THE MARQUIS OF CHASTELLUX, MAJOR-GENERAL IN THE FRENCH ARMY, AND MEMBER OF THE FRENCH ACADEMY.
1782.
M. de Chastellux—Tour to the Natural Bridge—New Kent Court House—Hanover Court House—Offley—Secretary Nelson—Willis’ Ordinary—Monticello—New London—Cumberland Court House—Petersburg—Richmond—Formicola’s—Governor Harrison—College of William and Mary.
“FROM the moment the French troops were established in the quarters they occupied in Virginia, I formed the project of traveling into the upper parts of that province, where I was assured that I should find objects worthy of exciting the curiosity of a stranger; and faithful to the principles, which from my youth I had laid down, never to neglect seeing every country in my power, I burned with impatience to set out. The season, however, was unfavorable, and rendered traveling difficult and laborious; besides, experience taught me that traveling in winter never offered the greatest satisfaction we can enjoy—that of seeing Nature as she ought to be, and of forming a just idea of the general face of a country; for it is easier for the imagination to deprive the landscape of the charms of spring than to clothe with them the hideous skeleton of winter; as it is easier to imagine what a beauty at eighteen may be at eighty, than to conceive what eighty was at eighteen.”
In these words, the Marquis of Chastellux, writing from Williamsburg about the 1st of May, 1782, begins the chronicle of his tour to the Valley of Virginia. He was in America with the army perhaps two years, during which time he sustained his reputation as a capable officer, an agreeable man, and a philosopher of tolerant insight. M. de Chastellux was a good traveler. In the country, if the bacon and eggs were stale and the vintage was spring water of the morning, he found something to admire in the landscape. At Philadelphia he dined with members of the Congress, of all parties, listened to political theories, drank tea with the ladies, was easily amused and formed opinions which may be discovered on a careful reading. Where is there a more sensible man than the old campaigner? The Marquis of Chastellux entered the army at fifteen, and was given command of a regiment at twenty-one. He served with distinction in the Seven Years’ War. His studies were never neglected, and being a man of rank he was early adopted among the scholars.
On the 8th of April, 1782, M. de Chastellux set out from Williamsburg for Rockbridge County. “On the 8th I set out with Mr. Lynch, then my aid-de-camp and adjutant, Mr. Frank Dillon, my second aid-de-camp, and M. le Chevalier d’Oyré, of the Engineers. Six servants and a led horse composed our train, so that our little caravan consisted of four masters, six servants and eleven horses. I regulated my journey by the spring, and gave it time sufficient to precede us. The eighteen miles through which we passed before we baited our horses at Bird’s Tavern were sufficiently known to me, for it was the same road I traveled the year before in coming from Williamsburg. The remaining sixteen, which completed our day’s work and brought us to New Kent Courthouse, offered nothing curious. All I learned by a conversation with Mr. Bird was that he had been pillaged by the English when they passed his house in their march to Westover in pursuit of M. de la Fayette, and in returning to Williamsburg after endeavoring in vain to come up with him. Mr. Bird repeated with indignation that the refugee camp followers had taken from him the very boots from off his legs. As the next day’s journey was to be longer than that of the preceding one, we left New Kent Courthouse before 8 o’clock, and rode twenty miles to Newcastle, where I resolved to give our horses two hours repose. When the heat was a little abated and our horses were somewhat reposed we continued our journey that we might arrive before dark at Hanover Courthouse, from which we were yet sixteen miles. The country through which we passed is one of the finest of lower Virginia. There are many well cultivated estates and handsome houses. We arrived at Hanover Courthouse before sunset, and alighted at a tolerable handsome inn—a very large saloon and a covered portico to receive the company who assemble every three months at the courthouse, either on private or public affairs. This asylum is the more necessary, as there are no other houses in the neighborhood.”
From Hanover Courthouse, which, as well as New Kent, had reason to remember the passage of the English, the party proceeded at 9 the next morning towards Offley, the residence for the time of General Nelson, recently Governor of the State. “I had got acquainted with him during the expedition to York, at which critical moment he was Governor, and conducted himself with the courage of a brave soldier and the zeal of a good citizen. I am sorry to add that the only recompense of his labors was the hatred of a great part of his fellow citizens, arising from the necessity under which he had often labored of pressing their horses, carriages and forage.”
M. de Chastellux and his aids arrived at Offley at 1 o’clock on the 10th of April, and spent two rainy days there. General Nelson was absent, but Secretary Nelson was there, an old man very gouty, who related with a serene countenance what the effect had been of the French batteries in front of Yorktown. “The tranquility which has succeeded these unhappy times by giving him leisure to reflect upon his losses, has not embittered the recollection; he lives happily on one of his plantations, where in less than six hours he can assemble seventy of his relations, children, grandchildren, nephews and nieces. The rapid increase of his own family justifies what he told me of the population of Virginia in general, of which, from the offices he has held all his life, he must have it in his power to form a very accurate judgment. In 1742 the people subject to taxes in Virginia amounted only to the number of 63,000; by his account they now exceed 160,000.
“After passing two days very agreeably with this interesting family, we left there the 12th at 10 in the morning, accompanied by the secretary and five or six of his young relations, who conducted us to Little River Bridge, a small creek on the road about five miles from Offley.”
Eleven miles through woods brought them to Willis’s Ordinary, a solitary place, but at the moment crowded. “As soon as I alighted I inquired what might be the reason of this numerous assembly, and was informed it was a cock fight. This diversion is much in vogue in Virginia, where the English customs are more prevalent than in the rest of America. Whilst our horses were feeding we had an opportunity of seeing a battle. The stakes were very considerable; the money of the parties was deposited in the hands of one of the principal persons, and I felt a secret pleasure in observing that it was chiefly French. Whilst the interested parties animated the cocks to battle, a child of fifteen, who was near me, kept leaping for joy and crying, ‘Oh, it is a charming diversion.’ We had yet seven or eight and twenty miles to ride to the only inn where it was possible to stop before we reached Mr. Jefferson’s.”