be sure that venison and turkey from the
forest, ducks from the rice fields, and fish from the river at
their doors, were there.... Turtle came from the West Indies,
with 'saffron and negroe pepper, very delicate for dressing it.'
Rice and vegetables were in plenty--terrapins in every pond, and
Carolina hams proverbially fine. The desserts were custards and
creams (at a wedding always bride cake and floating island),
jellies, syllabubs, puddings and pastries.... They had port and
claret too ... and for suppers a delicious punch called 'shrub,'
compounded of rum, pineapples, lemons, etc., not to be commended
by a temperance society."

"The dinner over, the ladies withdrew, and before very long the
scraping of the fiddlers would call the gentlemen to the
dance,--pretty, graceful dances, the minuet, stately and
gracious, which opened the ball; and the country dance,
fore-runner of our Virginia reel, in which every one old, and
young joined."[161]

It is little wonder that Eliza Pinckney, upon returning from just such a
social function to take up once more the heavy routine of managing three
plantations, complained: "At my return thither every thing appeared
gloomy and lonesome, I began to consider what attraction there was in
this place that used so agreeably to soothe my pensive humor, and made
me indifferent to everything the gay world could boast; but I found the
change not in the place but in myself."[162]

The domestic happiness found in these plantation mansions was apparently
ideal. Families were generally large; there was much inter-marriage,
generation after generation, within the aristocratic circle; and thus
everybody was related to everybody. This gave an excuse for an amount of
informal and prolonged visiting that would be almost unpardonable in
these more practical and in some ways more economical days. There was
considerable correspondence between the families, especially among the
women, and by means of the numerous references to visits, past or to
come, we may picture the friendly cordial atmosphere of the time.
Washington, for instance, records that he "set off with Mrs. Washington
and Patsy, Mr. [Warner] Washington and wife, Mrs. Bushrod and Miss
Washington, and Mr. Magowen for 'Towelston,' in order to stand for Mr.
B. Fairfax's third son, which I did with my wife, Mr. Warner Washington
and his lady." "Another day he retu