plexions-if they take care of good manners and address. The climate makes them bright, and of excellent sense, and sharp in trade; an idiot or deformed native being almost a miracle. They are more inclinable to read men by business and conversation than to dive into books, and are for the most part, only desirous of learning what is absolutely necessary, in the shortest and best method. As for education, several are sent to England for it, though the Virginians, being naturally of good parts, as I have already hinted, neither require as much learning as we do.”

"The common planters leading easy lives, don't much admire manly exercise, except horse racing; nor diversion, except cock fighting, in which some greatly delight. This easy way of living, and the heat of the summer, makes some very lazy, who are then said to be climate struck. The saddle horses, though not very large, are handy, strong, and fleet, and will pace naturally and pleasantly at a prodigious rate. They are such lovers of riding that almost every ordinary person keeps a horse; and I have known some to spend the morning in ranging several miles in the woods to find and catch their horses, only to ride 2 or 3 miles to church, to the Court house, or to a horse race, where they generally appoint to meet upon business, and are more certain of finding those that they want to speak or deal with them than at their home."

"No people entertain their friends with better cheer and welcome, and strangers and travellers are here treated in the most free, plentiful and hospitable manner, so that a few inns or ordinaries on the road are sufficient."

Mr. Jones concluded: "If New England be called a receptacle of Dissenters and an Amsterdam of religion, Pennsylvania a nursery of Quakers, Maryland the retirement of Roman Catholics, North Carolina the refuge of runaways, and South Carolina the delight of Buccaneers and Pyrates, Virginia may be justly esteemed the happy home of the true Briton, and true Churchman for the most part, neither soaring too high, nor dropping too low."

The first printing press erected in Virginia was in 1692, at Williamsburg, and the first Newspaper published in Virginia was the "Virginia Gazette," the first edition of which was issued at Williamsburg, August 6, 1736. It was a sheet 12 inches by 6 inches, printed by Wm. Parks, price 15 shillings per annum. In 1671, Sir Wm. Berkeley had thanked God there were no free schools nor printing presses in Virginia and hoped there would be none for hundreds of years to come. The printing press came in twenty-one years, and there were schools also.

The first capitol building erected in Williamsburg was burned in 1746. The second one erected was burned in 1832. It was in this latter building that Patrick Henry made his first speech, in the House of Burgesses.

Wirt relates an incident that occurred in this building when Washington was complimented for his gallantry by the speaker of the House of Burgesses: "After his glorious career in the French, and Indian Wars (he) was complimented by the Speaker, Mr. Robinson, for his gallantry; but in such glowing terms, that when he arose to express his acknowledgements for the honor, he blushed, and stammered, and trembled, unable to give distinct utterances to a single syllable; when the Speaker observing his trepidation relieved him by a masterly stroke of address, saying with a conciliating smile, ‘Sit down, Mr. Washington; your modesty is equal to your valor, and that surpasses the power of any language that I possess.""

CHAPTER X

Marrying in Old Virginia.

The first permanent settlement in Virginia was begun as a bachelor kingdom, without the sound of the gentle voice of woman, and the cooing notes of infants.

The conditions under which the colonists began to found a settlement in the new world precluded the introduction of womankind in the enterprise. And these conditions did not change until the date when lands were granted the colonist to cultivate, and to build upon, and to claim as his own individual property. Then it was that the bachelor housekeeper, when seated by his lonely fireside, discovered the need of a helpmeet to complete his happiness, and to render him content. He discovered that man's earthly paradise is only where woman dwells.

The first white women to reach the colony were Mrs. Thos. Forrest and her maid, Anne Burrus. They came in 1608, and shortly thereafter Anne Burrus was married to Thos. Layton, who came to Virginia in 1607. In 1609, their first child, named Virginia Layton, was born and baptized at Jamestown. Three other daughters-Alice, Katherine, and Mary-were born to this couple.

In 1632, the colony made a gift of five hundred acres of land to John Layton, situated in Elizabeth City County, in recognition officially of the birth of the first white child upon Virginia's soil.

The first marriage between the English and the Indian races was that of John Rolfe and Pocahontas at Jamestown in 1614.

Governor Yeardley soon after reaching Virginia, in 1619, proposed to the London Company to send one hundred boys

and girls as servants and apprentices; he also advised that one hundred young maids be sent as wives for the inhabitants; "that wives, children and families might render them less moveable, and fix and settle them together with their posterity in the soil." He recommended that such of these maids as were married to the public farmers should be transported at the Company's expense; but if any were married to others, that those who took them to wife should repay the Company their charges of transportation. In consequence of this proposition, ninety maids were sent the following spring.

In 1621, sixty young and handsome maids were sent to Virginia. Recommendations and testimonials of their behavior accompanied each one so that the purchaser might be enabled to judge how to choose a wife. Boys were sent to be apprentices to those who married these maids.

It was stipulated that these maids should be married with their own consent to such freemen only as could support them handsomely. It was also stipulated that they were to be well used, and their marriage to servants was forbidden.

The Company granted the adventurers who subscribed to the cost of shipping the maids and boys, a ratable proportion of land, according to the number of maids sent. The lands were to be laid off together, and formed into a town, to be called Maidstown.

The price of wives was fixed at one hundred pounds of tobacco, and afterwards advanced to one hundred and fifty pounds, and proportionately more if any of them should happen to die on the passage to Virginia. A debt for a wife was of higher dignity than that of other debts, and to be paid first. As an inducement to marriage, married men were preferred in the selection of officers for the colony. Contentment followed this introduction of wives to Virginia, and soon thereafter whole families, including wives, daughters, and sons came, and the necessity of shipping maids no longer existed, and the seeker for a wife no longer lugged his tobacco crop

to the matrimonial market, but instead resorted to the custom of his forefathers, and planned a seige of old fashioned courtship to win his bride.

In old Virginia men and women married early in life. To the young man befell the task of the first introduction—getting acquainted. To the observer the trials of the young man in his courtship are always amusing, but in early days they attracted even more attention than to-day. Custom upon the part of man, and modesty upon the part of woman have settled upon man the duty of making the first overtures towards a courtship. The man must make the first formal call upon his intended bride, and to a young man it is a perplexing problem how to frame an excuse for making this first visit. During the time spent in solving this problem, he devotes many hours to the combing of his hair and to the neat arrangement of his garments, and the family looking glass is in great demand. He reaches the "moping stage," and becomes serious and thoughtful, and has "doubtful spells" like unto the sinner who is debating within himself, during a "powerful religious revival," whether he shall go to the "mourners' bench," or hang back among the sinners and lose salvation.

Love finally surmounts all obstacles, and the young men after making a few calls, settles down to courtship in earn