llowing, family worship being ended, he
retired into his study until the bell called him away. Upon his
return from meeting (where he had preached and prayed some hours),
he returned again into his study (the place of his labor and
prayer), unto his favorite devotion; where having a small repast
carried him up for his dinner, he continued until the tolling of
the bell. The public service of the afternoon being over, he
withdrew for a space to his pre-mentioned oratory for his sacred
addresses to God, as in the forenoon, then came down, repeated the
sermon in the family, prayed, after supper sang a Psalm, and toward
bedtime betaking himself again to his study he closed the day with
prayer. Thus he spent the Sabbath continually."

The Virginia Cavaliers were strict Church of England men and the first
who came to the colony were strict Sunday-keepers. Rules were laid down
to enforce Sunday observance. Journeys were forbidden, boat-lading was
prohibited, also all profanation of the day by sports, such as shooting,
fishing, game-playing, etc. The offender who broke the Sabbath laws had
to pay a fine and be set in the stocks. When that sturdy watch-dog of
religion and government--Sir Thomas Dale--came over, he declared absence
from church should be punishable by death; but this severity never was
executed. The captain of the watch was made to play the same part as the
New England tithing-man. Every Sunday, half an hour before service-time,
at the last tolling of the bell, the captain stationed sentinels, then
searched all the houses and commanded and forced all (except the sick)
to go to church. Then, when all were driven churchwards before him, he
went with his guards to church himself.

Captain John Smith, in his _Pathway to erect a Plantation_, thus vividly
described the first places of divine worship in Virginia:--

"Wee did hang an awning, which is an old saile, to three or foure
trees to shadow us from the Sunne; our walls were railes of wood;
our seats unhewed trees till we cut plankes; our Pulpit a bar of
wood nailed to two neighbouring trees. In foul weather we shifted
into an old rotten tent; this came by way of adventure for new.
This was our Church till we built a homely thing like a barne set
upon Cratchets, covered with rafts, sedge, and earth; so also was
the walls; the best of our houses were of like curiosity, that