Later Frank R.Stockton purchased the place, and there he wrote his story "The Captain of the Toll-Gate," which was published posthumously.
But in all its history this glorious old house has never been a happier home, or a more interesting one, than it is to-day.

For now it is the residence of four young ladies, sisters, who, because of their divergent tastes and their complete congeniality, continually suggest the fancy that they have stepped out of a novel.

One of them is the Efficient Sister, who runs the automobile and the farm of two or three hundred acres, sells the produce, keeps the accounts, and pays off the men; another is the Domestic Sister, who conducts the admirable menage; another is the Sociological and Artistic Sister, who draws and plays and thinks about the masses; while the fourth is the Sprightly Sister Who Likes to Dance.
Never had my companion or I seen a more charming, a more varied household, an establishment more self-contained, more complete in all things from vegetables to brains.

No need to leave the place for anything.

Yet if one wished to look about the country, there was the motor, and there were the saddle horses in the stable--all of them members of old Virginian families--and there were four equestrian young ladies.
"Would you-all like to ride to-day ?" one of the sisters asked us at breakfast.
To my companion, horseback riding is comparatively a new thing.