iticism may be disarmed even before
pronouncement, the reader, before condemning any statements made in
these sketches that do not agree with his preconceived opinions, is
requested to examine all the facts in connection therewith. In so
doing it is thought he will find these statements correct in the main.

In such a variety of subjects there must of course be many omissions,
but I shall be greatly disappointed if actual errors are discovered.

In substantiation of its accuracy and thoroughness I need only say
that the compilation of this work cost me three years of nocturnal
application--the three most ambitious and disquieting years of the
average life. During this period the entire book has been at least
three times rewritten.

In the best form of which I am capable the fruits of these protracted
labors are now committed to the candid and, it is hoped, kindly
judgment of the people of Loudoun County.

JAMES W. HEAD.
"ARCADIA,"
BARCROFT, VA., _Feb. 1, 1909_.

Descriptive.

SITUATION.

Loudoun County lies at the northern extremity of "Piedmont
Virginia,"[1] forming the apex of one of the most picturesquely
diversified regions on the American continent. Broad plains, numerous
groups and ranges of hills and forest-clad mountains, deep river
gorges, and valleys of practically every conceivable form are strewn
to the point of prodigality over this vast undulatory area.

[Footnote 1: "Piedmont" means "foot of the mountain." "Piedmont
Virginia," with a length of 250 miles and an average width of about 25
miles, and varying in altitude from 300 to 1,200 feet, lies just east
of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and comprises the counties of _Loudoun_,
Fauquier, Culpeper, Rappahannock, Madison, Greene, Orange, Albemarle,
Nelson, Amherst, Bedford, Franklin, Henry, and Patrick. It is a
portion of the belt that begins in New England and stretches thence
southward to Georgia and Alabama.]

The particular geographic location of Loudoun has been most accurately
reckoned by Yardley Taylor, who in 1853 made a governmental survey of
the county. He placed it "between the latitudes of 38 deg. 52-1/2" and 39 deg.
21" north latitude, making 28-1/2" of latitude, or 33 statute miles,
and between 20" and 53-1/2" of longitude west from Washington, being
33-1/2" of longitude, or very near 35 statute miles."

Loudoun was originally a part of the six million acres which, in 1661,
were granted by Charles II, King of England, to Lord