ger to the health. The thick covering of the feathers is pretty certain to produce a profuse perspiration, which an exposure to cold, on rising in the morning, is apt to check suddenly, causing chilliness and obstinate cough. The author, a few years ago, caught in this way the most severe cold, which was followed by a long and distressing cough, he ever was afflicted with.

Many of the Germans have what they call a drum, through which the stove-pipe passes in their upper rooms. It is made of sheet iron, something in the shape of the military drum. It soon fills with heat from the pipe, by which the rooms become agreeably warm in the coldest weather. A piazza is a very common appendage to a Dutchman's dwelling-house, in which his saddles, bridles, and very frequently his wagon or plow harness, are hung up.

The Germans erect stables for their domestic animals of every species: even their swine are housed in the winter season. Their barns and stables are well stored with provender, particularly fine hay: hence their quadrupeds of all kinds are kept throughout the year in the finest possible order. This practice of housing stock in the winter season is unquestionably great economy in husbandry. Much less food is required to sustain them, and the animals come out in the spring in fine health and condition. It is a rare occurrence to hear of a Dutchman's losing any part of his stock with poverty. The practice of housing stock in the winter is not exclusively a German custom, but is common to most of the northern people, and those descended from immigrants from the north. The author recollects once seeing the cow stalls adjoining a farmer's dwelling.

The German women, many of them, are remarkably neat housekeepers. There are some of them, however, extremely slovenly, and their dwellings are kept in the worst possible condition. The effluvia arising from this want of cleanliness is in the highest degree disgusting and offensive to persons unaccustomed to such fare. The same remarks are applicable to the Irish; nay to

some native Virginians. The Germans are remarkable for their fine bread, milk and butter. They consume in their diet less animal flesh, and of course more vegetables, milk and butter, than most other people. Their " sour krout"* in the winter constitutes a considerable part of their living. They generally consume less, and sell more of the product of their labor, than any other class of citizens. A Dutchman is proverbial for his patient perseverance in his domestic labors. Their farms are generally small and nicely cultivated. In all his agricultural pursuits his meadows demand his greatest care and attention. His little farin is laid off in fields not exceeding ten or twelve acres each. It is rarely seen that a Dutchman will cultivate more than about ten or twelve acres in Indian corn any one year. They are of opinion that the corn crop is a great exhauster of the soil, and they make but little use of corn for any other purpose than feeding and fattening their swine.

Previous to the war of the revolution, and for several years after, considerable quantities of tobacco were raised in the lower counties of the valley. The cultivation of this crop was first introduced and pursued by immigrants from the eastern counties of Virginia. From the newly cleared lands, two crops of tobacco in succession were generally taken, and it was then appropriated to the culture of other crops. The crop of tobacco left the soil in the finest possible state for the production of other crops. Corn, wheat, rye, flax, oats, potatoes, and every thing else, were almost certain to produce abundant crops, after the crop of tobacco.

*"Sour krout" is made of the best of cabbage. A box about three feet in length, and six or seven inches wide, with a sharp blade fixed across the bottom, something on the principle of the jack plane, is used for cutting the cabbage. The head being separated from the stalk, and stripped of its outer leaves, is placed in this box, and run back and forth. The cabbage thus cut up is placed in a barrel, a little salt sprinkled on from time to time, then pressed down very closely, and covered over at the open head. In the course of three or four weeks it acquires a sourish taste, and to persons accustomed to the use of it, is a very agreeable and wholesome food. It is said that the use of it, within the last few years, on board of ships, has proved it to be the best preventive known for the scurvy. The use of it is becoming pretty gen. eral among all classes of people in the valley.

In the year 1793 the French revolution broke otif, when bread stuffs of every kind suddenly became enormously high; in consequence of which, the farmers in the valley abandoned the cultivation of tobacco, and turned their attention to wheat; which they raised in vast quantities for several years. It was no uncommon thing for the farmer, for several years after the commencement of the French revolution, to sell his crops of wheat from one to two, and sometimes at two and a half dollars per bushel, and his flour from ten to fourteen dollars per barrel in our seaport towns.

