Brief description:
In the decades following the Civil War, Betty Beverly, a belle of 20, lives with her elderly grandfather and two servants at the Holly House cottage near the Tidewater region of Virginia. Up the road a mile is their former home - the Rose Hall plantation. Beverly's father and grandfather, West Point graduates fought with the Confederacy during the war in which her father perished. In the hard-times that followed, the Beverly's were forced to sell Rose Hall and locate to the modest cottage. Despite living in genteel poverty, Beverly is a cheerful coquettish lass enjoying the many picnics, parties, and fox hunts of her peers.
The new owners of Rose Hall are a wealthy northern family who are rarely were in residence. However, shortly before Christmas, their son, West Pointer Lt. John Hope Foretesque pays visit to Holly House and manages to save Beverly from a nasty fall while she was hanging Christmas decorations from the rafters. Fortesque was there to request permission for a group of his soldiers to camp nearby in the Beverly's woods that Spring while conducting a survey for a fort to be built some distance down the river. Old Colonel Beverly, though resentful of the Fortescues, had no grudge against Union soldiers and was rather taken by the handsome lieutenant. He gave permission while rejecting any form of compensation. Listening to all this, Beverly was hoping to at least acquire funds for a new gown or two.
Fortesque did receive invites to the Christmas Eve ball at a nearby plantation as well as the traditional Christmas fox hunt. Beverly is an accomplished rider, but the Beverly's have no suitable mount for the hunt. Fortesque comes to the rescue with a very capable horse form his father's stables. And the romance ensues with assorted advances and retreat...
It is delightfully cheerful tale of Virginia country life circa 1880. There's is a sequel with Betty some years later, married to now Col. Foretescue, as they weather a winter at cavalry post, Fort Blizzard, in the far Northwest.
The new owners of Rose Hall are a wealthy northern family who are rarely were in residence. However, shortly before Christmas, their son, West Pointer Lt. John Hope Foretesque pays visit to Holly House and manages to save Beverly from a nasty fall while she was hanging Christmas decorations from the rafters. Fortesque was there to request permission for a group of his soldiers to camp nearby in the Beverly's woods that Spring while conducting a survey for a fort to be built some distance down the river. Old Colonel Beverly, though resentful of the Fortescues, had no grudge against Union soldiers and was rather taken by the handsome lieutenant. He gave permission while rejecting any form of compensation. Listening to all this, Beverly was hoping to at least acquire funds for a new gown or two.
Fortesque did receive invites to the Christmas Eve ball at a nearby plantation as well as the traditional Christmas fox hunt. Beverly is an accomplished rider, but the Beverly's have no suitable mount for the hunt. Fortesque comes to the rescue with a very capable horse form his father's stables. And the romance ensues with assorted advances and retreat...
It is delightfully cheerful tale of Virginia country life circa 1880. There's is a sequel with Betty some years later, married to now Col. Foretescue, as they weather a winter at cavalry post, Fort Blizzard, in the far Northwest.
Publication
J.B. Lippincott Co.
Genres
Collection
Physical description
214 p.