Radnor Township.

At February term, 1836, H. Jones Brooke sent in a petition for license, wherein he stated that "your petitioner is desirous of keeping a public-house or tavern in the house he has lately built, at the intersection of the road leading from the Valley Forge to the Lancaster Turnpike, near the eleven-mile stone, also the road leading from the Gulf Mills to Radnor Friends' meeting-house, and with the Philadelphia and Columbia Railroad, near the fourteen-mile post on the railroad. There is at present a lumber- and coal-yard established at the place, also a storehouse for storing flour and grain. It is made by the regulations of the railroad a point at which the locomotives stop for passengers. It is also an established place for supplying the locomotives with wood, and the subscriber has sunk a well for supplying water. The house is forty feet long by thirty-eight feet wide, two stories high, and finished in such a manner as would make it convenient for a public-house. There is no public-house on the railroad in Delaware County, although it passes near six miles through said county. The petitioner has provided himself with necessaries for the convenience and accommodation of travelers and strangers."

Brooke's petition was supplemented by another one signed by Mahlon Ortlip, superintendent of transportation and motive-power; Jacob Barry, manager at Schuylkill Plane; Frederick Vogel, superintendent on the Columbia and Philadelphia Railroad; Jacobs & Cornog, Andrew Wells, Joseph Smith, and others. Brooke then obtained license, and each succeeding year until 1839, when William Lowman, as lessee, was granted license for the same house, a point then termed Morgan's Corners. On the 17th of November, 1840, while occupied by Lowman, the house caught fire from a spark escaping from a passing locomotive and was totally destroyed, thus entailing a loss of about four thousand dollars. It was immediately rebuilt by the owner and occupied by William Lowman until 1846, when Ed. J. Lowman became its proprietor. The latter kept hotel here for a number of years, and was succeeded by Isaac Palmer. Subsequently John Wagoner and George Righter bought the property, who, after keeping the house open for a term of years, sold out to Montgomery and Rand. Under their control the house ceased to be licensed some five or six years ago. It is now occupied as a boarding-house.

Justices of the Peace. - The following-named citizens of Radnor have been commissioned justices of the peace at dates indicated:

"Wootton"

Wootton, the Country Home of George W. Childs. - One of the most effective beginnings of extensive and elaborate improvements in Radnor was that made by George W. Childs, in Wootton, his country home. Mr. Childs selected the present site with a view to its prospective embellishment and ornamentation. It was exceedingly well adapted to the purpose, consisting in part of cleared land and in part of forest, and sloping grandly towards the avenue which leads westwardly from Bryn Mawr Station, on the Pennsylvania Railroad, through the rich and beautifully diversified country of Upper Merion and of Radnor.

Mr. Childs selected this site and began improvements upon it in the summer of 1880, and it seems almost incredible that such finished work, such perfection of detail, as Wootton exhibits could have been accomplished in the brief period that has elapsed since then.

The most comprehensive view of Wootton is to be obtained from the hills on the opposite side of the little valley, in which the house and grounds are like jewels set. The great expanse of lawn, perfectly kept, the house and other buildings, appear from this height as a French study of art and nature, so perfectly are the beauties of both combined.

Viewed in detail the charms of Wootton enlarge in proportion to their number. The visitor, if approaching from the railroad, has a pleasant drive or walk along a picturesque roadway, nicely graded and thoroughly macadamized for a distance of a little more than a mile, and then finds himself at the main carriage entrance, marked by a handsome and hospitable-appearing lodge. The drive gradually ascends the knoll or hill, and reaches the house under a handsome porte-cochére. The house is found to be, perhaps, less pretentious, less elaborate, than one might expect; but if there is any fault in this particular it is made amends for in the elegance of detail and the tasteful elaboration of the surroundings. A broad terrace in front, adorned and made tropical in appearance by century-old feather palms, bordered by a wall and railing of massive and artistically-cut stone, half concealed by climbing vines, forms the immediate environment of the house, and from this to the road slopes the great shaven lawn, dotted along its borders with a wealth of evergreen and other shrubbery, and richly studded with immense masses of gorgeous foliage plants. Few if any lawns in America have the breadth and smoothness and beautiful slope of