to the Episcopal Church in Lexington. This statue has won for Valentine the admiration and love of the people of the South. [Illustration: RICHMOND IN FLAMES.]