This conversation with Governor Harrison, other conversations, and M. de Chastellux’s own careful observations led him to form opinions about Virginia, then the most influential of the States, which were correct enough. His analysis was a forecast. There can be found no better summary of conditions in Virginia at that time, the statement of a man of great good sense and a wide experience of men and affairs. He remarks: “One must be in the country itself, one must be acquainted with the language, and take a pleasure in conversing and in listening, to be qualified to form, and that slowly, a proper opinion and a decisive judgment. After this reflection the reader will not be surprised at the pleasure I took in conversing with Mr. Harrison. He urged me to dine with him next day, and to pass another day at Richmond. We set out, however, on the 27th, at 8 in the morning for Westover. We traveled six and twenty miles without halting, in very hot weather, but by a very agreeable road, with magnificent houses in view at every instant; for the banks of James River form the garden of Virginia. “It is not by accident,” observes the Marquis of Chastellux, writing at Williamsburg, May 1, 1782, “that I have postponed the consideration of everything respecting the progress of the arts and sciences in this country until the conclusion of my reflections on Virginia; I have done it expressly because the mind, after bestowing its attention on the variety of human institutions, reposes itself with pleasure on those which tend to the perfection of the understanding, and the progress of information. The College of William and Mary, whose founders are announced by the very name, is a noble establishment which embellishes Williamsburg and does honor to Virginia. I must add that the zeal of the professors has been crowned with the most distinguished success, and that they have already formed many distinguished characters, ready to serve their country in the various departments of government. After doing justice to the exertions of the University of Williamsburgh, for such is the College of William and Mary, if it be necessary for its farther glory to cite miracles, I shall only observe that they created me a doctor of laws.” _V._ _DR. JOHANN DAVID SCHOEPF, SURGEON TO THE HESSIAN TROOPS._ _1783._ _Dr. Schoepf--Leesburg--Plantation Houses--The Price of Land--Fredericksburg--Hunter’s Iron-Works--Richmond--The General Assembly--The Tavern Formicola--Manchester--Mr. Rubsamen--Williamsburg--Yorktown or Little York--Surry Court House--Smithfield--The Nation of Virginia--Suffolk--The Trade in Salt._