overstayed his time on a visit to the Eastern Shore. Between Alexandria
and Colchester there were two runs to be crossed, both greatly swollen
from the sudden thaw. “A friend who lives in Alexandria came with me
over the first run, and everybody informed me I could easily cross the
second if I crossed the first. When I came to the second (which was
perhaps two hours after I crossed the first) I found that I had two
streams to pass. The first I went over without much danger; but in
crossing the second, which was very strong and very deep, I did not
observe that a tree, brought down by the flood, lay across the landing
place. I endeavored, but in vain, to drive my horse against the stream
and go around the tree. I was afraid to turn my horse’s head to the
stream and afraid to go back. In this dilemma I thought it most prudent
for me to lay hold on the tree, and go over it, the water being shallow
on the other side. No sooner did I execute my purpose so far as to lay
hold of the tree (and that instant the horse was carried from under
me) but the motion that I gave it loosened it, and down the stream it
instantly carried me.” The tree, with passenger, lodged below at a
little island, and then there floated down another tree. The doctor,
besides being thoroughly wetted, was near losing his life. After more
than a hundred years the suggestion may be offered that the first tree
should never have been laid hold of. “I was now obliged to walk,”
continues Dr. Coke, “about a mile, shivering, before I came to a house.
The master and mistress were from home, and were not expected to return
that night. But the principal negro lent me an old ragged shirt,
coat, waistcoat, breeches, etc., and the negroes made a large fire and
hung my clothes up to dry all night.” Before bedtime the horse, having
got around the tree, was recovered and brought in by a neighbor, who
supposed the rider to be drowned. “As he seemed to be a poor man, I
gave him half a guinea. I trust I shall never forget so awful but very
instructive a scene.”
After this March welcome to Virginia, Dr. Coke passed through the
State into North Carolina, and returned to Alexandria May 23d. He was
at Fredericksburg and Williamsburg (where inquiring for a Methodist
he was told there was one in the town, who proved to be “a good
old Presbyterian” and hospitable), at Smithfield and Portsmouth,
in Mecklenburg County, at New Glasgow, towards the mountains, and
in Culpeper County. These sojournings are specified. There was a
bad season in May that year, and near Alexandria the creeks were
again difficult at the crossings. It was observed on this, the first
tour, that in Mecklenburg County “they have a great variety of fruit
pies--peach, apple, pear and cranberry, and puddings--very often.”
About New Glasgow (on Buffalo River, just north of Amherst Courthouse)
Dr. Coke remarks: “The wolves, I find, frequently come to the fences
at night, howling in an awful manner; and sometimes they seize upon a
straying sheep. At a distance was the Blue Ridge, an amazing chain of
mountains. I prefer this country to any other part of America--it is
so like Wales, my native country. And it is far more populous than I
expected.”
In April, 1787, Dr. Coke was a second time in Virginia, scarcely a
fortnight. He had come from England to the Island of Antigua, and
sailed from St. Eustatia in a large Dutch ship, February 10th, for
Charleston. “In the course of our journey through North Carolina I
preached at the house of a gentleman near Salisbury, who was formerly a
dancing-master, and has amassed a considerable fortune, with which he
has purchased a large estate. In traveling through Virginia our rides
were so long that we were frequently on horseback till midnight after
preaching in the middle of the day. Since I left Charleston I have got
into my old romantic way of life, of preaching in the midst of great
forests, with scores and sometimes hundreds of horses tied to the
trees, which adds much solemnity to the scene.
“In the course of my journey through this State I visited the county
of Halifax, where I met with a little persecution on my former visit.
I am now informed that soon after I left the county on my former tour
a bill was presented against me as a seditious person before the grand
jury, and was found by the jury, and ninety persons had engaged to
pursue me and bring me back again. Another bill was also presented
in one of the neighboring counties, but was thrown out. Many of the
people, I find, imagined that I would not venture amongst them again.
