2G6 
SPOTTSWOOD'S EXPEDITION OF 1716 
be a highly prized treasure in our own day, when a lively interest 
in the history of our commonwealth renders precious every 
genuine relic of its heroic age; hut all of them would seem to 
have perished. In that dismal effort to endow this charming 
story of Spottswood’s ride with romantic and tragic interest, 
" The Knight of the Horse Shoe,” by Dr Wm. A. Caruthers, is 
contained the following letter, which gives authentic evidence 
of the ])reservation of one of these ornaments to a late da}'. But 
even this Caruthers himself seemed unable to secure. 
“St. JfLiEN' (near Fredericksburg), Va., Pehi-uary 25, 1841- 
“ To Dr Tf w. .1. Caruthers. 
“My Dear Sir: I have received your letter of the 5th inst., and in 
reply to it I can only say, what I said some years past to my friend, George 
Summers, on the subject of }’Our letter. I said to him that I had seen, 
in the j)Osse.ssion of the eldest hrancli of my family, a golden horseshoe 
set with garnets, and having inscribed on it the motto, 'Sic jurat transcen- 
dere monte.s,' which from tradition I always understood was presented by 
Governor Spottswood to my grandfather as one of many gentlemen who 
accompanied him across the mountains. 
“ With great respect, yours, 
“ Francis Brooke.” 
Horseshoes alone did not make up their outfit. There were 
saddle and pack horses in abundance, great store of ])rovisions, 
guns and pistols and ammunition, that they might replenish 
their commissariat with game, and with true Virginian hospi- 
tality an “ extraordinary variety of liquors,” used with generous 
and patriotic fervor. There were red wine and white, wdiisky 
and brandy, two sorts of rum, champagne, canary, cider, shrub, 
“and so forth,” says the exhausted chronicler, and they were 
dealt out with a liberal hand. On .Sejitember 6. they ascended 
a peak of the Massanutten — fancying themselves at the summit 
of the continental ridge — and standing on this terminus of their 
journey they dedicated their discoveries to His Majesty King 
George the First. After a good dinner they got the men to- 
gether, fired a volley, and drank the king’s health in cham- 
pagne; then came another volley, with the ])rincess’s health in 
Burgundy ; then another, wdth the health of the royal family in 
claret ; then a fourth, with the health of the governor, and so 
perhaps continuing till even the youngest knight of their royster- 
ing Round Table had been honored by his volley and his toast. 
Through all their expedition good fellowship and cheerful con- 
verse brightened the way. “ We arrived at a large spring,” said 
