rtained no doubt but
that in the next year he would win the thousand guineas. Beverley owned
a large tract of land at the place of his residence. On Sunday Fontaine
accompanied him to his parish church, seven miles distant, where they
heard a good sermon from the Rev. M. De Latane, a Frenchman. A son of
Beverley accompanied Fontaine in some of his excursions in that
neighborhood. On the banks of the Rappahannock, about five miles below
the falls, (Fredericksburg,) Fontaine came upon a tract of three
thousand acres of land, which Beverley offered him at L7 10s. per
hundred acres, and Fontaine would have purchased it, had not Beverley
somewhat singularly insisted upon making a title for nine hundred and
ninety-nine years, instead of an absolute fee simple.

On the 20th of August, 1716, Alexander Spotswood, Governor of Virginia,
accompanied by John Fontaine, started from Williamsburg on his
expedition over the Appalachian mountains, as they were then called.
Having crossed the York river at the Brick House, they lodged that night
at Chelsea, the seat of Austin Moore, on the Mattapony river, in the
county of King William. On the following night they were hospitably
entertained by Robert Beverley at his residence. The governor left his
chaise there, and mounted his horse for the rest of the journey.
Beverley accompanied Spotswood in this exploration. On the 26th of
August Spotswood was joined by several gentlemen, two small companies of
rangers, and four Meherrin Indians. The gentlemen of the party appear to
have been Spotswood, Fontaine, Beverley, Austin Smith, Todd, Dr.
Robinson, Taylor, Mason, Brooke, and Captains Clouder and Smith. The
whole number of the party, including gentlemen, rangers, pioneers,
Indians and servants, was probably about fifty. They had with them a
large number of riding and pack-horses, an abundant supply of
provisions, and an extraordinary variety of liquors.

The camps were named respectively after the gentlemen of the expedition,
and the first one being that of the 29th of August, was named in honor
of our historian, Robert Beverley. Here "they made," as Fontaine records
in his diary, "great fires, supped and drank good punch." In the preface
to this edition of the work, (1722,) Beverley says in reference to this
Tramontane expedition, "I was with the present Governor (Spotswood) at
the head spring of both those rivers, (the York and the Rappahannock,)
and their fountains are in the highest rang