However, when I came they all received me with perfect peace and
quietness. Indeed, I now acknowledge that however just my sentiments
may be concerning slavery, it was ill-judged of me to deliver them from
the pulpit. Many of the inhabitants at Richmond, I was informed, said
that I would not dare to venture into that town. But they did not
know me, for I am a plain, blunt man, that goes directly on. However,
instead of opposition, the Governor of the State, who resides there,
ordered the Capitol to be opened to me, and a very respectable and very
attentive congregation I was favored with.” On the way from Richmond to
Alexandria there was a plot laid for Dr. Coke by a company of agreeable
men at one of the inns. “In the first dish of tea there was a little
rum; in the second a little more, but the third was so strong that on
our complaining of a conspiracy, it seemed as if the rum had sprung
into our tea of itself, for both company and waiters solemnly protested
they were innocent. On the last day of April Mr. Asbury and I arrived
at Baltimore.”
The following year, 1788 (the Atlantic seems to have been but a ferry
even then), Dr. Coke was in Virginia again for a few days, coming, as
in 1787, from the West Indies by Charleston. “In traveling from North
Carolina to Virginia we were favored with one of the most beautiful
prospects I ever beheld. The country, as far as we could see from the
top of a hill, was ornamented with a great number of peach orchards,
the peach trees being all in full bloom, and displaying a diversity of
most beautiful colors--blue, purple and violet. On the opposite side
of a beautiful vale which lay at the foot of a hill, ran the River
Yeadkin, reflecting the rays of the sun from its broad, placid stream;
and the mountains which bounded the view formed a very fine background
for the completing of the prospect. The two days following we rode on
the ridge of a long hill, with a large vale on each side, and mountains
rising above mountains for twenty, and sometimes, I suppose, for
forty miles on each hand. In Halifax County, Virginia, where I met
with much persecution four years ago, almost all the great people of
the county came in their chariots and other carriages to hear me, and
behaved with great propriety: there were not less than five colonels
in the congregation. On the 18th of April we opened our first Virginia
Conference for the State of Virginia in the town of Petersburgh. From
Petersburgh we set off for our second Virginia Conference, which we
held in the town of Leesburgh, visiting Richmond by the way.”
Dr. Coke’s fourth and last journey in Virginia (the last, that is,
recorded in his book, published 1793) was again in April, year 1791. As
in 1787 and 1788, the approach was from the south. “On Monday, the 11th
of April, we arrived at Dickes’s Ferry, in Virginia. Our ride on that
day was remarkably pleasing. The variety arising from the intermixture
of woods and plantations along the sides of the broad, rocky river Dan,
near which we rode most part of the time, could not but be a source of
great pleasure to an admirer of the beauties of nature. Hitherto (April
15th) I might be said to have traveled with the spring. As I moved from
South to North the spring was, I think, as far advanced when I was in
Georgia as when I came into Virginia. But now it has evidently got the
start of me. The oaks have spread out their leaves, and the dogwood,
whose bark is very medicinal, and whose innumerable white flowers form
one of the finest ornaments of the forest, is in full bloom. The deep
green of the pines, the bright transparent green of the oaks, and the
fine white of the flowers of the dogwood, with other trees and shrubs,
form such a complication of beauties as are indescribable to those who
have only lived in countries that are almost entirely cultivated.
“For about 800 miles which I have rode since I landed in South
Carolina, we have had hardly any rain. But this day, the 16th, we
were wetted to the skin. However, we at last happily found our way to
the house of a friend by the preachers’ mark--the split bush.” This
circumstance may appear to many immaterial; however, as it may convey
some idea of the mode in which the preachers are obliged to travel in
this country, I will just enlarge upon it. The method was to split two
or three bushes, at the junction of several roads, along the road that
should be followed; very useful to the itinerant at the formation of
new circuits in the forest. Dr. Coke observes: “In one of the circuits
the wicked discovered the secret, and split bushes in wrong places on
purpose to deceive the preachers.”
The character of this great man appears in his book, written without
artifice. The people were glad to see him. “On the 20th of April
we opened our conference at Petersburgh. April 24th I preached in
Richmond, in the Capitol where the Assembly sits, to the most dressy
congregation I ever saw in America. However, they gave great attention.
