Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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Thr Mary Baldzvin Seminary. 11 and if they did not wcijj h liim down, he owed it to his manner of life, which though It brought duties, l rouglit freedom and healtliful pleasures in greater proportion. His directing eye was over all and the master was loved as well as feared. His lady was atrue help-mate and he in turn, like Gov- ernor Spotswood. thought that whoev ' er brings a poor gentle- woman into .so solitary a place from all her friends and acquaint- ances would be ungrateful not to use her with all possible ten- derness. The house was her kingdom, is the plantation was her husband ' s, and well she ruled it, though with no un- kind hand. From early morn till the riv er mists began to ri.se. she was up and about. Each day brought a round of duties never burdensome to one of her active temperament, but re- quiring constant care. The plate waste be cleaned, the house- hold linen carefully looked over and mended, and fragrant lay- ers of lavender and orris root laid between the folds. The pre- serves and comfits, on which she prided henself, must be made; and when the September roses had burst into their full glory of blossom and sweetness, they must be gathered and carried to the still-room. Here, while the sunshine flickered in, she and her maidens picked them over and dropped each perfect leaf into the potpourri jars. All the medicines for her large household must be prepared and the herbs sorted in different packages. From an old time stained note book written in 1776, we cull the following item. ' ' For making eye water $6.00. With her own hands she cared for the sick and aged slaves on the plantation, knit woolen stockings for the old rheumatic ' ' uncles and aunties and carried them dainties from her own table. She kept open house and from her hospitable door, no one was ever turned away unless unworthy. Her kitchen with all the secrets of the culinary art, she entrusted to the sable cook, se- cure that meal time would find her hoard supplied with every dainty the plantation could afford. Fish, fowl, venison, oysters, turtles, loaded the table, with here a mast-fed ham or there an olive-garnished chine, and vegetables in profusion and twenty different kind of sweets to tempt a fastidious appetite. On her fell the caie of training her numerous servants and making the household wheels run smoothly. At her belt, hung a silver

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10 The Annual of porches. It was approached by a drive bordered with fantas- tically cut box-wood trees, while here and there a bed of sweet, old-fashioned flowers lent their fragrance to the breeze. One not accustomed to the harmonious intermingling of sim- plicity and elegance which was a distinguishing characteristic of colonial homesteads, might have smiled, perhaps, to see upon the porch, a brass-bound bucket of water with the gourd hanging beside it ; but he would have found the water cool and have crossed the hospitable threshold much refreshed. These gentry of the old school did not build for fashion nor for show, but for comfort and posterity and considered their to- bacco well exchanged if by it they gained the delights of home without the unwholesome glamour and emulation of city life. From the wainscotted hall with hand-carved cornices to the stair-case with its shallow steps and ornamented railing, we see the evidence of the same taste. From Europe the well-to-do planter, brought richly carved furniture, with ar- morial crestings, pier-glasses, fragil china and rare old folios, while, as if to welcome more warmly to the hearthstone of the new home the Lares and the Penates of the old, the proud, calm faces of courtly dames and gallant cavaliers smiled down from the walls upon the worthy representatives of their race. Liveried slaves obeyed his commands and ran his errands and from his broad-silled windows his eyes travelled over royal grants of land of which, as far as eye could reach, he was sole patentee. His stables were filled with horses of the finest breed and his poultry -yards abounded in cocks of the best fighting stock. From an old Virginia Gazette with its ingenuous motto, Open to All Parties, but Influenced by none, we take the following notice : If the Gentlemen on the South Side of James River will meet those on the North at any Place that may be centrical, they can be accommodated for their sum and any number of cocks they think proper. The planter was a worshipful member of the ' ' House of Burgesses and had laid aside the rough buckskins of the earlier settlers for the ruffled shirts, powdered hair and knick- er-bockers of the cocked hat gentry. Yet think not that he lived in idleness. Large possessions brought large cares

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12 The Anmcal of chain to which was attached scissors, nutmeg-grater and also a whistle of the same metal, and woe to the tardy servitor whom the shrill sound of the latter did not bring quickly to his mistress ' s side. Her life was outside and about her and she had little leisure for morbid introspection. Such a woman was Mary Ball, the Rose of Eppin Forest and she was one among many ; They looked well to the ways of their house- holds and ate not the bread of idleness. ' ' No small wonder that the colonial gentleman thought she served God better in the shelter of her own home, than in the cloister cell. Winter found the planter preparing to attend the House of Burgesses and he and his family made a triumphal entrance into Williamsburg. Yule-tide logs blazed merrily and all the beauty and the chivalry met to tread the minuet in stately cadence to the music of the fiddles. There was laughter and jollity at the old Raleigh tavern and at the Apollo where Jefferson danced with his Belinda and was content. The students and even the Indian proteges of the Honorable Mr. Boyle forsook the learned halls of William and Mary and join- ed in the joyous revelry. The Virginia Commedians disem- barked from the Charming Sally and for the delectation of colonial society reproduced the plays of Congreve and Shake- speare. Here the knights of the Tramontane Order displayed their golden horseshoes and the dignified members of the House of Burgesses transacted their business and defied royal authority to interfere with their rights . They tell us that the old days are not better than the present ones, that the years have cast a charitable veil over the past. They say too, that the colonial ideal was a false one, that it encouraged pride, unreasonable prejudice, obstinacy, and unnecessary luxury. Granting this, did it not foster in our forefathers the love of honor, which Virginians regard as their dearest heritage, kindly hospitality, generosity, truthful- ness and courage ? Twice in her history has the flood of war surged over the fair and fertile fields of Virginia. The noise of the captains and the shouting has been stilled however, for many a year. The bitterness of that last struggle is wearing away and in mingled sorrow and pride, for the sake of Colonial Virginia, who made them what they were, we can lay our