Friday, August 23, 2013

Day 7 – a rainy day in Frederick with a little bit of walking

So the day was a bit of a washout with a passing rain … we decided to change some plans as a result.

A slow start to the day and then we headed back to Frederick for lunch and a little bit of a walking tour in the drizzle – and stopping in some stores as well.

Lunch was, again, at Quynn’s Attic – a great little restaurant/pub that offers some great atmosphere and some amazing food. This is definitely one of our favorite eateries in Frederick; and we’d recommend it to anyone and everyone!

After lunch, we ambled to the Barbara Fritchie house.

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A friend of Francis Scott Key, the source of local legend and quite the character, an 1863 poem reputes her having waved an American flag while General Stonewall Jackson and his men marched through Frederick in 1862 … as a way to perhaps antagonize them?

"Shoot, if you must, this old gray head,
But spare your country's flag," she said.
A shade of sadness, a blush of shame,
Over the face of the leader came;
The nobler nature within him stirred
To life at that woman's deed and word;
"Who touches a hair of yon gray head
Dies like a dog! March on!" he said.....”

Apparently in 1943, so the plaque on the building says, Winston Churchill passed this way with FDR, and Mr. Churchill recited the entire Barbara Fritchie poem from memory.

She is buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery.

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