E.D.E.N. Southworth was one of the most popular writers of the nineteenth century. Her life story truly is one of those rags to riches stories that sometimes you think just can’t be true. But it was. After being abandoned by her husband Frederick in 1844, she and her two children suffered from severe poverty until she decided to try her hand at writing. She lived in Washington, D.C. where the summers could be exceedingly hot. Anyone who could afford to leave went to the “fashionable watering places” to escape the heat. By the summer of 1850, Emma had become successful enough that she could afford to escape the heat of the city too, and she chose the popular Shannondale Springs which was located near Charlestown, Jefferson County, Virginia (now West Virginia). The Springs had been a resort since the 1830s and was known for its beauty and cool breezes as it lay in a horseshoe bend along the Shenandoah River. One of the most breathtaking views was atop an overhanging cliff on the opposite side of the river. The resort owners used it in their advertising and had the artist Charles Burton make an etching of the scene. They also used the image on the plates they used in their dining room.
Emma couldn’t resist such an opportunity to use this spot as the backdrop to a tragically romantic story, and she created the Legend of Lover’s Leap. Until this time, the cliff had no name and no such legend existed, but she used it as a side plot to her next novel she called Shannondale; or, The Nun of Mount Carmel. Set during British colonialism, the tale revolves around a beautiful Shenandoah Indian Queen named Lulu who was the highly respected matriarch of her people. She meets Reginald Clinton, an English officer who came to Shannondale at the request of Bushrod Summerfield, one of the first English gentlemen to settle in the region. Her warriors had rescued Clinton after a near-fatal fall from a cliff that hung out over the Shenandoah River, and as she nurses him back to health, they fall in love. In spite of protestations from her braves, she leaves with Clinton to a remote cabin in the woods where they set up life together. However, he soon tires of their remote life, and he abandons her to return to his English friends. Upon meeting Bushrod’s younger sister Rose Summerfield, Clinton proposes marriage to her. The English community throws a great wedding celebration for the newly married couple, but during one of the evening festivities, the music is drowned out by the wailing death cries of Lulu who has gone to the same cliff where her men had saved Clinton’s life. Clinton runs to the cliff to save Lulu, but she jumps off the cliff and plunges to her death.[i] Even within this subplot, Emma remained consistent with her theme about women’s loss of autonomy living within patriarchy. Lulu lived within a matriarch society in which she was loved and respected as their queen, but when she stepped outside of it, Clinton assumed power over her, and his betrayal was a loss from which she could not recover. Perhaps though, this point became lost as readers sought to see the infamous Lover’s Leap for themselves which, in turn, further promoted Shannondale Springs as a tourist destination.[ii]
But the story doesn’t end there. As I wrote chapter after chapter of Emma’s life story, my best friend and husband Chris dutifully proofread and gave helpful encouragement on each bit I wrote. Plus, I talk about her literally all the time. He is definitely my biggest fan. Anyway, shortly after I finished my draft of the Shannondale Springs chapter, two mysterious packages arrived in the mail. When he handed them to me, he looked like the cat that had swallowed the canary and told me to open them. Grinning from ear to ear, he called them “just because” presents. He had searched online and found one of the plates from Shannondale Springs and a framed copy of the etching of Lover’s Leap. It gets even more romantic. As I turned the framed picture over, on the back was inscribed “1939 Wedding Gift, Cassie Lohuson.” I am, like Emma, a true romantic at heart. I imagined the wedded pair taking a trip to Shannondale Springs on their honeymoon and that the framed image hung on the walls in their home for many years.
We should all aspire for a love like that. I know now that it does exist. Chris and I recently celebrated our seventeenth wedding anniversary, and while no relationship is without bumps along the way, I couldn’t imagine having a partner more loyal or supportive than he. But many of us also know that love isn’t always like that. Like Emma and her fictitious Lulu, many of us know what it’s like to love and be betrayed and abandoned. It’s a tale as old as time. But unlike Emma who never remarried after Frederick’s abandonment or Lulu who plunged off the cliff to her death, love can come calling again. And it’s worth the wait. As I said at Chris and I’s wedding so many years ago, “I thank God that he’s a God of second chances.” So, if you, my friend, happen to be at that in-between space where you wonder if love exists, hang on. There is hope, and love will happen again if you make room for it to grow.
Grace and Peace,
Rose
[i] While this serialized version was first published in the Saturday Evening Post from August 10-November 30, 1850, it was later published in book form first by D. Appleton and later by T.B. Peterson in 1858 as The Three Beauties. This summary comes from the Peterson edition, chapter 4, pp. 54-60. [ii] William D. Theriault has conducted much research over Shannondale Springs. If you’d like to read more about this resort, see “History of Shannondale Springs,” Research Gate, 2009, p. 15, retrieved February 15, 2022 from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265103728_History_of_Shannondale_Springs.
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