(Ilass 
 Book_ 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 
 
*Jije li\[on)ei) of Virginia: 
 
 /V fyefrospecf. 
 
Denoon, Tapper & Co., 
 
 (HAS. I.. DENOON, 
 T. TUPPER, JR.. 
 H. 1.. DENOON, 
 
 f^eal Estate and 
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 Richmond, Va 
 
THE 
 
 Women of Virginia 
 
 A RETROSPECT. 
 
 A LECTURE 
 
 DELIVERED BY 
 
 ROSAMOND M. SCOTT 
 
 AT 
 
 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 
 
 ' Apff 
 
 
 Htcfimottdt ^l*u: 
 
 Whittet & SiiErrERsoN, Printers, iooi Main Street. 
 1893. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1S93, by 
 
 ROSAMOND M. SCOTT, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 
 
The Women of Virginia 
 
 A RETROSPECT. 
 
 TO introduce you into a Tennysonian "Palace of 
 Art" and charm your fancy with "A Dream of 
 Fair Women," is not my purpose in this lecture. 
 The theme is, indeed, rich in poetic inspiration, for 
 the matrons and maidens of Virginia have ever 
 been foremost in all the graces and virtues of 
 womanhood. Heroic grandeur as well as lyric 
 beauty has been their crown of glory in the days 
 that are gone, and doubtless will be in the days 
 that are to come. 
 
 But as History needs not the assistance of Art 
 to confirm its testimony to this truth, I have passed 
 by the inviting fields of fiction which Thackeray, 
 Kennedy, and others have opened to the imagina- 
 tion in their efforts to reproduce the life of the 
 olden time, and have drawn from historic sources, 
 meagre as they are, the material, or rather the 
 suggestions, out of which I have fashioned my 
 present subject. 
 
 The period covered by these observations closes 
 with the social and political cataclysm of 1865, 
 when the course of history seemed to pause, and 
 the things which were (like ripened fruit) parted 
 
4 THE WOMEN OF VI11GINIA. 
 
 and full away from the things which were to be, 
 and the Old made room for the New. 
 
 A writer in the London Spectator calls this " The 
 Age of Woman." Now, ordinarily "the age of 
 woman" is not considered a proper subject of dis- 
 cussion. But the writer was wholly innocent of 
 any unpleasant insinuation. He had reference 
 only to the fact that women now-a-days have en- 
 larged their sphere of activity and usefulness be- 
 yond all precedent, and have occupied fields of 
 employment hitherto monopolized by the opposite 
 sex. 
 
 There are some who will say that this is "a new 
 thing under the snn " in Virginia, and they are the 
 now old-time ladies of whom I am going to tell you 
 presently. But the fact is, the familiar line of 
 Kingsley, that " Men must work and women must 
 weep," grew monotonous, and women found that 
 they could work at least as becomingly, if not as 
 successfully, as they could weep ; and so they ven- 
 tured timidly, yet hopefully, on new lines of indus- 
 try and enterprise. 
 
 It is not their ambition to be the rivals of men 
 in any sense, but they simply claim the privilege 
 of being permitted to test their capacities by actual 
 experiment, and of being judged by the result. If 
 they succeed, they are vindicated ; if they fail, they 
 have only made mistakes to be avoided in the 
 future. And, now, to my subject. 
 
 The phrase, "Women of Virginia," naturally im- 
 plies some peculiar trait or group of traits which 
 distinguishes them from other women. Did any 
 
THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 5 
 
 such traits "exist? And if so, what was their pro- 
 cess of development ; and when did they acquire a 
 distinctive mark and character? 
 
 No doubt the men of Virginia had something to. 
 do with these important results, and it would not 
 be altogether prudent, perhaps, to leave them out 
 of the account. For without their help I really do 
 not see how there would ever have been any "wo- 
 men of Virginia" at all — of course, I mean Virginia 
 women. The princess Pocahontas herself would 
 never have been a Virginian if English men had 
 not founded a colony in that part of America 
 which they had already named in honor of their 
 virgin queen Elizabeth. 
 
 What, then, were the special qualities (or char- 
 acters, as the scientists say) which constituted the 
 typical Virginia woman of 1861 ? 
 
 When we try to get a glimpse of her through the 
 purgatorial glooms that intervene between the Now 
 and Then, she comes before "the mind's eye," 
 lovely in her majesty, like Beatrice, as Dante saw 
 her descending in the shower of flowers, after he 
 had traversed the horrors of his ghostly pilgrimage. 
 And thus we see her as she was. She has no 
 beauty now; perhaps, no hospitable home where- 
 with to attract and charm the guest of to-day. 
 "What's Hecuba to him, that he should weep 
 for her?" Yet, she was once a very real per- 
 sonage, and her favor was something which a 
 prince might well aspire. 
 
