THIS part of Virginia, situated between the Patowmac and Rappahannock rivers, is called the Northern Neck, and is remarkable for having been the birth place of many of the principal characters, which distinguished themselves in America, during the war, by their great talents, General Washington at their head. It was here that numbers of English gentlemen, who migrated when Virginia was a young colony, fixed their residence; and several of the houses which they built, exactly similar to the old manor houses in England, are still remaining, particularly in the counties of Richmond and Westmoreland. Some of these, like the houses in Maryland, are quite in ruins; others are kept in good repair by the present occupiers, who live in a style which approaches nearer to that of English country gentlemen than what is to be met with any where else on the continent, some other parts of Virginia alone excepted. [Sidenote: MANUFACTURES.] Amongst the inhabitants here and in the lower parts of Virginia there is a disparity unknown elsewhere in America, excepting in the large towns. Instead of the lands being equally divided, immense estates are held by a few individuals, who derive large incomes from them, whilst the generality of the people are but in a state of mediocrity. Most of the men also, who possess these large estates, having received liberal educations, which the others have not, the distinction between them is still more observable. I met with several in this neighbourhood, who had been brought up at the public schools and universities in England, where, until the unfortunate war which separated the colonies from her, the young men were very generally educated; and even still a few are sent there, as the veneration for that country from whence their ancestors came, and with which they were themselves for a long time afterwards connected, is by no means yet extinguished. There is by no means so great a disparity now, however, amongst the inhabitants of the Northern Neck, as was formerly, and it is becoming less and less perceptible every year, many of the large estates having been divided in consequence of the removal of the proprietors to other parts of the country that were more healthy, and many more on account of the present laws of Virginia, which do not permit any one son to inherit the landed estates of the father to the exclusion of his brothers.