policies, as a leader of men, he had already proved himself to be, of
his kind, without a peer in all the colony of Virginia,--a colony
which was then the prolific mother of great men. With him, therefore,
the period of training and of tentative struggle had passed: the
period now entered upon was one of recognized mastership and of
assured performance, along lines certified by victories that came
gayly, and apparently at his slightest call.

We note, at the beginning of this period, an event indicating
substantial prosperity in his life: he acquires the visible dignity of
a country-seat. Down to the end of 1763, and probably even to the
summer of 1765, he had continued to live in the neighborhood of
Hanover Court House. After coming back from his first term of service
in the House of Burgesses, where he had sat as member for the county
of Louisa, he removed his residence into that county, and established
himself there upon an estate called Roundabout, purchased by him of
his father. In 1768 he returned to Hanover, and in 1771 he bought a
place in that county called Scotch Town, which continued to be his
seat until shortly after the Declaration of Independence, when, having
become governor of the new State of Virginia, he took up his residence
at Williamsburg, in the palace long occupied by the official
representatives of royalty.

For the practice of his profession, the earlier portion of this period
was perhaps not altogether unfavorable. The political questions then
in debate were, indeed, exciting, but they had not quite reached the
ultimate issue, and did not yet demand from him the complete surrender
of his life. Those years seem to have been marked by great
professional activity on his part, and by considerable growth in his
reputation, even for the higher and more difficult work of the law. Of
course, as the vast controversy between the colonists and Great
Britain grew in violence, all controversies between one colonist and
another began to seem petty, and to be postponed; even the courts
ceased to meet with much regularity, and finally ceased to meet at
all; while Patrick Henry himself, forsaking his private concerns,
became entirely absorbed in the concerns of the public.

The fluctuations in his engagements as a lawyer, during all these
years, may be traced with some certainty by the entries in his
fee-books. For the year 1765, he charges fees in 547 cases; for 1766,
in 114 cases; for 1767, in 554 cases; f