 To say that she was the complex product of sev- 
 eral factors working together for half a dozen gen- 
 
6 THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 erations; and th.it those factors were the combined 
 social and domestic influences under which she was 
 gradually developed in the peculiar conditions of 
 Virginia life, sounds like an identical proposition. 
 
 But let me explain ; for as a woman is not gen- 
 erally credited with the faculty of reason, I will at 
 once set forth the grounds upon which my conclu- 
 sions are founded. 
 
 First, then, we must consider the immediate in- 
 fluences under which she was born and reared — 
 the influences of her home life. And to these we 
 must add the reflex influence of a servile class, in 
 respect to which she stood very nearly in the rela- 
 tion of sovereign to subject. Secondly, the influ- 
 ence of a class from which she was removed by 
 the differences of social position. And, thirdly, 
 the influence of her own class — the family and 
 friends among whom her real life was spent. 
 
 Here, then, are three sets of influences, which, 
 for convenience, we may call the domestic, the 
 political, and the social. 
 
 I. And, first, as to her home life. 
 
 As the refinement of her nature was inherited, so 
 it was transmitted by inheritance to her daughters 
 and preserved intact within the sacred circle of the 
 family. Her beauty of feature, form and move- 
 ment resulted naturally from the exuberant health 
 which a salubrious climate and ample means are 
 generally sufficient to secure. She knew nothing- 
 then of the cares and heart-troubles that were in 
 store for her. Her pleasure was to please. 
 
 She had all the learning and accomplishments 
 
THE WOMEN OF VIKGINIA. 7 
 
 suited to her position. Vocal and instrumental 
 music, together with French, sometimes Spanish 
 or Italian, being indispensable parts of her educa- 
 tion. Her music, by the way, was very useful as a 
 means of entertaining her guests, for it might serve 
 to charm a whole company of appreciative listen- 
 ers, or else be a convenient method of amusing a 
 stupid visitor. For there were stupid visitors in 
 those days, as there are now; but alas! the pro- 
 fessional artist has wrenched the sceptre from the 
 hand of the lovely amateur, and transformed it into 
 the business-like haton of the concert hall. 
 
 As a matron, she was thoroughly versed in all 
 the arts of housewifery. Both kitchen and dining- 
 room bore testimony at once to the largeness of 
 her bounty and the elegance of her taste. The 
 comfort of her guests was the first consideration, 
 and the claims of hospitality were at all times 
 paramount. But she was not only the maternal 
 head of the family. The ownership and govern- 
 ment of slaves developed in her the sense of ruler- 
 ship, in a very high degree, but it, too, was almost 
 maternal in its spirit. For it manifested itself in 
 the graciousness, rather than in the arrogance, of 
 conscious power. The subject race was not to be 
 governed only; it was to be provided for and taken 
 care of, and thus she was constantly called upon 
 to exercise those kindly feelings in which the rank 
 of the mistress was often forgotten in the sympathy 
 of the friend. Still, she was never unmindful of 
 the responsibilities of her station, and the habit 
 of command imparted to her demeanor something 
 more than the dignity of the mere gentlewoman. 
 
8 • THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 Hence, if she was queenly in her spirit and bear- 
 ing, but, at the same time, gracious and conde- 
 scending, it was because she was made so by the 
 very conditions of her existence. 
 
 II. As there was always in Virginia a class of 
 people who were more polished, more wealthy and 
 better educated than some others, so there was, 
 correlatively, another and more numerous class 
 not possessing these advantages, and from them 
 she was separated by sheer force of circumstances. 
 Persons whose sphere of life was below the horizon 
 of her own, were, in fact, if not confessedly, her 
 inferiors, in a very positive, though not in an offen- 
 sive sense. But in her occasional intercourse with 
 them she never asserted her superiority, because 
 it was mutually understood, and neither haughti- 
 ness on the one side, nor envy on the other, dis- 
 turbed the happy adjustment of their relations to 
 one another. 
 
 Noblesse oblige is a maxim as true as it is old 
 and universal. There is something about genuine 
 nobility which compels recognition by its own 
 inherent quality. Everybody appreciates it, and 
 everybody would like to have it. How soon the 
 man of sudden wealth sets about looking for a 
 great-great-grandfather and a coat of arms ! Hu- 
 manity has many strong desires and passions, but 
 none stronger than the desire to have a famous 
 ancestry; and the veriest communist, who, to-day, 
 goes about shrieking his denunciations against the 
 aristocracy, would instantly drop into silence if he 
 could be convinced that he had just inherited a 
 
THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. \) 
 
 title. The Constitution of the United States for- 
 bids all titles of nobility, and the consequence is, 
 the country is overrun with colonels. 
 