In the year 1796, the Hessian fly first made its appearance in Virginia. Its ravages that year were limited, and but little damage was sustained in the crops of wheat. The crop of 1797, in the counties contiguous to the Potomac, was generally destroyed, and the same year partial injury was discovered in Frederick county. The crop of 1798, throughout the county of Frederick, was nearly destroyed. Ever since which time the farmers have annually suffered more or less from the ravages of this destructive destroyer. This insect had prevailed in some of the northern states for several years before it reached Virginia. It is said it first appeared on Long Island, and was believed to have been imported by the Hessian troops in their straw bedding in the time of the war of the revolution. If this be true, it was a woful curse upon our country,-of which it probably will never be relieved. The present generation have abundant cause to execrate the inhuman policy of our parent state in bringing upon us this heavy calamity, and all future generations will probably join in condemning the British ministry who forced upon our ancestors that unrighteous and disastrous war.

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CHAPTER XIII.

Northern Neck of Virginia.

Charles II. king of England, granted to the ances tors of the late lord Fairfax all the lands lying between the head waters of the Rappahannock and Potomac to the Chesapeake bay. This immense grant included the territory now comprising the counties of Lancaster, Northumberland, Richmond, Westmoreland, Stafford, King George, Prince William, Fairfax, Loudoun, Fauquier, Culpeper, Madison, Page, Shenandoah, Hardy, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, Jefferson and Frederick. It is said that the first grant to the ancestors of Fairfax was only intended to include the territory in the Northern Neck east of the Blue ridge; but after Fairfax discovered that the Potomac river headed in the Allegany mountains, he returned to England, and instituted his petition in the court of king's bench for extending his grant into the Allegany mountains, so as include the territory composing the present counties of Page, Shenandoah, Hardy, Hampshire, Morgan, Berkeley, Jefferson and Frederick. A compromise took place between Fairfax and the crown: but previous to the institution of Fairfax's suit, several individuals had ohtained grants for large bodies of land west of the Blue ridge, from the colonial government of Virginia. In the compromise it was expressly stipulated that the holders of lands, under what were then called the king's grants, were to be quieted in their right of possession.

Joist Hite and his partners had obtained grants for a large body. Fairfax, under the pretext that Hite, &c. had not complied with the terms of their grants, took it upon himself to grant away large quantities of these lands to other individuals. This arbitrary and high

handed proceeding on the part of his lordship, produced a lawsuit, which Hite and his partners instituted in the year 1736, and in the year 1786 it was decided. Hite and partners recovered a large amount of money for the rents and profits, and a considerable quantity of land.*

The immense Fairfax estate has passed out of the hands of Fairfax's heirs. The lands (as observed in a preceding chapter) were granted by Fairfax in fee simple to his tenants, subject to an annual rent of two shillings sterling per hundred acres. This small rent amounted in the aggregate to a very large sum; added to which, Fairfax required the payment of ten shillings sterling on each fifty acres, (what he termed composition money,) which was paid on issuing the grant.

About the year 1742 his lordship opened his office in the county of Fairfax for granting out the land. A few years after, he removed to the county of Frederick, and settled at what he called "Greenway-Court," about 12 or 14 miles south east of Winchester, where he kept his land office during his life. He died in the autumn of 1781, very soon after the surrender of Cornwallis. It is said that as soon as he heard of the capture of Cornwallis and his army, he called to his servant to assist him to bed, observing "It is time for me to die;" and truly the old man never again left his bed until he was consigned to the tomb. His body was deposited under the communion table in the then Episcopal church in Winchester.f

*In the year 1736 Fairfax entered a caveat against Hite, &c., alledging that the lands claimed by them were within the bounds of the Northern Neck, and consequently his property. This was the beginning of the controversy, and led to the suit instituted by Hite and partners against him. All the parties died before the suit was decided. Hite in 1731 purchased from John and Isaac Vanmeter their right or warrant for locating 40,000 acres: Hite and M'Kay obtained a warrant for locating 100,000 acres more in their own names: and in order to obtain settlers, took in Robert Green and William Duff as partners. Hence the firm of Joist Hite, Robert M'Kay, Robert Green, and William Duff, Green and Duff settled in Culpeper county, and are the ancestors of the families of those names in that county, and of Gen. Duff Green, of Washington city.

t Lord Fairfax made a donation to the Episcopal society, of a lot of land, upon which a large stone building was erected as a place of worship. The lot is in the center of the town; and, attached to the church, was a large burial ground, in which a great number of bodies were deposited. The Epis