a into which Knights of the
Golden Horseshoe and Indian traders had penetrated a short distance,
bringing back stories of endless stretches of wolf-haunted woodland, of
shaggy-fronted wild oxen, of saline swamps in which reposed the whitened
bones of prehistoric monsters, of fierce savage tribes whose boast was
of the number of scalps that swung in the smoke of their wigwams. Even
as late as 1750 the fertile Shenandoah Valley beyond the Blue Ridge
formed the extreme frontier, while in general the "fall line," where the
drop from the foothills to the coastal plain stops navigation, marked
the limit of settlement.

At the time that Washington began to farm in earnest eastern Virginia
had, however, been settled for one hundred fifty-two years. Yet the
population was almost wholly rural. Williamsburg, the capital, was
hardly more than a country village, and Norfolk, the metropolis,
probably did not contain more than five thousand inhabitants. The
population generally was so scattered that, as has been remarked, a man
could not see his neighbor without a telescope or be heard by him
without firing a gun.

A large part of the settled land was divided up into great estates,
though there were many small farms. Some of these estates had been
acquired for little or nothing by Cavalier favorites of the colonial
governors. A few were perfectly enormous in size, and this was
particularly the rule on the "Northern Neck," the region in which Mount
Vernon was situated. The holding of Lord Thomas Fairfax, the early
friend and patron of Washington, embraced more than a score of modern
counties and contained upward of five million acres. The grant had been
made by Fairfax's grandfather, Lord Culpeper, the coproprietor and
Governor of Virginia.

The Virginia plantation of 1760 was much more sufficient unto itself
than was the same plantation of the next century when methods of
communication had improved, articles from the outside world were easier
to obtain, and invention was beginning to become "the mother of
necessity." Many of the large plantations, in fact, bore no small
resemblance to medieval manors. There was the planter himself residing
with his family in the mansion, which corresponded to the manor house,
and lording it over a crowd of white and black dependents, corresponding
to serfs. The servants, both white and black, dwelt somewhat apart in
the quarters, rude log huts for the most part, but probably as
comfortable as thos