The agricultural aspects of a plantation were increasingly in evidence.
In 1729 Rawleigh Chinn was paid for "helping to kill the Hogs,"
"pasturage of my cattle," and "making a gate." Edward Floyd was credited
with £4 6s. 7-1/2d. for "Wintering Cattle, taking care of my horse &
Sheep to Aug. 1729." John Chinn seems to have been Mercer's jockey, for
as early as 1729 he was entering the races which abounded in Virginia,
and "went on y^e race w^{th} Colt 1729."
In this early period we find considerable evidence of a typical young
Virginian's fondness for gaming and sport. One finds scattered through
Mercer's account with Robert Spotswood such items as "To won at the Race
... 8.9" and "To won at Liew at Col^o Mason's ... 7.3." (Loo was an
elegant 18th-century game played with Chinese-carved mother-of-pearl
counters.) Mercer participated in several sporting events at Stafford
courthouse, for court sessions continued, as in the previous century,
to be social as well as legal and political occasions. This is
illustrated in a credit to Joseph Waugh: "By won at a horse race at
Stafford Court and Attorney's fee ... £1."; on the debit side of Enoch
Innes's account: "To won at Quoits & running with you ... 1/3"; and in
Thomas Hudson's account, where four shillings were marked up "To won
pitching at Stafford Court."
Mercer's diversions were few enough, nevertheless, and it is apparent
that he devoted more time to reading than to gaming. In 1726 he borrowed
from John Graham (or Graeme) a library of 56 volumes belonging to the
"Hon^{ble} Col^o Spotswood"[59] (Appendix E). Ranging from the Greek
classics to English history, and including Milton, Congreve, Dryden,
Cole's Dictionary, "Williams' Mathematical Works," and "Present State of
Russia," they were the basis for a solid education. That they included
no lawbooks at a time when Mercer was preparing for the law is an
indication of his broad taste for literature and learning.
Marlborough, we can see, was occupied by a young man of talent, energy,
and creativity. He alone, of the many men who had envisioned a center of
enterprise on Potomac Neck, was possessed of the drive and the simple
directness to make it succeed. For George Mason and the Waughs, Mercer
was the ideal solution for their Marlborough difficulties.