Those long lines of heavy and durable
walls, which now sweep through every part of the country, forty years
ago were unknown. The slight and tottering fences of stone were then
used more to clear the land for the purposes of cultivation than as
permanent barriers, and required the constant attention of the
husbandman, to preserve them against the fury of the tempests and the
frosts of winter. Some few of them had been built with more care
immediately around the dwelling of Mr. Wharton; but those which had
intersected the vale below were now generally a pile of ruins, over
which the horses of the Virginians would bound with the fleetness of the
wind. Occasionally a short line yet preserved its erect appearance; but
as none of those crossed the ground on which Dunwoodie intended to act,
there remained only the slighter fences of rails to be thrown down.
Their duty was hastily but effectually performed; and the guides
withdrew to the post assigned to them for the approaching fight.
Major Dunwoodie had received from his scouts all the intelligence
concerning his foe, which was necessary to enable him to make his
arrangements. The bottom of the valley was an even plain, that fell with
a slight inclination from the foot of the hills on either side, to the
level of a natural meadow that wound through the country on the banks of
a small stream, by whose waters it was often inundated and fertilized.
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