Old Virginia and her neighbours

SOCIETY IN THE OLD DOMINION. 213their way, and towns refused to grow.^ WhenThomas Jefferson entered AVilliam and Mary Collegein 1760, a lad of seventeen years, he hadnever seen so many as a dozen houses groupedtogether.The country store was an important institutionin Old Virginia. Under some conditions it wouldhave formed a nucleus around which a -phe countrytown would have been developed, but in^*°''*"Virginia the store seems to have been regarded asa kind of rival against which the town could notcompete.^It furnished a number of petty centreswhich did away with the need for larger centres.The store was apt to be an appendage to a plantation,unless its size became such as to reverse therelationship, after the manner of Dundreary's dog.It might be a room in a planter's house, or itmight be a detached barn like building on theestate. Mr. Bruce tells us that to enumerate itscontents would be to mention pretty much everyarticle for which Virginians had any use. Forexample, the inventory of the Hubbard store in^There was much strong feeling and vehement -writing on thesubject by those who were disgusted at the prevalent state ofthings ": I always judged such as are averse to towns to be threesorts of persons: 1. Fools, who cannot, neither will see their owninterest and advantage in having towns. 2. Knaves, who wouldstill carry on fraudulent designs and cheating tricks in a comeror secret trade, afraid of being exposed at a public market. 3.Sluggards, who rather than be at labour and at any charge intransporting their goods to market, though idle at home, andlose double thereby rather than do it. To which I may add afourth, which are Sots, who may be best cured of their diseaseby a pair of stocks in town." Makemie's Plain and FriendlyPerswasive, London, 1705, p. 16.^ Present State of Virginia, 1697, p. 12.