Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

AT a comfortable distance from one of Gloucester County’s modern highways and reached by a narrow, rustic lane, lies one of the Old Dominion’s celebrated early homes, Toddsbury. It was founded by Thomas Todd, who came to this country during the early part of the seventeenth century, and was a part of the generous acreage […]

Upper Brandon, so called to distinguish it from the older plantation of Brandon of which it was once a part, lies on the south side of the James River. The situation is a fine one. It is on a gradual slope lying close to the river and heavily timbered in willow oaks, ash, and magnolia. […]

The bit of history that goes with this house tells that the plantation came into being in 1616 under a vast grant of land made to Captain John Martin, one of the adventurous companions of John Smith on his first voyage to Virginia. Martin, however, sold or abandoned his holdings after a brief owner-ship, for […]

Eastover is five miles below Claremont on the James River. The house is about 150 feet back from the steep, wooded, hundred-foot bank, directly opposite the mouth of the Chickahominy River. There is no lovelier view than that afforded from the front lawn. Over a five-mile stretch of water the panorama of Green Spring shore […]

Close to the sleepy village of that name, Claremont, on the James, is among the oldest and most historic places in Virginia. According to tradition, as early as 1649, an estate of some twelve thousand acres was patented in this region by Arthur Allen, who was a member of the royal house of Han-over and […]

This shrine to George Washington is so near to the hearts of Americans and its history so well known to every school child, that it is trite to attempt an extended sketch of it in this volume. The mansion was built in 1743 by Lawrence Washington, half brother and guardian of George Washington. It was […]

There sailed away from the Downs, in England, on December 19, 1606, three small ships bound on the most eventful voyage that has ever crowned the history of Anglo-Saxon people. After weeks and months of hardship in the rough seas these little ships landed on May 13, 1607, at a low-lying wooded peninsula on the […]

The Nelson House, at Yorktown, was built by the first Nelson who came to Virginia and who was known as “Scotch Tom” from his having come from Penrith in Cumberland, near the border of Scotland. This Thomas Nelson was the great merchant who established the prominent family of which his grandson, Thomas Nelson, Jr., and […]

The view of Yorktown from York River has been pronounced by an English traveller as not dissimilar to that of Dover, seen from the English Channel. Its long line of cliffs, however, are composed of reddish rock marl, and not white chalk as are those of Dover. The view, both up and down the river, […]

Carter’s Grove is on the James River in the lower end of James City County, about five miles from Williamsburg. It was built by Carter Burwell in 1751. Carter Burwell was the son of Nathaniel Burwell, who married Elizabeth Carter, “King” Carter’s daughter, and he, Carter, married Lucy, daughter of John Grymes. The place had […]