 While pride of birth was always a conspicuous 
 feature in the Virginia character, it was never, per- 
 haps, as in England, accompanied by enforced 
 distinctions of rank, as a matter of legal right, still 
 less as a matter of sound policy. The conditions of 
 colonial life drew the people more closely together 
 than they would otherwise have come. Owing to 
 their remoteness from the seat of government, they 
 were, in some respects, an independent community, 
 and not unfrequently all classes had occasion to 
 make common cause against their royal master, or 
 his representatives. Hence the terms of social 
 intercourse were unavoidably modified, to some 
 extent, by political considerations, and thus a more 
 democratic spirit was infused into it. 
 
 It would be difficult to understand how Lady 
 Edith of colonial times was content to become 
 plain Mrs. Edith of the Ee volution, but for some 
 such sentiment as this, except that patriotism is an 
 instinct of womankind, and women have, moreover, 
 a ready facility of taking sides with their husbands, 
 or fathers, whenever a political question is at issue. 
 And so politics had its influence on society. 
 
 There was good reason why the voter, whose 
 support it was important to secure, should, on 
 occasion, be admitted to the hospitality of the 
 mansion, and it was wonderful to see how agree- 
 able Madame could be to the political friend of the 
 Colonel. She would inquire about babies that 
 
10 THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 had never been born, and express the most lively 
 interest in the welfare of Mrs. Boggs, when Mr. 
 Boggs was only hoping that there might be a Mrs. 
 Boggs in the course of time. But this was not her 
 fault. The Colonel should have taken care that 
 she was better informed about the facts. 
 
 Now, all these things enlarged her experience, 
 liberalized her sentiments, made her more versatile 
 in thought and conversation, and fitted her to move 
 with greater ease in her own proper sphere, when- 
 ever some Davy Crockett might have a claim upon 
 her courtesies. 
 
 III. Thirdly, there was the influence of the class 
 to which she belonged by nature, known as the 
 Mite, the society, par excellence, of Virginia, noted 
 for its liberal culture, its courtly manners, its chiv- 
 alrous spirit, its elegant hospitality — all together 
 constituting the very paradise of woman, where 
 she presided, if not as a Goddess, at least as the 
 loveliest and noblest of her sex. 
 
 Social life, with its visitings, its dinings, its par- 
 ties, its pic-nics, its weddings, and all the varied 
 modes of amusement and merriment that accom- 
 panied them, was the medium in which her graces 
 of person, mind and manner were displayed with 
 an enhanced charm. It was among such scenes as 
 these that the stranger found his memory loved to 
 linger, when, returning home, he undertook to re- 
 call the fairest passages of his travel — history — 
 unless, indeed, he were some foreign snob, who felt 
 uncomfortably out of place in the pure atmosphere 
 of Virginia morals and manners. 
 
THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 11 
 
 And so, considered in her totality, our heroine 
 (for I must call her so), was queenly without 
 haughtiness, generous without ostentation, affable 
 with dignity, and wise]y practical in all the du- 
 ties of her station, whether as mistress of a house- 
 hold, or as sovereign disposer of her heart and 
 hand (for she rarely married beneath her social 
 level). 
 
 Having now shown what she was, it is next in 
 order to inquire whence and how she acquired her 
 characteristic qualities ; and I think it will appear 
 that the typical Virginia woman of 1861 was a 
 special development of the English gentlewoman 
 of the first quarter of the seventeenth century. 
 
 I ought, perhaps, to apologize for calling to my 
 assistance a lady of such venerable age, for she is 
 not far from being two hundred and eighty years 
 old. It is almost certain, too, that her style of 
 dress, and especially her style of English, would 
 not be in exact accord with her surroundings, could 
 she appear and speak in bodily form before us. 
 Shakespeare was her contemporary, and it is as- 
 serted on high authority, that if we could hear him 
 speak, as he used to, on the stage, we could hardly 
 tell that he was speaking English. Still, our venera- 
 ble lady was well enough understood in her day, 
 and performed her part on the stage of real life 
 with the most commendable fidelity. 
 
 The wives of the gentry under James I. and 
 Charles I., especially in the country, were very 
 different in many ways from the corresponding 
 class of Queen Anne's time. The former were not 
 
12 THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 only gentlewomen, but they were practical, useful, 
 and even industrious housewives ; whereas, the latter 
 were noted chiefly for their lack of mental culture, 
 and their indolent, self-indulgent habits. 
 
