The old gentleman soon made
his appearance, and afterwards Mrs. Longworth. They were a most
venerable couple, who had a twelve-month ago celebrated their golden
marriage, or fiftieth anniversary of their wedding day. We were invited
to stay and drink tea, which we did, and met a large assemblage of
children and grand-children; a great-grand-child who had been present
at the golden wedding, was in its nursery.
Mr. Longworth, among other things remarkable about him, is the
proprietor of the vineyards from which the sparkling champagne is
produced, known, from the name of the grape, as the sparkling Catawba;
but he seems no less remarkable from the immense extent of his
strawberry beds, which cover, I think he said, 60 acres of ground. He
told us the number of bushels of fruit they daily produce in the season;
but the number is legion, and I dare not set it down from memory. He
showed papa a book he had written about his grapes and strawberries, and
is very incredulous as to any in the world being better than his. This
led to a discussion upon the relative size of trees and plants on the
two sides of the Atlantic; and in speaking of the Indian corn, he tells
us he has seen it standing, in Ohio, eighteen feet high, and he says it
has been known, in Kentucky, to reach as high as twenty-five feet, and
the ear eighteen inches long.
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