"The Proprietor of this property would prefer selling them all together, and would give a credit to any _Planter_, on receiving satisfactory [i.e. landed] security. No bank notes, bank stock, six per Cent, three per Cent, or other evidence of debt, public or private, domestic or foreign, will be received in payment; but _coin_ or _bullion_ will be taken at their lawful value or market price respectively. "----British or Portuguese gold or Spanish milled dollars would be preferred. * * * * * {196} "If the above-mentioned Slaves are not disposed of at private sale before the first Monday of November next, they will be sold at public auction on that day, at Lynchburg in Virginia.[69] "These Slaves were bred on the estate where they are now working, and are perfectly acquainted with the cultivation and curing of the best Virginia Tobacco. "Their ancestors were purchased by the ancestor of the present proprietor out of Guineamen, and they have been in the same family for several generations. "The best character can be given of them: among them are the best Blacksmiths perhaps in Virginia and several other Tradesmen, Carpenters, &c." * * * * * 28th. Visited the Playhouse--the piece represented was "The Battle of Hexham;" very humbly got up but the parts respectably filled. It was a full house, being a benefit night; we sat next to the stage-box in the second row: the party who had obtained the front seats were a lady and three gentlemen, two of whom kept on their horsemen's great coats and one his hat the whole night; this custom is common here. As to the state of the stage, it is not a subject worth entering upon; there is in fact no American stage, the players being almost wholly English. _March_ 3d. The meat market here is plentifully supplied with excellent well-fed beef, good veal and mutton, though the Americans little {197} esteem the latter. The poultry too is well-fed and fine. In order to shew to what point of perfection feeding and grazing have reached, I present the reader with some account of the annual Cattle shew, prefacing it with the advertisement extracted from the Aurora Journal of March 3d, 1820. "SPLENDID AND EXTRAORDINARY EXHIBITION! "The public are respectfully informed that twenty-three head of Fat Cattle, eleven Fat Sheep, and two Fat Goats, advertised to be exhibited at the Merchants' Coffee-House, by Messrs. White, Shuster, Fryburg, Drum and Miller, may be seen at B. Graves's Drove-Yard and Cattle-Market; where the public generally are respectfully invited to view this magnificent and splendid shew of fine cattle of American production: such we believe as has never been exhibited for sale, in one day, in any city in the world, at all events never surpassed!!!"