Northern and Western men who occasionally happen to travel through the lower counties of these States, put up at poor taverns, and go away to abuse the half savage state of society there. They should rather present themselves at some planter’s house, where they would be received with the best, as a matter of course, and invited, if it were spring, to a fish feast upon the banks of the nearest river, or, if it were autumn, to a deer hunt. Let idlers who are _ennuyés_ to death with the common-places of their daily life, just take a country road tour through the lower counties of Maryland and Virginia, and they will find themselves transported to the associations of two centuries ago, among the oldest-fashioned people, with the oldest-fashioned houses, furniture, and manners in the world. * * * * * Down on the western shore of Maryland is a heath containing about five hundred acres—upon which stands an old mansion-house, in ruins, both of which I wish to describe. This heath is bounded on the North by the river P., on the South by Sachem’s Creek, on the West by a deep, dense forest, and on the East by the Chesapeake Bay. The heath rises gradually from the bay, and is relieved by clumps of pine and cedar trees, standing between the swells of ground as it rolls back from the water towards the forest, while towards the North the ground rises and sharpens into a steep promontory, sticking out between the junction of the river with the bay. Crowning the summit of this promontory, is a large, square, red brick old mansion-house. Around this house wave tall, gloomy old Lombardy poplars—like sable plumes around a hearse. Around the shores of the promontory runs a half-ruined low brick wall, inclosing the garden attached to the mansion. This garden is grown up with weeds and thistles. This estate was known by the name of The Heath, or Heath Hall, and had continued in the possession of the Churchill family since the first settlement of Maryland.