TOUR


OF THE STATE.


the war this was a region of large plantations and wealthy


planters.
doing e
molished,
to waste,
everywhe
 Next
editor of
Doctor's.
ence of
miles dis1


All seem to have left, as their slaves left, aban-
verything. The houses decayed and were de-
fences were destroyed, broad fields have gone
and weeds, underbrush, and tangled vines have
re taken the place of cultivated crops.
morning we found Mr. Frederick L. Robertson,
the "Brooksville Crescent," an old friend of the
 Horses were procured, and we rode to the resi-
State Senator H. T. Lykes, on Spring Hill, six
tant; then across the country, ten miles, to the


large estate of Mr. William Hope, where we found all
varieties of vegetables growing finely, and rode through
a field of several hundred acres of oats, spreading out
over the hills and valleys-Ohio, surely, except for the
season (it was February) I Good roads, numerous brooks,
hard-wood forests, broad fields (abandoned mostly), plenty
of game, was the result of our observations. The town
is the county-seat of Hernando County, and contains the
court-house-a large, new, wooden building, a good struct-
ure, but provokingly plain in design-three groceries, two
or three saloons, and about thirty dwellings, nearly all
small cottages, generally surrounded by small gardens, and
groves of orange and such trees. Everything looks old-
fashioned and of out-in-the-country style. Yet in lo-
cation and soil it is the gem of South Florida; and, if
a railroad should ever reach here-which is very likely,
for any road to Tampa will surely pass through Brooks-


ville-it
a thickly
 Late
Tampa,
twilight.
now has


will very probably become, in tin
Settled, prosperous region.
in the afternoon we set out on
fifty miles distant. Fort Taylor
 This place, once the site of a
 but one house, surrounded by


ie, the center of

our journey to
was reached at
military camp,
a fine grove of


orange-trees.


About midnight we reached the hum-