 A correspondent of the (original) Spectator, writ- 
 ing under date of October 13, 1714, in the charac- 
 ter of an old lady, makes some interesting dis- 
 closures on this subject. She says : " I have a couple 
 of nieces under nrv direction, who so often run 
 gadding abroad that I don't know where to have 
 them. Their dress, their tea, and their visits take 
 up all their time, and they go to bed as tired with 
 doing nothing as I am after quilting a whole petti- 
 coat." 
 
 What a life! And yet Vanbrugh, Pope, Addi- 
 son, and Swift all confirm this testimony; and 
 if any one will take the trouble to read " Clarinda's 
 Journal of a Week," in No. 323 of the Spectator, he 
 will learn some of the details of which the daily 
 life of a fashionable London woman consisted at 
 that time — say about one hundred and eighty years 
 ago. 
 
 But let us go back from fifty to one hundred 
 years further still. The same old lady tells us in 
 her own words: "Those hours which in this age 
 are thrown away on dress, play, visits and the 
 like, were employed in my time in writing recipes, 
 or working beds, chairs, or hangings for the family. 
 * - It grieves 1113^ heart to see a couple of proud 
 flirts sipping their tea for a whole afternoon in a 
 room hung around with the industry of their 
 grandmothers." 
 
THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 13 
 
 Sir Eoger de Coverley is made to give pretty 
 much the same testimony in behalf of his great-great- 
 grandmother; so that by going back to her times, 
 we shall find that our Virginia womanhood was an 
 outgrowth from the English stock of the earlier 
 and better period. From the fortunate circum- 
 stance of being in America, it escaped the bad 
 influences which prevailed in the mother country, 
 and it is very certain that the women of Virginia 
 who lived in the age of Clarinda were more like 
 her great-great-grandmother than herself. 
 
 This, then, is the special fact to be noticed — that 
 the same ancestry which produced a Clarinda in 
 England, produced a Mary Washington in Virginia. 
 
 The causes of this diversity must be sought in 
 the different influences under which such variant 
 characters were developed, and we find those causes 
 in the peculiar conditions of Virginia life. 
 
 Of course, it was many years before those condi- 
 tions had become so generally and permanently 
 established as to exhibit any marked or distinctive 
 features. The prevalence of peace, law, order, and 
 the consequent feeling of security were essential to 
 this result. 
 
 Whatever obscurity may hang about the domes- 
 tic habits and circumstances of the early settlers, 
 there can be no doubt that the aristocratic element 
 was present and had its influence on society. Of the 
 one hundred and five colonists who originally landed, 
 forty-eight were gentlemen, and gentlemen consti- 
 tuted a large percentage of those who afterwards 
 immigrated ; although Captain Argall declared some 
 
14 THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 years later that " A plain soldier that can rise a 
 pick and spade is better than five knights, though 
 they were knights that could break a lance." 
 
 It does not appear that any women accompanied 
 the first party that located at Jamestown. Accord- 
 ing to Captain Smith, a ship that landed in 1608, 
 brought "the first gentlewoman and womanservant 
 that arrived in our colony." The next year, Sir 
 Thomas Gates sailed for Virginia with his wife and 
 two daughters, and it is hardly probable they would 
 have ventured into a community where no congenial 
 company was to be found. Later still, in 1622, 
 Lady Wyatt was making preparations to come 
 over, and in 1623, Lady Yeardley appeared in 
 court at Jamestown and released her dower in a 
 tract of land to a purchaser from her then deceased 
 husband. 
 
 The inference, therefore, is that there was always 
 a social centre at the colonial capital, from which the 
 refining influences of cultured women were diffused 
 over the social life of the colonists ; and that the 
 families of the Governors and Clergy, who had fami- 
 lies, were such centres, there can be no question. 
 
 But there was another salutary female influence 
 Avhich must not be overlooked. The young women 
 who were sent out from England in 1620-'21, while 
 not shown to be of gentle birth, are described in 
 the official language of the London Company's rec- 
 ords as "young, handsome, and honestly educated 
 maids, such as were specially recommended unto 
 the Company for their good bringing up by their 
 parents and friends of good worth." 
 
THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 15 
 
 As the names of those girls were lost in those of 
 their husbands, it is probable that no trace of them 
 remains in their descendants of the present day, 
 if indeed any such descendants survive, and of this 
 there is no evidence, so far as I know. 
 
 But, respectable as they undoubtedly were, they 
 were not the first women of that character who 
 came to Yirginia as useful rather than as orna- 
 mental members of society. Captain Smith, writing- 
 in London in 1629, has this to say : " Mistress 
 Pearce, an honest, industrious woman, hath been 
 there (in Virginia) near twenty years, and now re- 
 turned, saith she hath a garden at Jamestown con- 
 taining three or four acres, where in one year she 
 hath gathered near an hundred bushels of excellent 
 figs, and that of her own provision, she can keep a 
 better house in Yirginia, than here in London for 
 three or four hundred pounds a year, yet she went 
 thither with little or nothing." 
 
