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Show TRAVELS Till OUGII NORTH AMERICA~ llabitnnts will not, on any a count, {iu rnrc r t 1J e hole.s perfoh rate[! d .b y th.e l l) 11~ to be rCJ):l ircd on the out.Gde. There 15 one ou c lll pJ.Icannol ' " · . · il: {l tt d ticular ' ·bich fiand . in the fkirt of the town, that lS m a mo Ja e~e. , 1' : It wa the habitation of a Mr. Ncilfon, a [i·cretary un er co1H ttwn. ' f- L d Corn t1 c regal government, an d was mad e the head quarters. o or fed-wallis when he firft came to the town; but it ftood fo much expo ' and afforJed fo good a mark to the enemy. that h~ was foon forced _to q ll\· t 1't • Nc·i 1lCr0 11 7 however7 it feems, was detenmned to ftay there ft 1ll the laft, and abfolut ly remained till his negro _ferv::t~t, the only per on I ld ]. I" t Jat WOU lVv wi'th him in fuch a houfe, bad l11s bra1ns da.{ he.d out by a cannon a111 o t w h'il e }1e fiood by his •fide '· he then tho.u g.h t 1t t1me to re-tire, but the houfe was .frill continually fired at, as If 1t had been head quarters. Th e wa' lls and roof are pierced in innum. erab.l e places, and a.t one corner a large piece of the wall is torn a way ; m this frate, howe~e1, it is fiill inhabited in one room by fome pcrfon or other equal~y fanciful as .t he o 1c1 1r ecre t·. u.y . There are trenches thrown up round It,. and o. n every fide are deep hollows made by the bombs that fell _near It. T1ll within a year or two the broken {hells thcmfelves remamed; but the New England men that traded to York findin~ the~ wo~ld fell wdl as old iron, dug them up, and caHicd them away m their ~11ps. . The banks of the river, where the town il:ands, arc high and macceffibk, t:xcepting in a few places; the principal part of the town is built 011 tile top of them; a few fiiliing huts and frorehoufcs merc~y frand at the bottom. A cave is iliewn here in .the banks, defcnbed by the people as having been the place o[ head-quarters d_uring ~he. fiege, aft r the annonade of the e.oemy became warrn; but m rcahty It was formed at~d hung with green baize for a lady, eithe.r the wife or acquaintance of an officer, who was terrified with the idea of remaining in the town, and died of fright after her removal down to the cave. Twelve miles £rom York, to the wcfi.ward, frands Williamiburgh, formerly the feat of government in Virginia. Richmond was fixed upon during the war as ;:t mor~ fecurc place, being farther removed frcm the fea coaft, and not fo much expofed to depredations if an enemy were to land unexpecledly. Richmond al!o had the advantage of being .Gtuated at the bead W I L L 1 A M S B U R G H. 95 JJead of ana vigable river, and was therefore likcl y to increafc to a fizc which the other never could attain. It i wonderful, indeed, what could have induced people to fix npon the fpot where Wi1liamiliurgh fiands for a town, in the middle of a plain, and one mile and a half removed from any navigable frream, when there were fo many noble rivers in the neighbourhood. The town confiils of one principal frrcct, and two others which run parallel to it. At one end of the main frre et frands the college, and at the other end the old c~pi tol or fhtehoufe, a cap~cious builui ng of brick, now crumbling to pieces fi·om negligence. Th~ h ou[cs around it are moftly uninhabited, and prefent a mcbncholy pi8:urc. In. the hall of the capitol frands a maimed !btue of lord Botetourt, one of the regal governors of Virginia, ereCted at the public expencc, in memory of his 1ordlhip's equitable and popular adminifrration. During the war, when party rage was at its highefi. pitch, and every thing pertaining to royalty obnoxious, the h ead and one ann of the fratue were knocked off; it now remains quite expofed, and is more and more defaced every day. Whether the motto, "Rifw-go n:ge faruente," infcribed under the coat of arms, did or did not help to bring upon it its prefcnt f.·lte, I cannot pretend to f1y; as it is, it certainly remains a monument of the extintl:ion of monarchical power in America. The college of William and Mary, as it is frill called, . frands at the oppofite end of the main frreet; .it is a heavy pile, whi h bears, as l\l[r. Je£fcrfon, I think, fays, " a very clofe refemblance to a large brick kiln, excepting that it has a roof." The fiudents were about thirty in number when I was there: from their appeJrance one would imagine th at the fcminary ought rather to be termccl a grammar fcho ol than a college; yet I un erll:and the vifiters, fince the prefcnt revolution, finding it full of young boys j ufr learning the rudiments of Greek and Latin, a circumfiance which confeqnently deterred others more advanced from goi11g there, dropped the profefior01ips for thefe two languages, and eftablit11~d others in their place. The profdfor01 ips, as they now frand, arc for law, medicine, natural aud. moral philofophy, mathematics, and mo. Jern languages. The bj(hop of Virginia is prciident of the college, and has |
