that of a classical scholar, foreshadowing the
long dependence of her educated men upon the university culture of Great
Britain; and those once admired sketches of scenery and character which
gave to William Wirt, in his youth, the prestige of an elegant writer,
found there both subjects and inspiration; while the American school of
eloquence traces its early germs to the bar and legislature of the Old
Dominion, where the Revolutionary appeals of Patrick Henry gave it a
classic fame. The most prolific and kindhearted of English novelists,
when he had made himself a home among us and looked round for a
desirable theme on which to exercise his facile art, chose the
Southampton Massacre as the nucleus for a graphic story of family life
and negro character. The 'Swallow Barn' of Kennedy is a genuine and
genial picture of that life in its peaceful and prosperous phase, which
will conserve the salient traits thereof for posterity, and already has
acquired a fresh significance from the contrast its pleasing and naive
details afford to the tragic and troublous times which have since almost
obliterated the traces of all that is characteristic, secure, and
serene. The physical resources and amenities of the State were recorded
with zest and intelligence by Jefferson before Clinton had performed a
like service for New York, or Flint for the West, or any of the numerous
scholars and writers of the Eastern States for New England. The very
fallacy whereon treason based her machinations and the process whereby
the poison of Secession was introduced into the nation's life-blood,
found exposition in the insidious fiction of a Virginian--Mr. George
Tucker--secretly printed years ago, and lately brought into renewed
prominence by the rebellion. 'Our Cousin Veronica,' a graceful and
authentic family history, from the pen of an accomplished lady akin to
the people and familiar with their life, adds another vivid and
suggestive delineation thereof to the memorable illustrations by Wirt,
Kennedy, and James; while a score of young writers have, in verse and
prose, made the early colonial and the modern plantation and waterplace
life of the Old Dominion, its historical romance and social and scenic
features, familiar and endeared; so that the annals and the aspects of
no State in the Union are better known--even to the local peculiarities
of life and language--to the general reader, than those of Virginia,
from negro melody to picturesque landsca