[20] This is the Shenandoah river, as no other river in the Valley answers to Mr. Fontaine's description, and which is a very important part of his narrative. The distance of the river from the mountains and the description of the streams crossed in reaching the mountains, enable us to determine with considerable accuracy the route the Governor and his party took as they crossed the Blue Ridge into the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, "the Granary of the World." A careful inspection of the map will show that they passed through the counties of Orange, Madison and the northern portion of Green over into Rockingham, where the Shenandoah river is about seventy-five or eighty yards wide and runs within a few miles of the Blue Ridge mountains. [21] Governor Spotswood, when he undertook the great discovery of the Passage over the Mountains, attended with a sufficient guard, and pioneers and gentlemen, with a sufficient stock of provision, with abundant fatigue passed these mountains and cut his Majesty's name in a rock upon the highest of them, naming it Mount George; and in complaisance the gentlemen from the Governor's name, called the mountain next in height Mount Alexander. For this expedition they were obliged to provide a great quantity of horse shoes (things seldom used in the lower parts of the country, where there are few stones); upon which account the Governor, upon their return, presented each of his companions with a golden horse shoe, (some of which I have seen studded with valuable stones resembling the heads of nails,) with this inscription on one side: _Sic juvat transcendere montes_, and on the other is written the tremontane order. This he instituted to encourage gentlemen to venture backwards, and make discoveries, and new settlements; any gentleman being entitled to wear this golden shoe that can prove his having drunk his Majesty's health upon Mount George.--Hugh Jones, 1724. [22] This Mr. Woodford is supposed to be the father or grandfather of General Wm. Woodford, of Revolutionary fame. [23] The town referred to in the county of King George is the town of Falmouth, on the opposite side of the river, and a mile and a half above Fredericksburg. The act that made Fredericksburg a town also gave Falmouth a legal existence. At the time of the passage of the act that territory belonged to King George county, but now to Stafford county. [24] The water came from two springs--Poplar spring and Smith's spring. [25] Died at Crystal Springs, Miss., March 1, 1900. [26] This list was obtained from a diary kept by John J. Berrey while in prison.