Page:Augustine Herrman, beginner of the Virginia tobacco trade, merchant of New Amsterdam and first lord of Bohemia manor in Maryland (1941).djvu/106

 wrote to the Council, complaining that the Indians were stealing horses and cows from the farmers and asked that vigorous measures be taken to put a stop to the menace.

Bohemia Manor included the land between the headwaters of Chesapeake Bay and between the Elk and Bohemia rivers eastward to about the present Delaware State line. The acreage has been estimated at from ten thousand to twenty-three thousand. About 1662 or 1663 Herrman began work on the great manor house which was completed in 1664. It stood about one hundred fifty feet west of the present home of Senator Thomas F. Bayard. Unfortunately no contemporary account of the first manor house exists, but from indirect references we would infer that it was rather magnificently planned and if it could have been preserved it would no doubt be regarded as among the finest of seventeenth century American mansions. It was built of brick, a few of which are preserved and these, together with the cellar are all that is left to indicate the site. The second manor house was built about a half mile to the south, close to the shore and the foundations are still extant. It appears to have been built of wood as there are no brick found in the vicinity of the ruins. It was destroyed by fire in 1816.

With the destruction of the second manor house there perished a priceless collection of paintings, many of which Herrman himself had collected. Among them were a full length portrait in oil of the first Lady Herrman and a likeness of Herrman himself with his famous and half legendary white horse, about which we shall have more to say later. Herrman appears to have had an eye for beauty as well as for utility. Around the manor house were planted formal gardens and