The dancing class was held in succession at all the mansions along the Potomac as far as Mount Vernon. Mr. Christian--stern but elegant--taught minuets and country-dances, first politely requesting each guest "to step a minuet." He does not hesitate to rap two young misses across the shoulder for a fault, and to inform "one young Fellow" that he has observed him "through the course of the Dance," to be "insolent and wanton," and shall require him to alter his manner or leave the school. Then, when candles are lighted, having danced all day, Mr. Christian winds up with another minuet and country-dance, and at seven is glad to retire. But fun holds awhile longer. They all "play Button to get Pauns for Redemption, and carry it on with sprightliness and Decency." The tutor is in luck. "In the course of redeeming my Pauns I had several Kisses of the Ladies." Then Colonel Philip Ludwell Lee arrives in a travelling chariot from Williamsburg. "Four candles on the table make the room luminous and Splendid." There is a fine supper with four instructed waiters. After supper all gather around the fire and "play 'break the Pope's neck'" until ten o'clock, and then to bed. "Almost every lady wears a red cloak,"[10] says our tutor; "and when they ride out they tye a red handkerchief over their Head and face, so that when I first came to Virginia I was distressed whenever I saw a Lady, for I thought she had a Tooth-Ach." At a five-days' ball at Squire Lee's "the Ladies were dressed Gay and splendid, and when Dancing their Skirts and Brocades rustled and trailed behind them. For five days and nights they Danced minuets, reels, marches: Giggs (an exaggerated dance resembling the _Trescone_ of Italy) and, last of all, Country Dances to the Music of a French Horn and two Violins, for," says the astonished tutor, "Blow high, Blow Low, the Virginians are genuine blood--they will Dance or die!" [10] "Journal of Philip Vickens Fithian," edited by John Rogers Williams. The plantation fiddler belonging, as did the barber, shoemaker, and carpenter, to each establishment, seems to have sufficed for Mr. Christian's class. At this the gentlemen were "drest in black, superfine broadcloth, laced Ruffles, Black silk Stockings, buckles at knee and instep. They wore powder on their Hair, or the short Wig now in fashion." The ladies, well, the principal ladies, must each sit for her own portrait.