leman of
great wealth, and certainly of some benevolence. In Campbell's _Virginia_,
p. 104. (see also Oldmixon, vol. i. p. 427.), it is stated, 1690, a large
body of Huguenots were sent to Virginia. "The refugees found in Colonel
Byrd, of Westover, a generous benefactor. Each settler was allowed a strip
of land running back from the river to the foot of the hill (Henrico
County). Here they raised cattle," &c. He sent his son to England to be
educated under the care of a friend, Sir Robert Southwell. The son became a
Fellow of the Royal Society, "was the intimate and bosom friend of the
learned and illustrious Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery," was the author of
the _Westover MSS._ (mentioned in Oldmixon's preface, 2nd ed.), portions of
which, "Progress to the Mines," "History of the Dividing Line," &c., have
been printed, others are in the library of the American Philosophical
Society.[3] His portrait is "by Kneller, a fine old cavalier face," says
Campbell. The letters received at Westover might prove not uninteresting
even to C., seeing that there were so many titled people among the writers;
and to a gentleman of education and intelligence, the Westover library
would have been a treasure-house. In the Loganian Library in this city is a
large MS. folio, whose title-page declares it to be "a catalogue of books
in the library at Westover, belonging to William Byrd, Esq.," from which it
appears that in Law there were the English reporters (beginning with Y. B.)
and text-writers, laws of France, Scotland, Rome (various editions of
Pandects, &c.); Canon Law, with numerous approved commentators on each. In
Physic a great many works, which, as I am told, were, and some still are,
of high repute: I note only one, _Poor Planter's Physician interleaved_.
This, to every one who has been upon a great Virginia plantation, bespeaks
the benevolence characteristic of the proprietors of Westover. In Divinity,
besides pages of orthodox divines, Bibles in various languages (several in
Hebrew, one in seven vols.), are Socinius, Bellarmine, &c. The works on
Metallurgy, Natural History, Metaphysics, Military Science, Heraldry,
Navigation, Music, &c., are very numerous; and either of the collections of
history, or entertainment, or classics, or political science, would form no
inconsiderable library of itself. {230} An impression of Colonel Byrd's
book-plate, given by a friend, is enclosed. I must add that the pictures at
Brandon are at that mans