159 



they allot a convenient portion of the public roads to 

 be kept in repair. Such bridges as may be built with- 

 out the assistance of artificers, they are to build. If 

 the stream be such as to require a bridge of regular 

 workmanship, the court employs workmen to build it, 

 at the expense of the whole county. If it be too great 

 for the county, ajiplication is made to the general as- 

 sembly, who authorise individuals to build it, and to take 

 a fixed toll from all passengers, or give sanction to such 

 other proi)osition as to them appears reasonable. 



Ferries are admitted only at such places as are par- 

 ticularly pointed out by law, and the rates of ferriage 

 are fixed. 



Taverns are licensed by the courts, who fix their 

 rates from time to time. 



The private buildings are very rarely constructed of 

 stone or brick ; much the greatest portion being of 

 scantling and boards, plastered with lime. It is impos- 

 sible to devise things more ugly, uncomfortable, and hap- 

 pily more perishable. There are two or three plans, 

 on one of which, according to its size, most of the 

 houses in the state are built. The poorest people build 

 huts of logs, laid horizontally in pens, stopping the in- 

 terstices with mud. These are warmer in winter, and 

 cooler in summer, than the more expensive construction 

 of scantling and plank. The wealthy are attentive to 

 the raising of vegetables, but very little so to fruits. 

 The poorer people attend to neither, living principally 

 on milk and animal diet. This is the more inexcusable, 

 as the climate requires indispensably a free use of veg- 

 etable food, for iiealth as well as comfort, and is very 

 friendly to the raising of fruits. The only public build- 

 ings worthy mention are the capital, the palace, the 

 college, and the hospital for lunatics, all of them in Wil- 

 liamsburgh, heretofore the seat of our government. The 

 capital is a light and airy structure, with a portico in front 

 of two orders, the lower of which, being Doric, is 

 tolerably just in its proportions and ornaments, save 

 only that the intercolonations are too large. The up- 



