Forty Years of Active Service Author:Charles Triplett O'Ferrall Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II THE OPENING Of THE GREAT DRAMA. My Home in West Virginia—Unique Rules and Regulations of a Hotel in 1814—Berkeley Springs—"Sergeant O'Ferrall"—S... more »ummoned to Testify in Court-Martial Proceedings Against an Old Friend—A Brave Old Man. The home I left was known as the "O'Ferrall House," a summer hotel at Berkeley Springs, Morgan County, Virginia, now West Virginia, and was two and a half miles from the Potomac River and only six miles from the Mason and Dixon line. It had descended from my grandfather, its builder, through my grandmother to my father, and had been purchased by my mother at the death of my father. In the latter part of the eighteenth and the early half of the nineteenth century Berkeley Springs was a popular health resort. It was among the gayest, most attractive, and fashionable summer retreats of the South. There social ties were formed, friendships cemented, politics discussed, party plans determined, and matters of state considered by grave and distinguished men. It was the summer home of George Washington, and the roof of the O'Ferrall House covered the heads of many of the first men of the land. It was conducted under rules which would be regarded as out of date these days. The bar and office were kept in one room, and the barkeeper and clerk were one and the same person. There was absolute regularity in the meal hours, and the time for eating was by no means unnecessarily long. The gayety of the evenings—which consisted principally of dancing, always concluding with the old Virginia Reel—commenced at 9 o'clock and ended not later than 12 o'clock. A few years ago I visited this old home of my youth and budding manhood, and I was shown by the proprietor the "Rules and Regulations of the O'Ferrall House" in the summer of 1814. They had been found...« less