Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 27.djvu/163

 Treasurer of Virginia and collector of customs of the port of Tappahannock.

He died at "Font Hill" on the 18th day of July, 1887, poor, as men count riches in this world, "but rich, immeasurably rich, in honor."

An incident recently published in the columns of the Free Lance, Fredericksburg, Va., touchingly illustrates the equanimity of Mr. Hunter in adversity. A correspondent of that paper wrote:

"Your editorial of a recent date, in which you sketch the political life of R.M.T. Hunter, of Virginia, recalls to my mind the last time I saw him. It was in 1883, at his little country mill in Essex. As I entered the mill he measured for a customer a peck of meal, and said: 'I think that is good measure.'

"He who had had the applause of 'listening senates to command' took the place of a laborer without a murmur when necessity required."

Great in learning, great in the purity, gentleness and simplicity of his character, great in thought and statesmanlike virtue, he has left to his family and friends the heritage of a good name and to his beloved county of Essex and this Commonwealth a memory that can never fade away.

Muscoe Russell Hunter Garnett was the son of James Mercer Garnett, Jr., who was the son of James Mercer Garnett, of Elmwood, and Maria Hunter, sister of Honorable R.M.T. Hunter.

His father was educated at Princeton College and devoted himself to the law, but died at too early an age to be remembered by any but his immediate family, by whom he was esteemed as a man of great intellectual force.