valier[18] stock, the settlers occupying large tracts of
land in the eastern and southern portions of the County or most of the
territory extending from the Potomac River southward to Middleburg and
from the Catoctin and Bull Run mountains eastward to the eastern
border of the County. It is more to this noble and chivalric strain
than to any other that Loudoun owes her present unrivalled social
eminence.

[Footnote 18: This stock was the first to introduce and foster slavery
in the County.--Goodhart's _History of the Loudoun Rangers_.]

John Esten Cooke's faithful and eloquent delineation of Virginia
character is peculiarly applicable to this Cavalier element of Loudoun
society. Some conception of that author's grandiose style and intimate
knowledge of his subject may be gained from the following passage:

"The Virginian of the present time has ingrained in his
character the cordial instincts and spirit of courtesy and
hospitality which marked his ancestors. He has the English
preference for the life of the country to the life of the
city; is more at home among green fields and rural scenes
than in streets; loves horses and dogs, breeds of cattle, the
sport of fox-hunting, wood-fires, Christmas festivities, the
society of old neighbors, political discussions, traditions
of this or that local celebrity, and to entertain everybody
to the extent of, and even beyond, his limited means. Many of
these proclivities have been laughed at, and the people have
been criticised as provincial and narrow-minded; but after
all it is good to love one's native soil, and to cherish the
home traditions which give character to a race. Of the
Virginians it may be said that they have objected in all
times to being rubbed down to a uniformity with all the rest
of the world, and that they have generally retained the
traits which characterized their ancestors."

The northwestern part of the County, known as the "German Settlement,"
a section of about 125 square miles, extending from Catoctin Mountain
westward to the Short Hill Mountains and from the Potomac River
southward to near Wheatland, was originally settled by a sturdy and
vigorous race of Germans,[19] principally from Pennsylvania, but a few
from New York, in which two colonies they had settled on their
arrival, only a few years before, from the Palatine states of Germany.
They came to Loudoun between the years