A year or so after the Green House Hill fair grounds were closed, the grounds on which Major W. S. Embrey now lives and those in front of him for some distance east of Spotswood street were purchased and converted into fair grounds. Very successful fairs were held there until the commencement of the Civil war, when they were closed. The last fair held on these grounds was in 1860, only a few months before hostilities actually commenced. At one time Major J. Horace Lacy was president of this society and Major J. Harrison Kelly was secretary. After the closing of the fair grounds, in 1860, Fredericksburg had no other fair for twenty-five years. In 1887 steps were taken by the citizens of the town to inaugurate annual fairs. A charter for a society was obtained, stock was subscribed for and the Amaret farm, on the Fall Hill road west of the town and bordering on the Rappahannock river, was purchased and converted into excellent fair grounds. The society inaugurating these fairs is known as the Rappahannock Valley Agricultural and Mechanical Society, and its annual fairs have been a great success. The presidents of the society from its organization have been Hon. A. P. Rowe, of Fredericksburg; Charles Pierson, Esq., of Caroline county; Hon. S. Wellford Corbin, of King George county; Mr. Oliver Eastburn, of Spotsylvania county; Frank W. Smith, of Spotsylvania county; Captain Terence McCracken, of Fredericksburg; Colonel E. Dorsey Cole, of Fredericksburg; Capt. M. B. Rowe, of Spotsylvania; Chas. H. Hurkamp, of Stafford; Henry Dannehl, of Fredericksburg, and Thomas F. Morrison, of Spotsylvania. FERRIES AND TOLL BRIDGES. The first ferry across the Rappahannock river, provided by law, was an act of the House of Burgesses passed in 1748. This act provided for a ferry from the Fredericksburg warehouse, where the tobacco was deposited and inspected by public, bonded inspectors, to the land of Anthony Strother, on the Stafford side of the river. The charge for a horse, which seems to have been the only one regulated by law, was fixed at three pence. In the year 1796 a petition was presented to the General Assembly of Virginia for leave to build a toll-bridge across the Rappahannock river from the lower line of the land of William Fitzhugh, of Chatham. The Legislature granted the request and Mr. Fitzhugh built the bridge, which was kept open for the public travel as a toll-bridge until 1889.