Glad to say my computer has dried out so I am now back up and running. It had been working, but with a very limited alphabet, which didn't seem to include any vowels which was making writing anything a bit of a challenge.
More interior shots of Fancy Farm in all its glory - those stairs are amazing cutting across the window like that. The bottom picture shows the view of the hill that is in the portrait of BAD - the pile of rubble under the trees is all that remains of the slave quarters. Apparently the Virginia Historical Society has pictures of all the outbuildings and much earlier photographs of the house.
The house has had some other very interesting occupants. During the Civil war, Major General David Hunter, US Army was given the task of capturing Lynchburg, the nearby city - he destroyed parts of Lexington on this way down to Fancy Farm - he then set up HQ at the house. He failed to take Lynchburg. The house at the time was owned by the Kelso family - they are all buried on the property and the owner say that an old neighbour claims that Andrew Donald is buried somewhere next to the road, but they are not sure where.
In 1921 the estate was purchased by Sir George Sitwell, Baronet of Renishaw Hall, Derbyshire for his nephew Captain Herbert Cecil Fitzroy Sitwell who had been gassed during the Great War.
Lives up to its name! Sir George Sitwell was father of famous literary eccentrics Edith, Osbert and Sachervall, so probably a bit about FF in various biogs of them...
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