George Alfred Townsend and Gathland by Dianne Wiebe

Author:Dianne Wiebe [Wiebe, Dianne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Language Arts & Disciplines, Journalism, History, United States, State & Local, Middle Atlantic (DC; DE; MD; NJ; NY; PA)
ISBN: 9781625850072
Google: KgZ3CQAAQBAJ
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2014-07-08T05:00:53+00:00

Townsend in his Den and Library, probably in the study. Every room in that building and in Gapland Hall was filled with splendid furnishings, art and objects collected in his travels.

W.R. Hamilton contributes impressions formed from a visit to the estate in 1907 for an article in the Baltimore Sun. GATH was sixty-seven years old, and his most vigorous years were behind him. His wife had died, his physical health and his finances had deteriorated and he was alone in his beloved Gapland. The following passage is in response to a question put to him by W.R Hamilton:

Lonely and isolated? Do not three mails pass by each day? Are not towns and crowds of easy access when desired? Can he not, by simply passing from room to room, enjoy the company of the world’s greatest men, whose good does live after them is not interred with their bones? No more is the Hall enlivened by throngs of guests, happy in the acquaintance of so entertaining a host, for Mrs. Townsend is not there to share the pleasant duties of hospitality and permit the diligent scribe to have some time for labors, and there is none to take her place.

Hamilton summarizes the sumptuous surroundings at Gapland:

Several commodious residences, a large barn, numerous small buildings pavilions, fine orchards, an oil storage plant and a cemetery are all within the limits of Gapland’s hundred acres.

Strange place, it may be, to find one of the finest private libraries in the land, pictures so numerous that the owner has not counted them, costly marbles, bronzes, pottery and other adornments fit for palatial mansions, but Mr. Townsend has here 5,000 of his 8,000 selected volumes; pictures crowd the wall of 34 rooms and many hallways and there are other works of art in bewildering profusion. Here Mr. Townsend chose to establish a retreat 22 years ago in order to pursue his literary vocation. He has embellished it with treasures from all parts of the world.

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