s occasion a variety of liquors--Virginia red wine
and white wine, Irish usquebaugh, brandy, shrub, two kinds of rum,
champagne, canary, cherry punch, cider, etc. On the seventh the rangers
proceeded on a farther exploration, and the rest of the company set out
on their return homeward. Governor Spotswood arrived at Williamsburg
on the seventeenth of September, after an absence of about six weeks.
The distance which they had gone was reckoned two hundred and
nineteen miles, and the whole, going and returning, four hundred and
thirty-eight. "For this expedition," says the Rev. Hugh Jones, "they
were obliged to provide a great quantity of horseshoes, things seldom
used in the eastern parts of Virginia, where there are no stones. Upon
which account the governor upon his return presented each of his
companions with a golden horseshoe, some of which I have seen covered
with valuable stones resembling heads of nails, with the inscription on
one side, 'Sic juvat transcendere montes.' This he instituted to
encourage gentlemen to venture backward and make discoveries and
settlements, any gentleman being entitled to wear this golden horseshoe
on the breast who could prove that he had drank his majesty's health on
Mount George." Spotswood instituted the Tramontane Order for this
purpose; but it appears to have soon fallen through. According to
Chalmers, the British government penuriously refused to pay the cost of
the golden horseshoes. A novel called the "Knight of the Horseshoe," by
Dr. William A. Caruthers, derives its name and subject from Spotswood's
exploit.[390:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[387:A] Spotswood.

[387:B] York and Rappahannock.

[388:A] He says that Spotswood graved the king's name on a rock on Mount
George; but, according to Fontaine, "the governor had graving-irons, but
could not grave anything, the stones were so hard."

[390:A] Memoirs of a Huguenot Family, 281, 292; Introduction to
Randolph's edition of Beverley's Hist. of Va., 5; Rev. Hugh Jones'
Present State of Virginia. The miniature horseshoe that had belonged to
Spotswood, according to a descendant of his, the late Mrs. Susan Bott,
of Petersburg, who had seen it, was small enough to be worn on a
watch-chain. Some of them were set with jewels. One of these horseshoes
is said to be still preserved in the family of Brooke. A bit of colored
glass, apparently the stopper of a small bottle, with a horseshoe
stamped on it, was dug up some years ago in the yard at