ned to be
the granary of the two hemispheres--all that surrounded Virginia seemed
prophetic of growth and security within, the economist and the lover of
nature found the most varied materials; with three hundred and
fifty-five miles of extent, a breadth of one hundred and eighty-five,
and a horizontal area of sixty-five thousand six hundred and twenty-four
square miles--one district embracing the sea coast to the head of
tidewater, another thence to the Blue Ridge, a third the valley region
between the latter range and that of the Alleghanies, and a fourth the
counties beyond them--every kind of soil and site, from ocean margin to
river slope, from mountain to plain, are included within her limits:
here, the roads stained with oxides, indicative of mineral wealth;
there, the valleys plumed with grain and maize; the bays white with
sails; the forest alive with game; lofty ridges, serene nooks, winding
rivers, pine barrens, alluvial levels, sterile tracts, primeval
woods--every phase and form of natural resource and beauty to invite
productive labor, win domestic prosperity, and gratify the senses and
the soul. Rivers, whose names were already historical--the James, the
York, the Rappahannock, the Potomac, and the peaceful Shenandoah,
flowing through its beautiful valley and connecting the base of the Blue
Ridge with the Potomac; Chesapeake bay, a hundred and ninety miles from
its entrance through Maryland and Virginia, on the one side, and the
Roanoke, finding an outlet in Albemarle sound, while the Kanawha and
Monongahela, as tributaries of the Ohio, on the other, keep up that
communication and natural highway which links, in a vast silver chain,
the separate political unities of the land. The hills ribbed with fine
marble and pierced by salubrious springs; picturesque natural bridges,
cliffs, and caves, described with graphic zeal by Jefferson, and the
wild and mysterious Dismal Swamp, sung by Moore; the tobacco of the
eastern counties, the hemp of lands above tidewater, the Indian corn,
wheat, rye, red clover, barley, and oats, of the interior, and the fine
breeds of cattle and horses raised beyond the Alleghany--are noted by
foreign and native writers, before and immediately after the Revolution,
as characteristic local attractions and permanent economical resources;
and with them glimpses of manorial elegance, hospitality, and
culture--which long made the life and manners of the State one of the
most congenial socia