In the Negro quarters there are weird tales of ghosts wandering over the premises. “Two tall ghosts, in uniform, carrying guns, come on dark rainy nights when the owls hoot in the oaks above the graves.” Records show that in 1877 Gloucester was sold to James Surget, who was one of Natchez’ earliest and most affluent citizens. This home was continuously owned by the Surget family for sixty years, until the recent death of Mrs. Katherine Boyd Surget, when the property was bequeathed to its present owner, Lenox Stanton. Mr. and Mrs. Stanton hold dear every Gloucester tradition and take pride in maintaining the home and grounds in their original state of perfection. _Hawthorne_ [Illustration: Hawthorne] On the famous Natchez Trace Highway, within calling distance of the Lower Woodville road, through a narrow gateway flanked by giant oaks, is a quaint little cottage, “Hawthorne”. It is the old Southern Planter type home, a story-and-a-half. A beautiful double front door with panels of early period thin glass and an exquisitely wrought fanlight above give an atmosphere of friendliness to the entrance. Architects interested in the unusual find charm in the hand-hewn stairway which rises from the broad back hall to the rooms above. “Hawthorne” more than a century ago belonged to a family named Overaker who sold the place with its sixty acres of wooded land to the Dunbar family, under whose regime this quaint old home sheltered and entertained the elite of the South as early as 1837. It is believed that Hawthorne was built by the Tichenor family about 1825. For many years this old place was vacant. Lumber mills and grist mills crowded too near, but the property was recently bought by the family of William McGehee, who are reclaiming “Hawthorne”. Every line of the period architecture is being followed, and “Hawthorne”, its meadows and gardens, will soon be restored as in stage coach days to greet today its motor car visitors. The history of Hawthorne is a sad story with a hopeful ending. _Hope Farm_ A few years ago when “Hope Farm” fell into the hands of Mr. and Mrs. Balfour Miller it was truly “getting a break” for rehabilitation. Today when one steps into this old Spanish house, built about 1775, there breathes from every crevice and corner the true atmosphere of the Old South. The original portion of Hope Farm, its English wing, is believed to have been built by Marcus Haller. The front, the straight, low, Spanish portion, was built by the Spanish Governor, de Grand Pre, about the year 1790.