its tropical products and roses--and had
lined through the forests of live-oak those avenues which have since
grown to such magnificent proportions. As has been related, he did not
live to see the completion of his work, but died almost at its very
inception. In 1786 the year of his death, the foundation-walls were laid
of the mansion-home of Dungeness, but the building was not finished till
1803. Even after it had been occupied for years, and during the sixty
years and more it was used as a residence by the descendants of General
Greene, there remained a few unfinished rooms. A tradition in the family
to the effect that some great misfortune would befall it if the building
were finished prevented, it is said, its completion. In the early part
of the present century it was the most elegant residence on the coast.

A mound of shells, the accumulation of centuries and the result of
countless Indian feasts, rose high above the southern marsh of
Cumberland. A forest of live-oaks surrounded it on three sides, and at
its feet ran the broad creek which wound through the marsh for miles,
seeking the Sound at a point opposite the Florida shore. Here, for ages
of time, the Indians of the South had resorted to feast upon the
oysters with which the creek was filled. The Creek Indians--the most
honorable with whom the United States ever had dealings, from whom
sprang the Seminoles, and who occupied the entire territory of Georgia
and Carolina at the period of the white man's advent--were the last who
aided in the erection of this monument to a race now passed away. The
summit of this shell-mound was levelled for the site of the house, and a
terraced area of an acre or more constructed with the shells. Upon this
base, raised above the general level of the island, its foundations were
laid. It was four stories in height above the basement, and from
cellar-stone to eaves was forty-five feet. There were four chimneys and
sixteen fireplaces, and twenty rooms above the first floor. The walls at
the base were six feet in thickness, and above the ground four feet.
They were composed of the material known as "tabby," a mixture of
shells, lime and broken stone or gravel with water; which mass, being
pressed in a mould of boards, becomes when dry as hard and durable as
rock. The walls are now as solid as stone itself. The second story above
the terrace contained the principal rooms: the room in the south-east
corner was the drawing-room in the