rom England, and
could be bought by the planters at a price very little above that paid
in London. Costly chairs, tables, book-cases, bedsteads, etc., were
found in the homes of all well-to-do men.

The Virginians seem to have had at this period a passion for silver
ware, and in their homes were found a great variety of articles made
of this metal. There were silver candle-sticks, silver snuffers,
silver decanters, silver snuff-boxes, silver basins. The dining table
on festive occasions groaned with the weight of silver utensils, for
goblets, pitchers, plates, spoons of silver were then brought forth
to do honor to the guests. The punch might be served in silver bowls
and dished out with silver ladles into silver cups; for the fruit
might be silver plates, for the tea silver pots. The silver plate at
Westover was mortgaged by William Byrd III to the value of L662. Among
other articles we find that ten candle-sticks brought L70, one
snuffer-stand L5, two large punch bowls L30, a punch strainer L1.10,
and a punch ladle L1.[115] Robert Carter, of Nomini Hall, was very
fond of fine silver. In 1774 he invested about L30 in a pair of
fashionable goblets, a pair of sauce-cups and a pair of decanter
holders.[116]

In many homes were collections of pictures of great merit and value.
In the spacious halls of the mansions were hung the portraits of
ancestors that were regarded with reverential pride. The Westover
collection was perhaps the most valuable in the colony, containing
several dozen pictures, among them one by Titian, one by Rubens, and
portraits of several lords of England.[117] Mount Airy, the beautiful
home of the Tayloe family, contained many paintings, which were well
executed and set in elegant frames.[118] Although most of the pictures
in the homes of the aristocracy were imported from England, some were
painted in Virginia, for at times artists of talent came to the
colony. In 1735 a man named Bridges painted William Byrd's children.
It is thought also that it was he that painted the portrait of
Governor Spotswood and possibly several pictures of the Page
family.[119]

The use of coaches during the 17th century was not common. The
universal highways of that period were the rivers. Every planter owned
boats and used them in visiting, in attending church and in travelling
through the colony. As the plantations for many years did not extend
far back from the rivers' banks, there was no need of roads or
vehicles