ion. Stith had planned a full history down to his own time, but never completed it. A third work was the brief history of the colony by Sir William Keith, but it is of little value as an authority.

One author of the period remains to be spoken of· a man of brilliant wit, of high culture, and the richest humor, a Virginian of Virginians, and the perfect flower of his time. Early in the century steps on the stage and begins to write, the Honorable William Byrd of "Westover," the elegant gentleman and traveler-author, whose visit to Spotswood on the Rapidan has been noticed. He was one of the brightest stars in the social skies of Colonial Virginia. All desirable traits seemed to combine in him: personal beauty, elegant manners, literary culture, and the greatest gayety of disposition. Never was there a livelier companion, and his wit and humor seemed to flow in an unfailing stream. It is a species of jovial grand seigneur and easy master of all the graces that we see in the person of this old authorplanter of the banks of James River. He wrote without thinking of or caring at all for the critics; as men do when the spirit moves them, and for their personal pleasure. Two or three pamphlets contain all his writings, of which the longest is the "History of the Dividing Line," a record of his journey to establish the boundary between Virginia and North Carolina. This sparkles all over with wit and the broadest humor, much too broad and comic indeed for a drawing-room table in the nineteenth century. But it is a virile and healthy book, full of high spirits and the zest of open-air life. The gay Colonel afterwards wrote his "Journey to the Land of Eden," and "Progress to the Mines;" and the large manuscript volume, coutaining the three works, may

still be seen under his portrait at "Brandon," on James River. They brim with humor and incessant jests, particularly at the expense of the ladies, whom the writer seems to have liked so much that he could never forbear from teasing them. We may fancy the worthy planter in ruffles and powder, leaning back in his armchair at Westover, and dictating, with a smile on his lips, the gay pages to his secretary. The smile may be seen to-day on the face of his portrait; a face of remarkable personal beauty framed in the curls of a flowing peruke of the time of Queen Anne.

But the status and surroundings of this famous old Virginia author were very different from those of Steele and Addison. If there were garrets at Westover it is not probable that the serene nabob ever intruded on their dust. He was "the Honorable William Byrd, Esq., who, being born to one of the amplest fortunes in this country, was sent early to England, where he made a happy proficiency in polite and various learning; contracted a most intimate and bosom friendship with the learned and illustrious Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery; was called to the bar of the Middle Temple; was chosen Fellow of the Royal Society; and being thirty-seven years a member, at last became president of the Council of this colony." This colonial seigneur, who wrote the famous "Westover MSS." for his amusement, was also "the well-bred gentleman and polite companion, the constant enemy of all exorbitant power, and hearty friend of the liberties of his country." His path through life was a path of flowers. He had wealth, culture, "the best private library in America," social consideration, and hosts of friends; and when he went to sleep under his monument in the

garden at Westover, he left behind him not only the reputation of a good citizen, but that of the great Virginia wit and author of the century.

XXIX.

THE GOLDEN AGE OF VIRGINIA.

THE eighteenth century may be styled the Golden Age of Virginia. It was the period when the colony reached the most peculiar and striking stage of its development. The future will no doubt prove an era of larger material growth; it is impossible that it can present the same remarkable characteristics and contrasts.

A prosperous and brilliant society flourished on the banks of the lowland rivers, and a hardy race had settled in the Valley, beyond which a scattered population of hunters and pioneers was pushing toward the Ohio. The period, the men, the modes of life, were all picturesque and full of warm blood as in the youth of a nation. Society had not lost the impetus of the first years, but it was firm in the grooves. By the end of the seventeenth century it had taken the mould which it preserved until the great political and social convulsion of the Revolution gave it a new shape.

Let us glance at this ancient régime which is now the deadest of dead things, and endeavor to avoid extreme views about it. It is easy to denounce or to eulogize it, to represent it as a bad social organization which met with the fate which it deserved, or as the model in all things of a well-ordered community. Neither view is just, and the truth lies, as usual, between the two extremes. That old society had its virtues and its vices

like other societies; with all its courage and kindliness it was extremely intolerant; but it succeeded in working out the problem of living happily to an extent which we find few examples of to-day. It presented, above all, the curious phenomenon of a community composed of varied classes who never came into collision with each other a democratic aristocracy which obstinately resisted the royal authority, and first and last fought for the doctrine that the personal right of the citizen was paramount to all. An immense change had taken place in society since the Plantation time. What was rude had become luxurious. The log-houses of the early settlers had given place to fine manor-houses. Where forests once clothed the rich low grounds there were now cultivated fields. The pioneer who had scarcely dared to stir abroad without fire-arms was now a ruffled dignitary who rode in his coach-and-four-a justice, a vestryman, and worshipful member of the House of Burgesses. His land, purchased for a trifle, had become a great and valuable estate. No creditor could touch it, for it was entailed on his eldest son. The wilderness of Virginia had been turned into a new England, where the lord of the manor ruled, and his son would rule after him.

This development of the first adventurers into nabobs and lords of society may be said to have fairly begun with the Cavalier invasion after the execution of Charles I. Many of these immigrants were men of rank and brought with them to Virginia the views and habits of the English gentry. They set the fashion of living; and continued to influence Virginia usages to the time of the Revolution. Then the old was confronted by the new. The time was evidently at hand when so

ciety was to be reorganized and established on another basis. The Commonwealth slowly undermined and was to end by effacing the Colony. Royalist and aristocratic sentiments had lost their force, and were regarded as antiquated. It was seen that kings and a privileged class were no longer necessary to the existence of nations; and the result was the theory of republicanism, the mainspring of the modern world.

The period from the middle of the seventeenth century to the Revolution was thus the high-water mark between the flow and ebb of the social tide in Virginia. What preceded it was formation, what followed it was transition. During this era only, society is stationary. It presented all the features of a social fabric which has settled down firmly and which nothing can shake from its foundations. A prevalent fancy is that this foundation was African slavery, but no impression could be more unfounded. African slavery, and the system of indented servitude, which was the same thing in a milder form, were only incidents. This subjection of a part of the community to the rest was congenial to the love of ease and rule in the Virginia character, but there the effect of the system ended. The Virginia

landholder would have been the same individual in the absence of slaves or indented servants. The sentiment of aristocracy attributed to him was quite independent of the system, as it is independent of any such institution in the English of to-day. The planter regarded his servants the term "slave " was rarely used simply as laborers and domestic attendants, who produced his crops and waited upon him. In return, he was to supply them with the necessaries of life; and there was a well-grounded conviction that they were a