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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

I just finished reading _Barnsley Gardens at Woodlands_ by Clent Coker

You can learn a bit about the place here:
http://notatlanta.org/barnsley.html
http://ngeorgia.com/lodging/barnsley_gardens.html
http://www.barnsleyresort.com/

The latter gives you an idea of what it has become today.

This place is almost due south of me by about 15 air miles, further by 
car.  It is a high-falutin' resort now, and I've never been there. 
Until reading the book, I had no clear idea of the place's history.

If you are interested in Southern history or are a GWTW aficionado, you 
gotta read this book.  Godfrey Barnsley is a real like Rhett Butler, and 
his daughter Julia is a real life Scarlett.  In the hard times, she 
worked the fields just like the women did in _Cold Mountain_ and just 
like Scarlett.   Barnsley was English, but came to Savannah at 18 and 
then sought higher ground, moving into relinquished Cherokee lands in 
1838.  He built this grand manor and garden showplace, quite amazing. 
Sherman's troops were so impressed that they did not burn it down(they 
were ordered not to do so), but they did loot it.
Anyway, the subtitle of the Barnsley book is "The Illustrious Dream: A 
century and a half of adventure, romance, and mystery surround the 
Barnsleys"
The mystery comes from all the tragic events that plagued the family 
through the years.  Barnsley did not heed an Indian warning that the 
hill he intended to build upon was unlucky.  Now, they say ghosts haunt 
the grounds regularly.  I actually know someone who claims to have seen 
a ghost there.
It is an entertaining historical read.  I just might try to scrape 
together enough to visit the place...oh, and Coker, the author is the 
historian and museum director at Woodlands.




"Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will 
not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius 
will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the 
world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone 
are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve 
the problems of the human race"

~ Calvin Coolidge