As the Dandridge family lived near Williamsburg, which in addition to being the capital of the Colony was near the sea, and consequently in more frequent communication with England than the more inland towns of Virginia, we may believe that Martha enjoyed all the advantages of a young girl in her class of life, in days when classes in life were more distinctly marked than in our own time.

If we are sometimes puzzled over the spelling of the few letters written by her that have come down to this generation, and fall to wondering whether the little lady's emphatic rendering of "do," "no," " go," and like words, which she usually wrote "doe," "noe," and "goe," was an indication of her own administrative ability, we may be quite sure that she was thoroughly trained in all social and domestic accomplishments, which were then considered of far greater importance to a woman than any amount of book learning.

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Why, indeed, should we regard orthography, in the last century, as a test of gentle breeding, when it is subject to variations even among students of to-day, and when Queen Elizabeth, a little more than a century earlier, wrote "sovereign" in as many as seven different styles, while the very learned Duchess of

Norfolk, when she desired the Earl of Essex to accept a gift at her hands, wrote, with a parsimony of lettering out of all proportion to the generosity of her spirit, "“I pra you tak hit"!

That little Miss Dandridge could play upon the spinnet, we know, as she spoke, in after life, of giving lessons upon that instrument to her granddaughter; and that she was an apt pupil in the mysteries of cross, tent, and satin stitch, in hem, fell, and overseam, and indeed in all such feats of the needle as were considered essential to a young lady's equipment for life in the youth of our great-grandmothers, is proved by the careful instruction in the arts of "stitchery" which she bestowed upon her granddaughters. We may also be quite sure that her dancing was unexceptional, as this accomplishment then formed a more important part of the education of a young Virginian lady than the circle of the sciences. Dr. Franklin, from the semi-Quaker atmosphere of Philadelphia, deemed it of great moment that his daughter Sally should have regular instruction in this art, while the hours which Mr. Jefferson desired his daughter to devote to the practice of certain steps were quite out of proportion to those allotted to mental exercises. Hence, although we find

no mention of Mrs. Washington's having entered into the dance in later years, when her distinguished husband was noted for the grace and elegance with which he stepped through the minuet with the maids and matrons of the capital, there is no reason to doubt that she held her own with the Virginia belles of her time in this as in all other accomplishments. The Dandridge and other estates upon the Pamunkey were near enough to Williamsburg to allow their owners to enter into the social life of this place, which shared with Annapolis the honor of leading the Virginia fashions of the day. If the English Surveyor of Customs wrote from Annapolis of the extravagance of its inhabitants and the beauty and grace of its women, another traveller about the same period descanted upon the number of coaches that crowded the deep sandy streets of Williamsburg, while the charms of its daughters have more than twice been "sung in song, rehearsed in story."

Williamsburg was the capital of Virginia until 1779, despite the objections raised by those who considered Jamestown, Hampton, and other seaboard towns to be more conveniently situated.

This old city, laid out by the doughty and

irascible Nicholson, with its streets in the form of a W and M in honor of the Lord and Lady of Virginia proclaimed in 1689, and with its college of William and Mary named after the same royal patrons, is still sufficiently quaint and interesting in appearance to recall something of the life of a place which was once a centre of law, learning, and society. William and Mary, the Alma Mater of many distinguished men, as she stands upon her college green, which is adorned with a statue of the well-beloved Botetourt, wears an appearance of age beyond her years, the original structure, planned by Sir Christopher Wren and opened in 1700, having been burned down and rebuilt several times. Near by stands the home of George Wythe, in good preservation, and the old Powder Horn, restored through the exertions of patriotic Virginia women; but the Six Chimney House, in which Martha Washington is said to have spent a part of her second honeymoon, has not one brick left upon another, although its site is to be found, and a large yew-tree, planted by the hands of its former mistress, still stands beside what was once the entrance to a hospitable and happy home.

The spire of old Bruton church draws the stranger irresistibly to enter its sacred enclos

ure and wander through its graveyard, where, under friendly spreading trees and beneath such sculptured and emblazoned marbles as are to be found nowhere else in America, sleep Ludwells, Pages, Burwells, Raes, and Barradalls. Dear to the heart of Virginians is this, one of her oldest churches, although it is some years younger than that one, long since demolished, which was erected by the early settlers, and of which Colonel Byrd wrote in his cynical fashion, "they extended themselves as far as Jamestown, where, like true Englishmen they built a Church that cost them no more than 50 lbs and a tavern that cost them 500."

Some of the catalpa trees which bordered the road leading to the "Governor's Palace" are still standing; but not a vestige remains of the edifice in which the royal governors of Virginia long held social sway.1 Often along this shaded drive passed fair Rebecca Burwell,

1 Upon the site of the "Governor's Palace" now stands a pathetic little monument of a mother's unselfish devotion, the "Mattey School." This school was endowed by Mrs. Mary Whaley, in memory of her little son Matthew, aged nine. With her fifty pounds' endowment she left directions that the "neediest children" of the parish should be here offered instruction in the art of reading, writing, and arithmetic, "for the purpose aforesaid, to Eternalize Mattey's School by the name of Mattey's School forever," as is narrated in the "William and Mary Quarterly" for July, 1895.