Flat Rock of the Old Time Letters from the Mountains to the Lowcountry, 1837–1939 edited by Robert B. Cuthbert

A documentary history of a settlement adopted by Lowcountry gentry escaping the heat of weather and warThe intoxicating "champagne air" of Flat Rock, North Carolina, captivated residents of lowcountry South Carolinain the nineteenth century because it offered them respite from the sickly, semitropical coastal climate. In Flat Rock of the Old Time, editor Robert B. Cuthbert has mined the collections of the South Carolina Historical Society to publish a documentary history of the place and its people. While many visitors came and went, others chose to become permanent residents. Among the Flat Rock settlers were some of the most distinguished South Carolina gentry: Blakes, Rutledges, Hugers, and Middletons.They established the Episcopal parish church of St. John in the Wilderness Church, where many of them are buried. They also supported a local economy that helped provide livelihoods to native residents who supplied them with goods and services. Visiting each other daily, they swapped n