In its day, the town of Washington was a veritable literary centre,--no doubt due to the influence of Jefferson College and of the Mississippi Society. Monette, the historian, and Wailes, the geologist, lived, died and are buried here, and their old homes still remain. Ingraham, the author of the "Pillar of Fire," at one time was a professor in Jefferson College. A few miles distant was the home of Claiborne, the historian, the rival and compeer of Prentiss. At Washington Andrew Jackson was encamped in 1813, when he disobeyed the order to there muster out his soldiers, and instead of doing so, marched them back to Tennessee for the purpose. And here, a few days later, were brought some of the British prisoners captured at the great battle of New Orleans. Two miles from Washington was the home of General Felix Huston. Within its limits is the grave of Judge Thomas Rodney. In the early days, before the institution of slavery had assumed its subsequent gigantic proportions, resulting in the concentration of great landed estates in the hands of a few wealthy slave-owners, Adams county was divided into a great number of small farms, owned by white settlers. This is evidenced by a study of the titles of the great plantations, the records showing them to consist of consolidated farms, in many instances. This is further evidenced by the great number of private burying grounds scattered throughout the county adjacent to Natchez and Washington, in which are found tombs with inscriptions often a century old, and names without a living representative here. But if slavery produced decadence in one way, it produced growth in another. Adams county, and especially the suburbs of the city of Natchez, became the home of wealthy families, owning broad acres, not only in this but in many other counties, and in the neighboring State of Louisiana. The beautiful description by Mrs. Hemans, of "The Stately Homes of England," would have applied almost without change to the ancestral residences occupied in ante-bellum days, by veritable lords of the manor, surrounded by all the luxury and refinement which wealth and slavery could produce. Some of these relics of an unforgotten past, still remain, such as "Elmscourt," "Gloster," "Llangollin," "Longwood," "Auburn," "Inglewood," "Monmouth," "Melrose," "Arlington," "Somerset," "Oakland," "Manteigne," "Richmond," "Devereux," "Concord," "Sweet-Auburn," "Brandon-Hall," "Selma," "Green-field," "Coventry," "The Forest," and others. Many more have been destroyed by the fire-fiend, and only ruins now remain. "The Forest" the home of Sir William Dunbar, and "Selma," the original residence of the Brandon family, were indigo plantations, in the days before cotton was king. "Concord" is of special interest, as an old Spanish house, and the residence of Governor Gayoso.