The Rocks

"Every genuine Harfordonian is enthusiastic in his admiration of the Rocks. They are with him the Great Curiosity; they belong to him; he is proud of them. He loves them, because associated with them are memories of happy hours passed with congenial associates on their summits or at their base by the waters of his favorite stream. Their inspirations are sweet to him, and their presence creates sympathies loving and tender. In their presence he has a higher appreciation of Nature, and an intenser sympathy with the spirit of poetry which dwells amid such scenes. Here, as beautifully expressed by our own great poet, whose highest, purest inspirations are due to that "sweet spirit which fills the world;" here, amid everlasting hills, mountain and shattered cliff, and green valley, and river and brook, and the silent majesty of deep woods - In many a lazy syllable repeating their old poetic legends to the winds, his thoughts are uplifted from earth."

From "The rocks of Deer Creek. Harford County, Maryland. Their legends and history." by Thomas Turner Wysong, published in 1880. You can read the whole book online, courtesy of the Library of Congress, here.