In the afternoon I rode to Colonel Clayton’s, about twenty-five miles
from Richmond. April 20th I came among the cedar trees. This evening we
arrived at Port Royal, where a numerous and very dressy congregation
had been waiting for us about two hours with wonderful patience. A
gentleman of the name of Hipkins, a capital merchant of the town, sent
us a genteel invitation to sup with him, and lodge at his house. I
accepted of it. Soon after I came in he observed that the Philadelphia
paper had informed the public of the death of Mr. Wesley.[J] I gave no
credit to the account, but, however, intreated the favour of seeing the
paper. He sent immediately to a neighboring merchant who took in that
paper, and about 10 o’clock the melancholy record arrived. I evidently
saw by the account that it was too true.
“The next morning I set off for New York, in order to be in time for
the British packet. At Alexandria the news was confirmed by a letter
from London. On the 29th I crossed the run of water called Akatenke,
down which I was carried by the flood. We were now come into a country
abounding with singing birds. But alas! I could take no pleasure
in them, the death of my venerable friend had cast such a shade of
melancholy over my heart. The night being very dark, it was with great
difficulty that my friend, who traveled with me, and myself found our
way from Alexandria to Blaidensburg.”
_VIII._
_A SUMMER AT BATH._
_1791._
_Captain Bayard, of the Artillery--From Baltimore to
Bath--Bath described--Tea at Bath--Irish Comedians--Valley
Lands--Winchester--Colonel P.--The Sabbath in America--Land
Merchants._
In the year VI (1798) there was published at Paris a book written by
a retired captain of artillery, Ferdinand Marie Bayard, described on
the title page, “A Journey Into the Interior of the United States, to
Bath, Winchester, the Shenandoah Valley, etc., etc., During the Summer
of 1791.” It is strange that this book has not been translated. It is
interesting as a sort of sentimental journey of a very intelligent
man (member of the Society of Sciences Letters and Arts at Paris),
who visited a spot not often mentioned by the early traveler in this
country. Captain Bayard was born at Moulins la Marche in 1768, and was
living in 1836. He was in his twenty-third year the summer of 1791.
He had already retired from the army and become a traveler in various
parts of the world.
Captain Bayard seems to have landed at Baltimore, with his wife and
small boy. He remarks, “The months of June, July and August are bad
for children if kept in town in this country. Bath, situated 120
miles from Baltimore, and near the Valley of the Shenandoah, offered a
stopping place in the country and a point of departure from which to
visit that fertile region, where, beneath skies almost always serene,
the inhabitants cultivate a generous soil, which rewards liberally the
slightest efforts of human industry. I wished to see this promised
land, from the bosom of which an innumerable population is beginning
to arise, prosperous and content, and already passing the limits of
the Valley to occupy the vast spaces beyond. Besides, before returning
home, I desired to gain a knowledge of the American people, and this
I could better compass in the country than in the towns. For the trip
I hired a carriage at Baltimore, at 41 francs the passenger, baggage
included. The owner was the driver, and a very skilful one, as we
learned on the road, which is often abominable and extremely dangerous.
“Four miles south of the Potomac [by way of Ellicott’s Lower
Mill, Ellicott’s Upper Mill, the Red House, the Monocacy River,
Fredericktown, and Middletown] we arrived at Bath, in Virginia. The
town is situated in a triangular and very narrow gorge. The mountain to
the west is high and steep, and in the month of March snow and earth
become loosened from the declivity and descend in avalanches. The
houses built next to this dangerous mountain are protected by heavy
palisades. Several people, having neglected the precaution, have had
their houses engulfed. The residents boast of the climate--the winter
not too cold, and the heat of summer moderate. Bath has two public
buildings--the theatre and the bathhouse. The first is a log edifice,
and the second a framed barrack, partitioned into eight cells, in each
of which there are steps arranged for the convenience of the bathers.
The spring is hard by. The water is dispensed in a goblet by the man in
charge. The water is clear, lukewarm, and insipid, but very efficacious.
“I have seen many come to Bath fearfully rheumatic, who had to be
carried to the spring at first, and in three weeks were able to walk
with a crutch. Bath was formerly called Warm Springs. The name was
changed in deference to the English resort. This imitative mania is
a bad symptom, and augurs ill for that nation, whose name is dear to
lovers of liberty everywhere. At Bath the young women ride about a
great deal, and are excellent horsewomen. It is to be remarked that
their physiognomy is distinct among American women. During the fall,
boats come up the river from Alexandria and Georgetown, and return
laden with grain. After that season there is no more traffic by water
until the spring, and if any one has neglected to provide himself he
must make a trip to Winchester for supplies, thirty-nine miles off. The
inhabitants of this region are very fond of the English boxing match.