 Mrs. Pearce must have come to Virginia in 1609, 
 only two years after the first settlement, and she is, 
 as we must admit, a noble and notable representa- 
 tive of the practical and thrifty women who at that 
 early period immigrated to the colony. 
 
 Here, then, we have the beginnings of Virginia 
 society ; the germs of an upper and a lower class, of 
 gentry and yeomanry, the reproduction of English 
 life as nearly as was practicable under existing 
 conditions. Still, it was, in point of fact, neither 
 English life nor the Virginia life that was to be. 
 The real Virginia life came later. 
 
 A period of construction and adaptation followed 
 
16 THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 the first stage of colonial enterprise and experi- 
 ment. During the next forty or fifty years, the 
 process of growth and expansion produced its ef- 
 fects. Residence was no longer confined to the 
 palisades at Jamestown. The surrounding country 
 gradually became settled, gentlemen came over 
 from England with their families, obtained large 
 grants of land, located them at the most eligible 
 points, erected stately mansions, purchased slaves, 
 and laid the foundations of what afterwards be- 
 came the characteristic plantation life of Virginia. 
 As time progressed, agriculture brought increase of 
 wealth, plantations became little principalities, the 
 era of fox-hunting and other manly sports and ex- 
 ercises was inaugurated, and so matters continued 
 until the period of the Revolution, with such 
 changes only as were introduced by the growing 
 civilization of the world. 
 
 Meanwhile, the wives of the gentry were learn- 
 ing and performing their part on their own peculiar 
 lines — not only in the matter of hospitality, but in 
 the conduct of their household duties in their sev- 
 eral in- and out-door departments; and this is 
 shown by the readiness with which they adapted 
 themselves to the harsh exigencies of a war of in- 
 vasion, not only making any sacrifice of personal 
 comfort for the cause, but even assuming the man- 
 agement of plantations in the absence of their hus- 
 1 muds. 
 
 While the women of Virginia were displaying 
 these admirable qualities, the womanhood of Eng- 
 land was conspicuous for its swearing Duchesses 
 
THE WOMEN OF VIKGFNIA. 17 
 
 and women generally who disliked home occupa- 
 tions and found even their amusements in ques- 
 tionable ways. 
 
 Exactly what pre-revolutionary life was in Vir- 
 ginia, we can gather only from such contemporary 
 private writings as happen to have been preserved 
 by the thoughtfulness of a few who realized that 
 future generations would feel some interest in the 
 small things of the past. 
 
 In our State Library we have such a record in 
 the reminiscences of Mrs. Maxwell Read, from 
 whose lips, at the age of eighty-three, they were 
 taken down by her son and committed to writing, 
 but never published. Her narrative, while not so 
 full as we would desire, is graphic and vivacious, 
 and shows a bright, cheerful, and observant mind. 
 She was born in Norfolk in 1750, and, like most 
 girls of the period, married at the age of seventeen, 
 but she tells us that she had been well instructed 
 by her mother "in the mysteries of housewifery, 
 and taught to make pies, puddings, jellies, and all 
 sorts of niceties, at which she was an apt scholar" ; 
 and so, very different from the contemporary Eng- 
 lish maiden. 
 
 Her father was wealthy and hospitable, and used 
 to entertain all strangers of any note that came to 
 the city, and especially the officers of the British 
 navy who visited the waters of Virginia before the 
 war. Among them she mentions Captain, after- 
 wards Admiral, Gell, who commanded a fifty-gun 
 ship with thirty-two midshipmen on board, " mostly 
 boys and lads of good families, and several of them 
 
18 THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 sprigs of nobility." They came frequently to her 
 father's house and dined there, and, apropos of 
 that, she describes a lively scene that might Avell 
 have happened a hundred years later. " Some- 
 times," she tells us, "they would go into the 
 kitchen to get a little something to stay their ap- 
 petites, when old Quashabee would assert her au- 
 thority and threaten to pin a dish-cloth to their 
 young lordships if they did not get out of her way. 
 Nay, she would now and then carry her threat into 
 execution, and actually fasten one of these badges 
 of a cook's wrath upon one or other of them to the 
 great diversion of all the rest. I recall particularly 
 a young stripling by the name of Lord George 
 Gordon, afterwards so famous as the leader of the 
 riots in London, whom I have seen begging old 
 Quashabee for a piece of the skin which she had 
 just taken off the ham she was about to send into 
 the house for dinner, and eating it with great 
 relish." 
 
