the house was the kitchen garden, stocked with choice fruit-trees.  Through the forest-trees an opening had been cut, which afforded an attractive view of the river for several miles of its course.  On the whole, it was a paradise in the wilderness, a remarkable scene for that outlying region, for not far from the mansion still stood a large block-house, which had, not many years before, been used as a place of refuge in the desolating Indian wars.

Here dwelt Harman Blennerhasset and his lovely wife; he a man of scientific attainments, she a woman of fine education and charming manners.  He was of Irish origin, wealthy, amply educated, with friends among the highest nobility.  But he had imbibed republican principles, and failed to find himself comfortable in royalist society.  He had therefore sought America, heard of the beautiful islands of the Ohio, and built himself a home on one of the most charming of them all.

We have described the exterior of the mansion.  Interiorly it was richly ornamented and splendidly furnished.  The drawing-room was of noble proportions and admirable adornment.  The library was well filled with choice books.  The proprietor was fond of chemistry, and had an excellent laboratory; he enjoyed astronomy, and possessed a powerful telescope; he had a passion for music, had composed many airs, and played well on several instruments.  He was, in his way, a universal genius, courteous in manners, benevolent in disposition, yet of that genial and unsuspicious nature which laid him open to the wiles of those shrewd enough to make use of his weak points.

Mrs. Blennerhasset loved society, and was none too well pleased that her husband should bury himself and her in the wilderness, and waste his fine powers on undeveloped nature.  Such guests of culture as could be obtained were hospitably welcomed at their island mansion.  Few boats passed up and down the river without stopping at the island, and cultured and noble persons from England and France not infrequently found their way to the far-off home of the Blennerhassets.

Yet, withal, the intervals between the visits of cultivated guests were long.  Ohio was rapidly filling up with population, but culture was a rare exotic in that pioneer region, and the inmates of the Blennerhasset mansion must have greatly lacked visits from their own social equals.

One day in the spring of 1805 a traveller landed on the island, as if merely lured thither by the beauty of the grounds as seen from the river.  Mr. Blennerhasset was in his study, whither a servant came to tell him that a gentlemanly stranger had landed, and was observing the lawn.  The servant was at once bidden to invite the stranger, in his master’s name, to enter the house.  The traveller courteously declined.  He could not think of intruding, begged to be excused for landing on the grounds, and sent in his card.  Mr. Blennerhasset read the card, and his eyes lighted up with interest, for what he saw was the name of a former Vice-President of the United States.  He at once hastened to the lawn, and with polite insistence declared that Mr. Burr must enter and partake of the hospitality of his house.