Generally a bruiser (breaker of bones) is in charge of these combats,
who sees to the strict carrying out of all the regulations.
“At our boarding house (excellent fare) there were about forty people,
among them two Virginians--Madame B. and Madame A.--who spoke French
tolerably well. Madame B. had read the works of Swedenborg, and
entertained us with descriptions drawn from those mystical books. There
were several very pious people at our boarding house, one of whom had
a theory that eating was not to satisfy the appetite. I noticed that he
ate a great deal. At Bath it is the custom to drink tea at 5 o’clock.
Everything is very ceremonious. At the right of the lady dispensing tea
are ranged in a half circle all the other ladies. A profound silence
follows the entrance of each invited guest; all the ladies as grave
as judges on the bench. A small acajou table is placed before the
dispenser of tea. Silver pots contain the coffee and the hot water,
which serves to weaken the tea or to receive the cups. A domestic
brings on a silver waiter the cup, the sugar dish, the cream pot, the
butter balls, the thin slices of ham. A Frenchman is embarrassed at
the necessity of watching his cup and saucer in one hand, and with the
other receiving a tart or a slice of very thin ham.
“In sending back the cup the spoon must be placed in a manner to
indicate whether you will begin again, or have finished drinking. A
Frenchman on one occasion, unfamiliar with English and ignorant of this
polite sign language, was overcome at seeing the sixteenth cup arrive,
which, having emptied, he hit upon the device of stowing it in his
pocket, dreading a seventeenth. The tea dispensed and consumed, there
are songs. Mademoiselle L. was the accomplished artist at Bath. Her
favorite song was one of a certain Patrick, who, absent, was still to
be remembered.
“We had at Bath a troupe of Irish comedians, alternately emperors,
shepherds, clowns, and no doubt very badly fed. The young man who
played the lover found great difficulty in pronouncing his consonants.
A tall, thin man played the tragic role of enamored prince. A blonde
soubrette was solemnly coquettish. The others of the troupe are
scarcely to be recalled. We had tragedy, comedy, comic opera, and
farce. Every week there was a dance. Billiards was an amusement, and
there was play at the taverns, particularly after the arrival of a
gentleman who kept a Pharaoh bank. He was treated with great courtesy,
and I heard nothing said against his probity. Nevertheless, it happens
that the planter who arrives at Bath with equipage and attendants goes
home with nothing but a horse, and a very mean horse.
“I hired a horse to go to Winchester. For more than half of the way
the country is wild. As you draw nearer the town in the Valley, many
well-stocked farms appear, the land being very fertile. On the slope
there range strong, long-wooled sheep, not afraid of wolves during the
summer. Such war is made upon the wolves that even in this heavily
timbered country there is little danger from them except when the
snow lies deep upon the ground. It is a magnificent country about
Winchester. The men are tall, well-made, of strong constitutions, and
ruddy. The horses and cattle have the eye and the gait of health.
I stopped at a tavern kept by a German, who has made a fortune in
the business. I was treated with consideration, for having lived at
Strasbourg and for having crossed the Rhine. At this tavern there is a
good cook, the meat is excellent, there is game and fresh-water fish;
the house is well furnished, wines of every country, good linen, good
beds, the rooms well lighted, and the whole at a reasonable price. The
day after I arrived there came to the tavern an old gentleman limping
from the gout. I mentioned Thomas Payne to him and the ‘Rights of
Man.’ He fixed me with his eye, out the air with his stick, and said
vehemently that he wished Thomas Payne was hanged. He left me, and at
the same time I got up, whistling the air of ‘Ca Ira.’ I learned the
cause of his behavior: he had held a lucrative office before the war,
and was an incurable Tory.
“A Mr. Smith, who lives a mile from Winchester, asked me to dine.
I spent the time very agreeably there. From the liberality of his
opinions I was led to discuss the political situation of America with
considerable frankness. Mr. Smith and his brother-in-law accompanied me
back to Winchester, discoursing by the way of their fortunate lot, of
the progress of agriculture, and of the richness of the inexhaustible
soil, which yields an abundance to the inhabitants of this beautiful
Valley.
