A Legend of the Chesapeake - Talbot's Cave File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Charmaine Riley Holley. Arkivemom@aol.com USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be freely used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organizations. _________________________________________________________________________ A message from Charmaine: I came across a fascinating bit of history when I came upon an article written by John P. Kennedy entitled "A Legend of the Chesapeake" while researching my RILEYs in MD. It had been included in a magazine entitled "Southern Literary Messenger, A Magazine Devoted to Literature, Science and Art". This Volume was the one from March, 1857. It concerns Talbot, a kinsman of Lord Baltimore, and is a story of intrigue in the 1680s. It also has some interesting history concerning Lord Baltimore, the government, the times, etc. _________________________________________________________________________ A Legend of the Chesapeake by John P. Kennedy article from "Southern Literary Messenger, A Magazine Devoted To Literature, Science and Art" VolXXIV-11 March, 1857. The following narrative is the substance of a Lecture, deliverd, a year ago, before the Maryland Institute by the Hon. John P. Kennedy, which has been hitherto only a local circulation as published in the Baltimore Patriot. It is the intention of the distinguished author to amplify his materials hereafter and give to this episode in the colonial annals of Maryland something more of historic dignity, but in the mean time we are sure the readers of the Messenger will receive with pleasure a paper so imbued with the spirit of the zealous antiquarian and so marked by the graces of the accomplished writer. - Ed. Sou. Lit. Messenger Talbot's Cave There was, until not long ago, a notable cavern at the foot of a rocky cliff about a mile below the town of Port Deposite. It was of small compass, but yet sufficiently spacious to furnish rude shelter against the weather to one who might seek refuge within its solitary chamber. It opened upon the river just where a small brook comes pattering down the bank, along the base of a hill of some magnitude, that yet retains the stately name of Mount Ararat. The visiter of this cavern might approach it by a boat from the river, or by a rugged path along the margin of the brook and across the ledges of the rock. The rough shelter went by the name of Talbot's Cave up to a very recent period, and would still go by that name if it were yet in existence. But it happenened, not many years since, that Port Depostite was awakened to a sudden idea of the value of the granite of the cliff, and as commerce is a most ruthless contemner of all romance, and never hesitates between a speculation of profit and a speculation of history, Talbot's Cave began to figure conspicuously in the Price Current, and in a very little while disappeared, like a witch from the stage, in blasts of sulphur, fire and rumbling thunder, under the management of those effective scene-shifters, the quarrymen. A government contract, more potent than the necromancy of the famed wizard Michael Scott, lifted this massive rock from its base, and flying with it full two hundred miles, buried it fathoms below the waters of the Atlantic at the Rip Raps near Hampton Roads:and thus it happenes that I cannot vouch the ocular proof of the cave to certify the legend I am about to relate. The tradition attached to this spot had nothing but a misty and spectral outline. It was indefinite in the date, uncertain as to persons, mysterious as to the event- just such a tradition as to whet the edge of your curiousity and to leave it hopeless of gratification. I may relate it in a few words:Once upon a time, somewhere between one and two hundred years ago, there was a man by the name of Talbot, a kinsman of Lord Baltimore, who had committed some crime, for which he fled and became an outlaw, and was pursued by the authorities of the Province. That to escape those he took refuge in the wilderness on the Susquehanna, where he found this cave, and used it for concealment and defence for some time- how long, the tradition does not say. That this region was then inhabited by a fierce tribe of Indians, who are described on Capt. John Smith's map as the Susquehannocks. That these Indians were friendly to the outlaw, and supplied him with provisions. To these details were added another which threw an additional interest over the story - that Talbot had a pair of beautiful English hawks, such as were most prized in the sport of falconry, and that these were the companions of his exile, and were trained by him to pursue and strike the wild duck that abounded, then as now, on this part of the river: and he thus found amusement to beguile his solitude, as well as sustenance in a luxurious article of food, which is yet the pride of gastronomic science and the envy of bon viavante throughout this continent. These hawks my aged friend had often himself seen in his own boyish days, sweeping round the cliffs and over the broad expanse of the Susquehanna. They were easily distinguished, he said by the residents of that district, by their peculiar size and plummage; being of a foreign breed not known to our native ornithology, and both being males. For many years, it was affirmed- long after the outlaw had vanished from the scene- these gallant old rovers of the river still pursued their accustomed game, a solitaty pair, without kindred or acquaintance in our woods. They had survived their master - no one could tell how long- but had not abandoned the haunts of his exile. They still for many a year saw the wilderness beneath their daily flight giving place to arable fields, and learned to exchange their wary guard against the Indian's arrow for a sharper watch of the Anglo Saxon rifle. Up to the last of their appearance, the country people spoke of them as ' Talbot's hawks'. [Continued in Chesapeake2.txt]