[200] One often hears it said, of some old house or church in Virginia, that it was built of bricks imported from England; but, according to Mr. Bruce, all bricks used in Virginia during the seventeenth century seem to have been made there. Bricks were 8 shillings per 1,000 in Virginia when they were 18s. 8¼d. in London, to which the ocean freight would have had to be added. It is not strange, therefore, that Virginia exported bricks to Bermuda. As early as the Indian massacre of 1622 some of the Indians were driven away with brickbats. See Bruce, Economic History, ii. 134, 137, 142.
[201] See above, vol. i. p. 212.
[202] The Marquis de Chastellux, who visited Monticello in 1782, says: “We may safely aver that Mr. Jefferson is the first American who has consulted the fine arts to know how he should shelter himself from the weather.” See Randall’s Life of Jefferson, i. 373.
[203] Lee of Virginia, p. 116.
[204] Larousse, Dictionnaire universel, viii. 668.
[205] A double entendre, either “fork-bearer” or “gallows-bird.”
[206] Meercraft.—Have I deserved this from you two, for all
My pains at court to get you each a patent?
Gilthead.—For what?
Meercraft.—Upon my project o’ the forks.
Sledge.—Forks? what be they?