Excerpt from The Virginia Tourist: Sketches of the Spring and Mountains of Virginia: Containing an Exposition of Fields for the Tourist in Virginia; Natural Beauties and Wonders of the State; Also Accounts of Its Mineral Springs; And a Medical Guide to the Use of the Waters; Etc;, Etc Otter and Monticello, overlooking the grand dome of the University Of Virginia. He is now in Piedmont Virginia. The character of the agriculture is changed. There is a mixed system Of farming, planting and grazing. He goes beyond the blue mountains - that mysteriously and beautifully robed boundary which Nature has lifted up into the sky, in the Blue Ridge, the barrier for a century against the early enterprise of the Virginia colonist - and new scenes un fold. He has struck the rich soils of clay, loam and limestone - the grand, rock-ribbed belt that girds the mountains from the Potomac to Tennessee and Ken tucky, and widens and embraces the beautiful Valley of Virginia. He is in a country where every View is of won der, and admiration, and thankfulness. The fields are dressed with the green grass and the blue grass; the hills and the mountains and the valleys smile with verdure; there are the golden harvests, and fruits of summer and autumn, and the wealth of flowers; the year is crowned with goodness; the pure encasing air is as an invisible garment of inspiration; the pastures are clothed with flocks and herds, which are led into green pastures and lie down by still waters. There are the cattle upon a thousand hills. There are the husbandmen of the Valley, a simple and prosperous race there are real Arcadians there Plenty smiles in the sunburnt face; there, in the sweet and fruitful fields, men send up the incense of grateful hearts, and invoke the blessing of Him who visits the earth and waters it, upon the fruits of honest toil. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.