Heritage House B&B Blog

The Guests are the Best!

The most enjoyable - and  fascinating - aspect of being an Innkeeper is getting to know the guests.  Thanks to the world-renowned INN AT LITTLE WASHINGTON, our guests travel from all over the world to visit this area.  We have had the fortunate opportunity to host guests from various countries and continents:  England, France, Ireland, Scotland, Germany, Switzerland, Chile, Venezuela, Portugal, Puerto Rico, China, Japan, Israel, Greece, Italy, Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

We, along with our American guests, have shared conversations with these international travelers on topics ranging from politics to cultural differences to the media's power in shaping our views of each other.  Wow!  (We Americans are always impressed with their knowledge of our U.S. history and politics.)  These conversations have certainly enriched us all and, perhaps, broadened our views of each other in a positive way.

Michelle recently came across a magazine article about Samuel L. Clemens (aka Mark Twain) that she had clipped years ago.  Clemens was a consummate traveler during his lifetime and his thoughts about travel are as strong today as it was during the Guilded Age.  Of it, he wrote:

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.  Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime."   

We should all aspire to follow his lead and travel a little more. 

Until next time . . . Gary & Michelle

They Paid the Price - "Deep Thoughts" on July the 4th

Our neighbor forwarded this message to us today, July the 4th.  We found it very thought provoking and hope you will, too:

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

-Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

-Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

-Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.

-Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. 

-Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

-Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

-Vandals and British soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.

-At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson Jr, noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

-Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

-John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished. A few weeks later he died from exhaustion and a broken heart.

-Norris and Livingston suffered similar fates.

Such were the stories and sacrifices of the American Revolution.

They gave you and me a free and independent America.  Freedom came with a price - and they paid it.  So, please take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and quietly thank these  patriots.

Until next time . . .

Michelle & Gary