Their Beef and Veal is small, sweet, and fat enough; their Pork is famous, whole Virginia Shoots being frequently barbacued in England; their Bacon is excellent, the Hams being scarce to be distinguished from those of Westphalia; but their Mutton and Lamb some Folks don't like, though others extol it. Their Butter is good and plentiful enough. Their Venison in the lower Parts of the Country is not so plentiful as it has been, tho' there be enough and tolerably good; but in the Frontier Counties they abound with Venison, wild Turkies, &c. where the common People sometimes dress Bears, whose Flesh, they say, is not to be well distinguished from good Pork or Bacon.
They pull the Down of their living Geese and wild and tame Ducks, wherewith they make the softest and sweetest Beds.
The Houses stand sometimes two or three together; and in other Places a Quarter, half a Mile, or a Mile, or two, asunder, much as in the Country in England.
Chap. V.
Of the Habits, Customs, Parts, Imployments, Trade, &c. of the Virginians; and of the Weather, Coin, Sickness, Liquors, Servants, Poor, Pitch, Tar, Oar, &c.
The Habits, Life, Customs, Computations, &c. of the Virginians are much the same as about London, which they esteem their Home; and for the most Part have contemptible Notions of England, and wrong Sentiments of Bristol, and the other Out-Ports, which they entertain from seeing and hearing the common Dealers, Sailors, and Servants that come from those Towns, and the Country Places in England and Scotland, whose Language and Manners are strange to them; for the Planters, and even the Native Negroes generally talk good English without Idiom or Tone, and can discourse handsomly upon most common Subjects; and conversing with Persons belonging to Trade and Navigation from London, for the most Part they are much civilized, and wear the best of Cloaths according to their Station; nay, sometimes too good for their Circumstances, being for the Generality comely handsom Persons, of good Features and fine Complexions (if they take Care) of good Manners and Address. The Climate makes them bright, and of excellent Sense, and sharp in Trade, an Ideot, or deformed Native being almost a Miracle.