Virginia 



and it is utterly impossible to persuade them that 

 they affect the consumer also. However, to do them 

 justice, the same spirit of generosity prevails here 

 which does in their private character; they never 

 refuse any necessary supplies for the support of 

 government when called upon, and are a generous 

 and loyal people. 



The women are, generally speaking, handsome, 

 though not to be compared with our fair country- 

 women in England. They have but few advan- 

 tages, and consequently are seldom accomplished; 

 this makes them reserved, and unequal to any in- 

 teresting or refined conversation. They are im- 

 moderately fond of dancing, and indeed it is almost 

 the only amusement they partake of: but even in 

 this they discover want of taste and elegance, and 

 seldom appear with that gracefulness and ease, 

 which these movements are calculated to display. 

 Towards the close of an evening, when the company 

 are pretty well tired with country dances, it is usual 

 to dance jigs; a practice originally borrowed, I am 

 informed, from the negroes.* These dances are 

 without method or regularity: a gentleman and lady 

 stand up, and dance about the room, one of them 

 retiring, the other pursuing, then perhaps meeting, 

 in an irregular fantastical manner. After some 



* The author has since had an opportunity of observing some- 

 thing similar in Italy. The trescone of the Tuscans is very like 

 the jigs of the Virginians. 



[57] 



