In the best form of which I am capable the fruits of these protracted
labors are now committed to the candid and, it is hoped, kindly
judgment of the people of Loudoun County.

JAMES W. HEAD.
"ARCADIA,"
BARCROFT, VA., _Feb. 1, 1909_.




Descriptive.

SITUATION.


Loudoun County lies at the northern extremity of "Piedmont
Virginia,"[1] forming the apex of one of the most picturesquely
diversified regions on the American continent. Broad plains, numerous
groups and ranges of hills and forest-clad mountains, deep river
gorges, and valleys of practically every conceivable form are strewn
to the point of prodigality over this vast undulatory area.

[Footnote 1: "Piedmont" means "foot of the mountain." "Piedmont
Virginia," with a length of 250 miles and an average width of about 25
miles, and varying in altitude from 300 to 1,200 feet, lies just east
of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and comprises the counties of _Loudoun_,
Fauquier, Culpeper, Rappahannock, Madison, Greene, Orange, Albemarle,
Nelson, Amherst, Bedford, Franklin, Henry, and Patrick. It is a
portion of the belt that begins in New England and stretches thence