Old Virginia and her neighbours

SOCIETY IN THE OLD DOMINION. 243After 1716 there was a theatre at Williamsburg,and during- the sessions of the assembly,when planters with their families came other recrefromfar and wide, there was much '*"°°^'gayety. At other seasons the monotony of rurallife was varied by the recreations above described;with an occasional picnicin the woods, or a grandbarbecue in honour of some English victory or theaccession of a new king.Some time was found for reading. The inventoriesof personal estates almost always includebooks, in some instances few and of little worth,in others numerous and valuable. The -w^ormeiey'alibrary of Ealph Wormeley, of Rosegill, ^^"^•contained about four hundred titles. Wormeley,who had been educated at Oriel College, Oxford,was president of the council, secretary of state,and a trustee of William and Mary College ; hedied in 1701. Among his books were Burnet's" History of the Reformation," a folio history ofSpain, an ecclesiastical history in Latin, Camden's" Britannia," Lord Bacon's " History of HenryVII.," and his " Natural History," histories ofScotland, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, and theWest Indies, biographies of Richard IIL, CharlesI., and George Castriot, Plutarch's Lives, Burnet's"Theory of the Earth," Willis's "Practice ofPhysick," Hejdin's " Cosmography," " a chirurgicalold book," " the Chyrurgans mate," Galen's" Art of Physick," treatises on gout, pancreaticjuice, pharmacy, scurvy, and many other medicalworks, Coke's Reports and his " Institutes," collectionsof Virginia and New England laws, a history