But who were the ladies then? History does not say, but the dancing master, Mr. Christian, who taught the “gentle young ladies” through the “neighborhood,” and has left sketches of their personal manner and dress, has described for us a host of them, many of them misses of 15 and 16, who now would be called girls but were quite young ladies then.
Miss Lucy Lightfoot Lee was “tall and stately” (at 16), Mr. Christian says, “wearing a bright chintz gown with a blue stamp, elegantly made, a blue silk quilt, and stays, now said to be the fashion in London but to my mind a great nuisance.” While Miss Hale danced in “a white Holland gown, quilt very fine, a lawn apron, her hair crimped up in two rolls at each side and a tuft of ribbon for a cap.”
It is easy to surmise that the charming Gregory girls, now married, were there, and that little Maria Mortimer, who on the night following the Peace Ball, at 15 years of age, was hostess for all the great gentlemen, was also a guest, as well as Miss Betsy Lee, Martha Custis, and Posey Custis, Molly Posey, Anne Mason, Alice Lee, and Mary Ambler (later to become the wife of Chief Justice Marshall), Sally Patton, “lately come from England to teach,” the two Turberville girls, Priscilla Carter, Jenny Washington and the Lewis girls, the Taylor girls, and the Fitzhughs, of Boscobel and Chatham.
Names of Great Virginians
The old tavern is well-preserved and is taken care of by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. Not much change has been made in it since the days of its glory, when at its hospitable hearth young James Monroe argued for the emancipation of slaves, George Mason spoke his views on the rights of man, Weedon talked forever “sedition” with Mercer, who hated England since he had felt defeat at the disaster of Colloden and crept from Scotland a hunted man, Jefferson discussed his broad principles, and the Randolphs, Blands, Byrds, Harrisons, Moncures, Taliaferros, Fitzhughs, Lewises of Marmion, Carters of Cleve, Raleigh Travers (of Sir Walter’s family) of Stafford, Peter Daniel of “Crows Nest,” Thomas Fitzhugh, Selden of Salvington, Brent of Bellevue, Ludwell Lee of “Berry Hill,” Richard Henry Lee of “Wakefield,” and other famous men gathered, in those crowded days before the Revolution.
Lafayette Comes Back
After Forty Years of Failure, He Hears the Echo of His Youthful Triumph.
Forty years after his return to France at the end of the American Revolution, General Lafayette came back to visit the nation he had helped to create. Cities of the United States heaped honor and hospitality upon him. The people greeted him in villages and taverns as he traveled, and it is not strange that he returned to France “astonished” at the vigor of the young republic.