upposed that if legal business were the main
feature of the occasion, a surprising amount of litigation was
necessary to the well-being of the commonwealth. But legal business was
often the least important feature of these gatherings, which seemed to
combine the characteristics of picnic, county fair, muster day and old
English hustings.

From an early hour upon court day, all was excitement, noise and
confusion in and around the county-seat. The discordant bleating and
lowing of sheep and cattle filled the air, and droves of swine, after
the manner of their kind, refusing to be driven quietly to the
market-place, wandered into byways, or sought refuge in stable lots and
house yards. In fence corners and under trees, along every approach to
the town, horses were hitched--many of them with heaps of provender on
the ground before them, that they might feed at any hour which suited
their appetites; and vehicles of every known pattern, from family coach
to ox-cart, thronged the highways. It was a gala time for the
slave-buyer, stock-trader, horse-jockey, and itinerant packman, as well
as for the politician and the militia men. Not only was there much
trading and political speech-making, but also horse-racing,
cock-fighting, gambling and drunkenness; for society, even in the good
old times, contained a large rioting element.

At Fayette County court, however, the chief interest was usually the
political; and the most popular rendezvous was the tree-bordered
enclosure surrounding the court-house, until the noon hour; then the
center of interest was the tavern, which, though but a two-storied log
house, having only eleven rooms to serve all purposes of dining-hall,
office, kitchen and guest chambers, was a famous resort. The sleeping
apartments were large, and each was furnished with four beds. Always as
many as two guests to a bed, and frequently as many as three, was the
economical rule of the house--an arrangement which, though possibly
inconvenient in some respects, was one likely to encourage a spirit of
democratic sociability.

Abner Dudley accepted Major Gilcrest's invitation to accompany him in
his coach to Lexington upon a certain court day which was an occasion
of unusual excitement. Tidings that the trade of the Mississippi River
was again endangered had just been received. The treaty of 1795, which
secured to Kentucky the right of navigation of the Mississippi and the
right of deposit in the New Orleans Bank, ha