132 
PROGRESS TO THE MINES. 
back. I rode eight miles together over a stony road, and had on either side 
continual poisoned fields, with nothing but saplings growingon them. Then 
I came into the main county road, that leads from Fredericksburg to Ger- 
^ananna, which last place I reached in ten miles more. This famous town 
consists of Col. Spotswood’s enchanted castle on one side of the street, and 
a baker’s dozen of ruinous tenements on the other, where so many German 
families had dwelt some years ago ; but are now removed ten miles higher, 
in the fork of Rappahannock, to land of their own. There had also been a 
chapel about a bow-shot from the colonel’s house, at the end of an avenue 
of cherry trees, but some pious people had lately burnt it down, with intent 
to get another built nearer to their own homes. Here I arrived about three 
o’clock, and found only Mrs. Spotswood at home, who received her old ac- 
quaintance with many a gracious smile. I was carried into a room elegantly 
set off with pier glasses, the largest of which came soon after to an odd misfor- 
tune. Amongst other favourite animals that cheered this lady’s solitude, a 
brace of tame deer ran familiarly about the house, and one of them came to 
stare at me as a stranger. But unluckily spying his own figure in the glass, 
he made a spring over the tea table that stood under it, and shattered the 
glass to pieces, and falling back upon the tea table, made a terrible fracas 
among the china. This exploit was so sudden, and accompanied with such 
a noise, that it surprised me, and perfectly frightened Mrs. Spotswood. But 
it was worth all the damage, to show the moderation and good humour with 
which she bore this disaster. In the evening the noble colonel came home 
from his mines, who saluted me very civilly, and Mrs. Spotswood’s sister, 
Miss Theky, who had been to meet him en cavalier^ was so kind too as to 
bid me welcome. We talked over a legend of old stories, supped about 
nine, and then prattled with the ladies, till it was time for a traveller to retire. 
In the meantime I observed my old friend to be very uxorious, and exceed- 
ingly fond of his children. This was so opposite to the maxims he used to 
preach up before he was married, that I could not forbear rubbing up the 
memory of them. But he gave a very good-natured turn to his change of 
sentiments, by alleging that whoever brings a poor gentlewoman into so soli- 
tary a place, from all her friends and acquaintance, would be ungrateful not 
to use her and all that belongs to her with all posisible tenderness. 
28th. We all kept snug in our several apartments till nine, except Miss 
Theky, who was the housewife of the family. At that hour we met over a 
pot of coffee, which was not quite strong enough to give us the palsy. 
After breakfast the colonel and I left the ladies to their domestic affairs, and 
took a turn in the garden, which has nothing beautiful but three terrace 
walks that fall in slopes one below another. I let him understand, that be- 
sides the pleasure of paying him a visit, I came to be instructed by so great a 
master in the mystery of making of iron, wherein he had led the way, and was 
the Tubal Cain of Virginia. He corrected me a little there, by assuring me he 
was not only the first in this country, but the first in North America, who 
had erected a regular furnace. That they ran altogether Jipon bloomeries in 
New England and Pennsylvania, till his example had made them attempt 
greater works. But in this last colony, they have so few ships to carry their 
iron to Great Britain, that they must be content to make it only for their own 
use, and must be obliged to manufacture it when they have done. That he 
hoped he had done the country very great service by setting so good an ex- 
ample. That the four furnaces now at work in Virginia circulated a great 
sum of money for provisions and all other necessaries in the adjacent coun- 
ties. That they took ofi* a great number of hands from planting tobacco, 
and employed them in works that produced a large sum of money in England 
to the persons concerned, whereby the country is so much the richer. That 
