University of North Carolina Chapel Hill - Yackety Yack Yearbook (Chapel Hill, NC)

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too far from coal to be merchantable. Lower down is a most romantic defile, called Glenburnie ; in it was the oldest pre-Revolutionary mill in this region, called Yeargin ' s. The mud-sill may still be seen. There is a story that when the Indian and the white m an hunted together over these hills, a dusky maiden, Winona, loved a young pale-face. He returned not her affections and soon he vanished, his tracks ])ointing toward his home beyond the ris- ing sun. Painting her face and donning- her finery as if for a wedding festi- val, she paddled her canoe, singing plaintively as she went over the crown of the lofty dam, and was dashed to pieces on the jagged rocks below. Any listener can still hear the murmuring of her voice among the rocks, over which flows the cruel stream. Descending the stream we come to the Valley Mill Pond with Clover Hill overhanging it. This sheet of water is a favorite for skating and is much visited by those fond of walking. The fishing is indifferent. Below the mill the valley widens. On the north is an abrupt hill named rdter the first president, Dr. Joseph Caldwell, who, although a good Christian, was called, because of his skill in capturing wicked students, Old Bolus, . e., diabolus, or the devil. Mount Bolus gives a lovely view down the stream and in the distance. The hill on the south, opposite Bolus, is distinguished by having on it one great solitary pine, the last survivor of many such. Beneath it is a beautiful fountain, gushing freely Irom the hillside into a natural stone basin. This Lone Pine Spring, as it is named, is the best specimen of a mountain spring in this neighborhood. On the country road going through this (Tenney ' s) plantation, on the left as it reaches the valley, there was, fifty years ago, a farmhouse, then inhab- ited by the negroes of Professor, afterward Bishop, Green, but prior to his ownership, by Benjamin Yeargin, one of the donors of the Lhiiversity site. My father, Judge William H. Battle, told me that in this dwelling, so remote from the L-niversity buildings, he, with President Polk and other students, had their table board, walking to their meals three times a day. The hills on Tenney ' s plantation afford a very distinct view of Durham, especially of Trinity College. This plantation and Piney Prospect were the favorite goals of afternoon strollers in the old days. Some deflected to the left and visited Love Rocks, a fine cluster of boulders in the grove which is between Tenney ' s and the town. Others went off to the right by a wind- ing path into the woods east of President Winston ' s house, and found at the bottom of the hill a lovely spring, with the grand name of Roaring Foun- tain. The place is very rugged and romantic, but was injured recently by an 1«

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tion is one of the best in the county. On it is the burial lot of the family, in which, besides others, is a handsome white marble monument erected by the University in accordance with the wishes of the testatrix. On the south side of Morgan ' s Creek on this plantation, is one of the two famous Laurel Hills. Here in addition to trailing arbutus is a fine growth of the grand evergreen shrub, the botanical name of which is Rhododendron Catawbiense. Professor Asa Gray, in one of his books, says that this species never is found below eighteen hundred feet. But one of our professors, Dr. F. W. Simonds, sent him specimens and he promptly acknowledged his error. The other Laurel Hill is near the mill of Bennett and Oldham, which our old- est Alumni knew as Barbee ' s, our elderly Alumni as Cave ' s, and our middle- aged as King ' s Mill. To these hills annual pilgrimages are made by young men and maidens, intent on despoiling the plants of their beauteous treasures. Occasionally the dryads and naiads by way of punishment turn over the slip- pery stones in the creek-crossing under the tripping feet of the damsels and send them drenched and disconsolate homeward. They always emerge safely from the disaster, for where there ' s a IViV s there ' s a way out of all such troubles. Haifa mile above the mill is a lovely defile between verdured hills, where the water sings gaily among the sweet odors of yellow jasmine and the bright colors of woodbine. This is Otey ' s Retreat. Here, about three-quarters of a century ago, a young University tutor spent much of his time studying his books, or romantically recalling the image and the words of his ladylove, Miss Eliza Pannill. The lady was kindly and it was not many years before she journeyed to Tennessee, the wife of James Hervey Otey, Bishop of Tennessee. Higher up Morgan ' s Creek is Purefoy ' s Mill, famous in the old days, before railroads came, as Merritt ' s Mill, whose brand of flour was much sought after in our eastern counties. The pond here is a lovely sheet of water and is much used by the students when swimming or skating is the lashion. Still higher up this stream on its western bank is a notable hill declared by Professor Cobb to be the extinct crater of a volcano. Suspicion hath it that in this neighborhood, in a still wilder and more secluded spot, there was not very long ago another kind of cratur, not at all extinct, but alive with all the fiery headiness of moonshine old corn — whiskey. But Professor Cobb and his geological class did not chance to look that cratur in the mouth. We will now cross the ridge toward the north, and descend into the valley of Bowlin ' s Creek. Rising to the north we see the Iron Mountain, where excavations show a goodly quantity of valuable ore, but up to this time 17

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attempt to use the water in a hydraulic ram. Mrs. Spencer wrote a neat poem, The Lament of the Naiad of Roaring Fountain, complaining of the desecration. President Winston replied with the Answer of the Dryad, through the mouth of a croaking bull-frog. We are now near Battle Park, so called because the paths permeating it were cut by a former president of the University with his little hatchet as a recreation from his anxious University work. Seats may be found here for loving couples, bearing such romantic names as Trysting Poplar, Anemone Spring, Fairy Vale, Lion Rock, The Triangle, Over-stream Seat, Vale of lone. Glen Lee, Wood-thrush Home, Dogwood Dingle, Flirtation Knoll. One of the loveliest walks that can be found is through the southern edge of the Park to Piney Prospect, then by a winding path northward to the brook, then up its meanderings to the village, about two and a half miles in all. The cemetery is not well kept, but has some inte resting monuments of students who died far away from their homes, of venerable men and excellent women, of a gallant Confederate colonel, Edward Mallett, a son of the L ' ni- versity, killed in one of the last battles of the Civil War, and buried in his bloody uniform. His swords are hanging in the Library. Taking a road running in a southerly direction near the east wall of the cemetery, and, after following it for three-eighths of a mile, deviating to the right by a path through a growth of young pines, the pedestrian will reach a most romantic spot, the Meeting of the Waters, where Chapel branch and Rockspring branch come together among num.erous gray rocks. The dense shade of the lofty trees, the musical murmur of the tumbling streams, the high bluffs covered with mosses and ferns, hepaticas and heart-leaves, the rustling of the leaves of the tree tops, and the perfect calm below, make this an ideal place for lovers of Nature. I close this paper by pointing out two more places of interest. One is the Mineral Spring, near the point where Professor Holmes ' beautiful, well-graded new road curves away from the steep and rocky old Durham Road. The other is the Point of Rocks, about ten steps on the west of the Hillsborough Road, a little north of Mr. John Ward ' s dwelling. It is on his land, but he is a most kindly man, and I am sure will not object to visitors enjoying from its summit a most charming view of rolling hills and lovely vales, and all the many-hued beauties of forests and the setting sun. Kemp P. Battle (1849). 19