represented only the English brick, the carvings, furniture, and
decorations.

The construction of such an edifice had at that day a distinct object.
These great old manor-houses, lost in the depths of the country, were
intended to become the headquarters of the family in all time.
In their large apartments the eldest son was to uphold the name.
Generation after generation was to pass, and some one of the old name
still live there; and though all this has passed away now, and
may appear a worn-out superstition, and, though some persons may
stigmatize it as contributing to the sentiment of "aristocracy," the
strongest opponents of that old system may pardon in us the expression
of some regret that this love of the hearthstone and old family
memories should have disappeared. The great man whose character is
sought to be delineated in this volume never lost to the last this
home and family sentiment. He knew the kinships of every one, and
loved the old country-houses of the old Virginia families--plain and
honest people, attached, like himself, to the Virginia soil. We pass
to a brief description of the old house in which Lee was born.

Stratford, the old home of the Lees, but to-day the property of
others, stands on a picturesque bluff on the southern bank of the
Potomac, and is a house of very considerable size. It is built in the
form of the letter H. The walls are several feet in thickness; in the
centre is a saloon thirty feet in size; and surmounting each wing is a
pavilion with balustrades, above which rise clusters of chimneys. The
front door is reached by a broad flight of steps, and the grounds are
handsome, and variegated by the bright foliage of oaks, cedars, and
maple-trees. Here and there in the extensive lawn rises a slender and
ghostly old Lombardy poplar--a tree once a great favorite in Virginia,