“I had a letter of introduction to Colonel P., formerly aid de camp
to General Washington. Colonel P. lives some sixteen miles from
Winchester, greatly esteemed for his public and private virtues. On the
way to his house I passed through a country of abundant harvests, fat
pastures and well peopled; where there was forest the trees were of a
magnificent growth, and in the intervals a deep green turf invited the
traveler to repose. It was hot. I dismounted beneath a poplar tree, the
white flower of which offered its corolla to the bee and the humming
bird. The coolness of the place, the delicious perfumes exhaled by the
acacias, the ivy, and the flowers springing from the sod, all gave to
the senses that calm which is the precursor of sleep; but ideas of
the happiness prepared for generations to come in this land of peace
and plenty, thoughts of the future greatness of the American people,
supplied a reverie sweeter than that of dreams.
“Not far from the house of Colonel P., I met a large man on horseback,
whose open countenance was an invitation to talk. He was dressed like
a farmer during the busy season. I asked him the way. He showed me
the road, and continued his path without adding a word to the precise
answer he had given me. Arrived at the house, I found the overseer
near the barn directing some negroes who were shelling corn. I had not
been long in the house, a structure of logs, and very comfortable,
when there entered the same man I had met in the road, none other than
Colonel P. himself. I presented my letter, which he quickly read, and
receiving me in the most friendly manner, offered me refreshments.
We talked of the war, and he sketched for me in brief its causes. At
dinner I drank old whiskey distilled on the place. The Colonel spoke
with pleasure of his farm operations: he makes everything at home.
He showed me the plan of his 1,000 acres, at the centre of which he
will build a large and commodious house. At the present time his
outbuildings are more carefully constructed than his mansion. I quitted
Colonel P. at sunset, much pleased with him, and grateful for his kind
attentions.[K] Shortly after, the moon appeared over the mountains to
the south, and cast a light over the valley. The whippoorwill commenced
its plaints, almost extinguished by the various song of the melodious
mocking-bird. The blacks were coming in from the fields singing behind
the slow horses fatigued with the day’s work.
“The next day at Winchester I went to church, a frame building, and
hitched around it horses of price well caparisoned. The negroes sat in
the gallery, dressed in their Sunday clothes. Below were their masters
and mistresses, whose appearance proclaimed them alive to the sanctity
of the place and to the solemnity of the ceremony.
“The minister, a Presbyterian, was the grandson of a Frenchman. Coming
back from church I observed that the doors of all the houses were
closed. They remained so throughout the day. Mrs. B. and her daughters
retired after dinner to read chapters of the Old and the New Testament.
Throughout the United States this is the manner of observing Sunday.
“The Valley of the Shenandoah is a most prosperous and healthful
region. Tobacco, corn, flax and wheat are the principal crops. Twelve
miles from Winchester I could have bought land for 50 shillings the
acre, but nearer the town the price of cleared land is from three to
four pounds. Several Europeans who have settled hereabouts have not
succeeded well, and for the reason that they failed to discard European
customs. It should not be overlooked that the price of labor and that
of produce is in reverse proportion to what prevails in Europe. Here
labor is high and market values, net, are low. An especial error of
foreigners is the attempt to improve too fast. A Frenchman who has
bought 300 acres of land thinks he has a ‘property,’ and goes to work
on the grand scale. What with building and embellishments he is very
apt to go bankrupt. There are men in this region who have made fortunes
in land speculations. There is not a tavern at Winchester where land
merchants may not be found. They are as enthusiastic in their offers
as the women who sell toothpicks at the doors of Paris restaurants and
cafés. An especially pleasing feature of their preliminaries is that
they assure you their only motive is to make your fortune. I met one of
these merchants who desired to enrich me, _nolens volens_, by selling
me land at an excessively high price.
“Winchester is destined to be a manufacturing town, and to a degree
incalculable as soon as communication with the Atlantic coast shall
have been established by means of the rivers or by canal. Already there
is a famous carriage works at Winchester; and boots, shoes, and saddles
are made there, which, for use and for style of workmanship, equal the
product of the older cities.