VIRGINIA 47 



vantagement of justice, the court-house is never with- 

 out a like convenience. Court-houses, where the 

 monthly and quarterly judicial assemblies for each 

 county are held, are placed by preference in the middle 

 of the county, and if there is no little town already 

 there, the court-house is built in the woods none the 

 less. On a very warm mid-day ( 18 Decemb.) we found 

 here a fine circle of ladies, silk-clad and tastefully 

 coifTured, sitting about the fire. This was not so ex- 

 traordinary in itself, but it was something new to me 

 that several pretty vigorous young blacks, quite in their 

 natural state, should be tumbling about before the party 

 without giving scandal. 



Hannovertown, a small place, on a creek which flows 

 into the York River, was the first and only market- 

 town on the road from Fredericksburg to Richmond. 

 Virginia (and in like manner the other southern 

 provinces), notwithstanding its great compass, has 

 in comparison with the northern provinces a less 

 number of villages or country-towns. On this and 

 other creeks which fall into York River, their banks 

 covered with thick growth and for the greater part 

 of a firm, red, clayey earth, there are found whale- 

 bones and remains of crustaceous animals. The to- 

 bacco produced in this region is thought to be better 

 than that grown more to the north, and brings 5-6 

 Spanish dollars the hundred ; it may be said that 

 the quality and price of this staple are in general higher 

 in the more southern districts.* Here and at other 



* According to a contract of the year 1786 between the 

 Farmers General of France and Mr. Robert Morris, late 

 Treasurer General of the United States, the latter made him- 



