As you lifted the knocker of his
door--for he never adopted the comparative novelty of bells in our
region--a black servant, who, with his ancestors of several generations,
had been born in the family, soon appeared, and you entered a broad
central passage which extended through the house, which was the old
sitting place of Virginia families for nine months of the year, and
which is hardly known in the crowded cities of the North. The floor of
the passage was covered with a strip of carpeting in winter, and in
summer presented a smooth polished surface devoid of matting. If you
opened the first door on the left, you entered the office of Mr.
Tazewell, a well lighted southern room, fourteen by twenty, in the
middle of which was a table furnished with writing apparatus and covered
with books and manuscripts. By that table, in an arm-chair, he commonly
sate in cold weather; and the chances were, at least during the morning,
you would find him pen in hand, and sheets of paper freshly written and
full of figures strewn about him. It was rare that you saw any thing
like continuous writing except in the case of a letter.
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