 Years afterwards, when the Revolution was fla- 
 grant, and the British had occupied Norfolk, Cap- 
 tain Maxwell removed his family to New Kent 
 county, and it is here only that she gives us any 
 glimpse of country life. Her temporary home was 
 about a mile from Colonel Dandridge's residence, 
 (the brother of Mrs. Washington) and she soon be- 
 came acquainted with his family. 
 
 On one occasion, she tells us (I use her own lan- 
 guage), " Mrs. Dandridge came over to invite me 
 to spend a day with Lady Washington, who had 
 come down to pass sonic days at her house in hopes 
 
THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 19 
 
 of seeing her husband, the General, who was ex- 
 pected to call on his way to Yorktown." Indis- 
 position prevented Mrs. Maxwell from accepting 
 the invitation, but a few days afterwards, she and 
 her husband set out on foot to make the visit, hop- 
 ing they might meet General Washington there, but 
 they found he had not stopped to see his wife, 
 "being more anxious just then to see the British 
 army." But she proceeds: "To makeup for the 
 disappointment, after we had taken our leave and 
 just as Ave had gotten through the great gate into 
 the high road, what should we see but the young 
 Marquis De La Fayette at the head of a large troop 
 of horse, the finest sight I ever saw. The Marquis 
 was then a fine looking young man — he could not 
 have been more than twenty — with a ruddy face 
 and light sandy hair, and rode an elegant horse." 
 
 More might be quoted from this narrative that 
 would be deeply interesting, but this much will 
 suffice to illustrate, in some degree at least, the 
 character of the pre-revolutionaiw Virginia woman 
 and the sphere in which she moved. And we find 
 her intelligent, practical, fond of society and fitted 
 to adorn it, nor must we suppose that because Mrs. 
 Maxwell lived in Norfolk, she had any special ad- 
 vantage over the ladies of the country. Country 
 life, indeed, was that which was most distinctively 
 Virginian. Here was the home of the wealthy 
 planter, who delighted in extending all hospitable 
 courtesies, and imported directly from abroad all 
 the luxuries of table, wardrobe and library that 
 constituted the highest style of living, and that too 
 in the amplest abundance. 
 
20 THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 
 
 English travellers, who visited Virginia at that 
 period, were struck with this fact, and contrasted 
 the refinement and affluence of high life in Virginia 
 with the inferior condition of the other colonies in 
 those respects. Among many other observers, the 
 late historian Green remarks : " The distinction be- 
 tween the northern and southern colonies was more 
 than an industrial one. In the Southern States the 
 prevalence of slavery produced an aristocratic 
 spirit and favored the creation of large estates, and 
 among the wealthy planters of Virginia many of the 
 older English families found representatives in 
 houses such as Fairfax and Washington." At the 
 North, aristocratic life was confined almost exclu- 
 sively to the cities or their vicinity. 
 
 The return of peace, crowned with the trophies 
 of a splendid success, of course added a new 
 charm and spirit to the pleasures of social inter- 
 course, and it is almost amusing to observe how 
 quickly the ladies apprehended the situation and 
 turned their attention to the latest London fashions. 
 
 All this was only natural, and we may be assured 
 that the women of the time were well mated with 
 the men whose wisdom and valor established the 
 independence of the country — and, by the way, 
 when Patrick Henry said "country," he always 
 it leant Virginia. The mother who bore the noblest 
 of the Virginians belonged to the century of the 
 Revolutionists, and when her illustrious son mar- 
 ried Mary Custis in 1831, doubtless the "radiant 
 maidens" who graced the wedding festivities with 
 their presence, were the peers of their mothers in 
 
THE WOMEN OF VIRGINIA. 21 
 
 every point, and were so confessed by those who 
 had known them both in their youthful beauty. 
 
 But she who was the bride of sixty years ago 
 lived to be the matron of our own time, and found 
 it not unworthy of her; for the typical Virginia 
 woman of 1861 only ceased to be a princess that 
 she might become more truly — a woman. 
 
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 Is a powerful and agreeable Germ Destroyer (disinfectant). 
 
 Use It in all Contagious Diseases, 
 
 ESPECIALLY 
 
 DIPHTHERIA, SCARLET FEVER, ERYSIPELAS, SMALL 
 POX, MEASLES, CHOLERA AND WHOOPING COUGH, 
 
 To Disinfect the Patient and the Room. 
 
 Use it as the Very Best Gargle and Spray for the Throat 
 and Nose. 
 
 Use it in all Fevers. Use it to Heal Old Sores and Skin 
 
 Diseases. Use it in Sick Rooms to Destroy at 
 
 Once Bad Odors. 
 
 PRICE, 50 Cents a Bottle. Sold by Druggists. 
 
 J. BLAIR, 
 
 Ninth & Broad. Richmond, Va. 
 
