Produced by Mark C. Orton, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: James W. Head] HISTORY AND COMPREHENSIVE DESCRIPTION OF LOUDOUN COUNTY VIRGINIA BY JAMES W. HEAD PARK VIEW PRESS _Copyright 1908 by JAMES W. HEAD_ Dedication. * * * * * TO MY MOTHER, WHOSE LOVE FOR LOUDOUN IS NOT LESS ARDENT AND UNDYING THAN MY OWN, THIS VOLUME, THE SINGLE AMBITION AND FONDEST ACHIEVEMENT OF MY LIFE, IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED. "Loudoun County exemplifies country life in about the purest and pleasantest form that I have yet found in the United States. Not that it is a rural Utopia by any means, but the chief ideals of the life there are practically identical with those that have made country life in the English counties world-famous. As a type, this is, in fact, the real thing. No sham, no artificiality, no suspicion of mushroom growth, no evidence of exotic forcing are to be found in Loudoun, but the culmination of a century's development." * * * * * "So much, then, to show briefly that Loudoun County life is a little out of the ordinary, here in America, and hence worth talking about. There are other communities in Virginia and elsewhere that are worthy of eulogy, but I know of none that surpasses Loudoun in the dignity, sincerity, naturalness, completeness and genuine success of its country life."--WALTER A. DYER, in _Country Life in America_. Table of Contents. INTRODUCTION Descriptive Department. SITUATION BOUNDARIES TOPOGRAPHY COMPARATIVE ALTITUDES DRAINAGE CLIMATE GEOLOGY Summary Granite Loudoun Formation Weverton Sandstone Newark System Newark Diabase Catoctin Schist Rocks of the Piedmont Plain Lafayette Formation Metamorphism MINERAL AND KINDRED DEPOSITS SOILS Summary Loudoun Sandy Loam Penn Clay Penn Stony Loam Iredell Clay Loam Penn Loam Cecil Loam Cecil Clay Cecil Silt Loam Cecil Mica Loam De Kalb Stony Loam Porters Clay Meadow FLORA AND FAUNA Flora Fauna TRANSPORTATION FACILITIES TOWNS AND VILLAGES Leesburg Round Hill Waterford Hamilton Purcellville Middleburg Ashburn Bluemont Smaller Towns Statistical Department. AREA AND FARMING TABULATIONS POPULATION INDUSTRIES FARM VALUES LIVE STOCK Values Animals Sold and Slaughtered Neat cattle Dairy Products Steers Horses, Mules, etc. Sheep, Goats, and Swine Domestic Wool Poultry and Bees SOIL PRODUCTS