hool systems did not make their appearance until 1857. As a
rule, the parish halls of the various churches were used to house
the students.

The children of the poor learned from their parents the art of
working in the fields. The wealthier families sent their eldest son
to England to be educated and other sons were educated at the
College of William and Mary which had been established in 1693.

Recreation was found in the form of wrestling, playing with quarter
staff, cock fighting, and pursuing wild horses. Beverly gives us a
lively description of the latter: "There is yet another kind of
sport which the young people take great delight in and that is the
Hunting of wild Horses which they pursue sometimes with Dogs and
sometimes without. You must know that they have many Horses foaled
in the Woods of the Uplands that never were in hand and are as shy
as any Savage creature. These having no mark upon them belong to him
that first takes them. However, the Captor commonly purchases these
Horses very dear by spoiling better in the pursuit; in which case he
has little to make him amends beside the pleasure of the Chace. And
very often this is all he has for it, for the Wild Horses are so
swift that tis difficult to catch them; and when they are taken tis
odds but their Grease is melted, or else being old, they are so
sullen that they can't be tamed." (Due to the capture of tame horses
roaming the woods, the sport of capturing wild horses was eventually
outlawed.)

[Illustration]

IV. THE PUSH INWARD

At this time the northern and central parts of the County were
sparsely settled due to the large tracts of land held by a few. King
Carter, of course, had assigned most of the land to himself during
his second tenure as proprietary agent. However, there were large
tracts owned by William Fitzhugh, William Moore, Cadwallader Jones
and Lewis Saunders, Jr., which consumed most of the land in and near
the Town of Fairfax. Since men could only "seat" themselves on this
land, most of the indentures went over into the valley where they
could work land that belonged to them. Thus the development of this
territory was delayed for years.

However, when King Carter found what seemed to be substantial
deposits of copper in the northern part of the county, he and his
sons opened up a pre-existing Indian trail which came from Occoquan,
past the future site of Payne's church, near the future site of
Fairfax Court House, where