 W. S. FORBES & CO., 
 
 w^ PROVISION DEALERS, 
 
 Cor. 9th and Byrd Streets, 
 
 RICHMOND. - - VIRGINIA. 
 
 Largest Safe Company in the World. Capital $3,500,000. 
 
 LATE 
 
 Hall's Safe & Lock Company. Marvin Safe Company, t kmaleamated 
 Herring and Company. Farrell and Company. [" 
 
 Herring = Hall = Marvin Company, 
 
 Factories — Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia. 
 
 B. F. SMITH, SOLE DEALER, 
 
 Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Viiginia, Part of Tenne^ee 
 and West Virginia. 
 
 Principal Office and Salesroom, 28 N. 9th St., RICHMOND, VA. 
 
 Branch Salesroom and Office, 34 W. Alabama St., Atlanta Ga. 
 
<XITHALHIMER BROS.,D*> 
 
 501 BROAD STREET, 
 
 RELIABLE DRY GOODS HOUSE. 
 
 Latest Spring and Summer Novelties in 
 
 DRESS GOODS, WASH FABRICS, CAPES, JACKETS, 
 
 AND SHIRT WAISTS. 
 
 Also a Full Line of 
 
 White Goods, Linens, House Furnish= 
 
 ing Goods, Mattings, Carpets, Oil 
 
 Cloths, and Rugs, 
 
 AT THE LOWEST PRICES. 
 
 Mail Orders carefully attended to, and filled promptly. 
 
 THALHIMER BROS., 
 Richmond. - Virginia. 
 
 JOHN BOWERS. 
 
 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 
 
 WOOD & SLATE MANTELS, 
 
 TILING FOR FLOORS, HEARTHS, 
 GRATES AND FENDERS. 
 
 BRASS FENDERS, FIRE SETS, AND ANDIRONS. 
 
 HOT AIR FURNACES AND RANGES. 
 
 HOUSE FURNISHING GOODS. 
 
 SEND FOR CATALOGUE. 
 
 ALL WORK UNDER OUR PERSONAL SUPERVISION. 
 
 WM. A. WYATT & SON, 
 
 louse 8t Sign Painter, 
 
 No 704 E. GRACE STREET- 
 ICHMOND, - - - VIRGINIA. 
 WE STUDY TO Pli.EASE, 
 
ROTHERT&CO., |X> 
 
 DEALERS IN 
 
 -^^- . FURNITURE, 
 
 REFRIGERATORS, / 
 
 CARPETS, 
 
 BABY CARRIAGES. I 
 
 ^*«^ ' STOVES, 
 
 For CASH or on Easy Payments. 
 
 505 E, BROAD ST., 
 
 RICHMOND, VA 
 
 Old Dominion Building 
 Canton nccarthy, and Loan 
 
 Sec'y and Treas'r. a • j_ • 
 
 Associatio 
 
 ni5MainSt. RICHMOND, VA. 
 
 \I. \\ee\)\er,Jr., 9 Brottye 
 
 Packers, 
 Qjrer-5 apd 
 prouisiot> Dealer 
 
 V. . cCHLER JR . 
 W. T, HECHLER, » 
 
 GENERAL PARTNERS. 
 
 r^mopd, \J 
 
Correspondence Solicited 
 
 PR \ BIMM0CK, 
 
 AReHITEeT, f.a.i.a. 
 
 1103 Main Street, 
 
 l\iC9tnond, Ya, 
 
 @ 
 
 W. McBAIN & CO., 
 
 IvUioricsting 
 
 and 
 Illuminating 
 
 OILS, 
 
 £W2 White Leaci 
 
 VARNISH WORKS : F>aintS 
 
 MANCHESTER, VA. 
 
 Varnishes. 
 
 Richmond, Via, 
 
RICHMOND NURSERIES. 
 
 FRANKLIN DAVIS NURSERY GO. 
 
 500 ACRES IN NURSERY STOCK. 
 100 IN ORCHARDS. 
 
 100 IN SMALL FRUITS. 
 
 We offer to our Customers an immense stock of APPLES, 
 PEACHES, CHERRIES, APRICOTS, GRAPES, &c— all the 
 Standard Sorts. Also the New Varieties of FRUITS, ORNA- 
 MENTAL TREES, SHRUBS, ROSES, &c. Wholesale and 
 Retail. To Dealers we can offer Stock on Favorable Terms, and 
 the best facilities for Packing and Shipping. Catalogues mailed on 
 application. Agents Wanted — Salary or Commission. 
 
 FRANKLIN DAVIS NURSERY CO. 
 
 OFFICE, 918 Main St. RICHMOND, VA. 
 
