The founder of Richmond was one of the worthiest and most intellectual men in the Colony of Virginia. His portrait, by Sir Godfrey Kneller, shows a face of remarkable beauty, framed in the curls of a flowing peruke of the time of Queen Anne. He was noted as “the Great Virginia wit,” and his writings are among the most valuable that have descended to us from that era. His library was the largest that had ever been brought over to the New World. A catalogue of it, in folio, is now in possession of the Franklin Library in Philadelphia. He was the father of the beautiful Evelyn Byrd, whose death of a broken heart because her father refused to give his consent to her marriage with her lover--said to have been Lord Peterborough--has furnished a theme for poet and novelist. He was buried at his family estate, Westover, and his tombstone, in the old flower garden there, not only gives a history of his life, but tells us also of several of his noble and illustrious friends and their good qualities. Richmond was established as a town by the Assembly of Virginia in 1742. Originally built on seven hills, it has been called the “Modern Rome,” and one of Richmond’s gifted daughters once wrote: “O Richmond! Richmond! Richmond! Upon thy seven hills Like one of old, we wot of well Thy fame the wide world fills.” In 1842, when Dickens visited Richmond, it already covered yet another hill, and he wrote of it as “delightfully situated on eight hills overhanging James River, a sparkling stream studded here and there with bright islands, or brawling over broken rocks. There are pretty villas and cheerful houses on its streets, and nature smiles upon the country ’round.” The oldest house in Richmond, the “Old Stone House,” situated on Main Street, was built by Jacob Ege in 1737, and is now used as a museum filled with relics and curiosities.