 J AS. W. MARTIN, 
 
 WHOLESALE AND RETAIL 
 
 FURNITURE, 
 
 No. 2 GOVERNOR STREET, 
 
 Extending through to 1214 and 1216 East Main Street, 
 
 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 
 
 RELIABLE GOODS AT LOW PRICES. 
 
 ]Vtrs. Ii. B. MORRIS, 
 
 FASHIONABLE JVlIIlLilfiEP 
 
 521 E. BROAD ST., RICHMOND, VA 
 
 MAIL ORDERS RECEIVE MY PERSONAL ATTENTION. 
 
J.J. MONTAGUE, 
 
 MANUFACTURER AND DEALER IN 
 
 Lumber. Sasn. Blinds. Doors. 
 
 MOULDINGS, BUILDERS' HARDWARE, &.C. 
 
 CORNER NINTH AND ARCH STREETS, 
 
 RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 
 
 THE DAVIS GALLERY, 
 
 827 BROAD STREET, - - RICHMOND, VIRGINIA. 
 
 Is the Oldest and Most Reliable Gallery in the City. 
 
 ALL WORK STRICTLY FIRST-CLASS. 
 
 Took the FIRST PREMIUM for Plain and Colored Photographs 
 
 at the Virginia Exposition in 1888. 
 
 JB. F. ALLEN & CO., 
 
 PRODUCE 
 
 Commission Merchants. 
 
 23 S. 13th Street, - - RICHMOND, l/A. 
 
 REFERENCES: 
 
 COMMERCIAL NATIONAL BANK, Roanoke, Va. 
 
 HUFF, ANDREWS & THOMAS, Roanoke, Va. 
 
 W. W. GORDON & CO Savannah, Ga. 
 
 PEACOCK, HUNT & CO., Savannah. Ga. 
 
 W. B. PERRY & SOX, New York. 
 
 S. J. GREEN, of M. D. Lee & Co., Bankers, Shelby. N. C. 
 
ESTABLISHED 1846. FINE OYSTERS A SPECIALTY. 
 
 Rueger's Restaurant, 
 
 Cor. Ninth and Bank Sts., 
 
 RICHMOND, VA 
 
 Proprietor. 
 
 IMPORTED AND DOMESTIC 
 
 LIQUORS, 
 WINES, 
 
 ALE, 
 
 Beer, 
 
 and Cigars. 
 
 Ladies' Dining Parlor. 
 
 Mrs. L. Wildt, 
 
 FASHIONABLE 
 
 ♦»♦♦ Indies' H^ir Dresser, 
 
 219 E. BROAD ST., 
 RICHMOND, VA. 
 
 ALL KINDS OF HUMAN HAIR WORK DONE. 
 MAIL ORDERS FROMPTLY FILLED. 
 
 V-^lliijCLIj O kLsG)±)> henry s. wallerste 
 
 -' S -S PROPRIETOR. 
 
 DEALER IN FINE 
 
 Igjpoccpies, Wiijes, JJiquopSj (i)c 
 
 Nos. 1820 and 1822 Main Street, 
 RICHMOND, VA. 
 
 J'lrje 'j'eas ar)d Lojjccs a Opcciall^y. 
 
 BON TON FLOUR. 
 SILVER KING FLOUR 
 
W. J. WHITEHURST, 
 
 Successor to WHITEHURST & OWEN, 
 
 MANUFACTURER OF 
 
 SASH, BLINDS, DOORS, 
 
 MOULDINGS, BRACKETS, MANTELS, k 
 
 TENTH AND BYRD STREETS, 
 RICHMOND, VA. 
 
 HERMANN SCHMIDT, 
 
 EUROPEAN STORE, 
 
 ME FAMILY GROCERIES, LIQUORS, k 
 
 500 & 502 BROAD STREET, CORNER FIFTH, 
 
 BRANCH STORE, h 832 E. JVIAIfl STREET 
 
 RICHMOND, VA. 
 
 SALiOMO^lSKY 8t CO. 
 
 ■^h TAILORS,^ 
 
 Ho. 16 NORTH NINTH STREET, 
 
 HicHWONO, m m m h Virginia 
 

 Owens 8t lYiinor's 
 
 X 
 
 Phenol 37 
 Mouth 
 Wash. 
 
 Pleasant, 
 Wholesorne, 
 Efficient. 
 And no Dresser is com 
 plete without it. 
 
 IT Cleanses the Mouth 
 Hardens the Gums 
 and makes Sweet 
 the Breath. 
 
 ra a Bottle, and you will ever after 
 Pfpepol JVtouth Wash, 
 
 Use 
 
 AND CONSIDER IT "A JOY FOREVER. 
 
 PRICE, 50 CENTS A BOTTLE. 
 
 Qwens & ]V[ii?or Drag Go., 
 
 RICHMOND, VA.