By the laws of America, no produce which has undergone any sort of manufacture, as flour, potash, tobacco, rice, &c. can be exported without inspection, nor even put into a boat to be conveyed down a river to a sea-port. The inspectors are all sworn, are paid by the states, and not suffered to take fees from any individual. This is a most politic measure; for as none but the best of each article can be sent out of the country, it enhances the price of American produce in foreign markets, and increases the demand. Tobacco is not near so much cultivated now as it was formerly, the great demand for wheat having induced most of the planters to raise that grain in preference. Those who raise tobacco and Indian corn are called planters, and those who cultivate small grain, farmers. Though many of the houses in the Northern Neck are built, as I have said, of brick and stone, in the style of the old English manor houses, yet the greater number there, and throughout Virginia, are of wood; amongst which are all those that have been built of late years. This is chiefly owing to a prevailing, though absurd opinion, that wooden houses are the healthiest, because the inside walls never appear damp, like those of brick and stone, in rainy weather. In front of every house is a porch or pent-house, commonly extending the whole length of the building; very often there is one also in the rear, and sometimes all round. These porches afford an agreeable shade from the sun during summer. The hall, or saloon as it is called, is always a favourite apartment, during the hot weather, in a Virginian house, on account of the draught of air through it, and it is usually furnished similar to a parlour, with sofas, &c. [Sidenote: VIRGINIAN WOMEN.] The common people in the lower parts of Virginia have very sallow complexions, owing to the burning rays of the sun in summer, and the bilious complaints to which they are subject in the fall of the year. The women are far from being comely, and the dresses, which they wear out of doors to guard them from the sun, make them appear still more ugly than nature has formed them. There is a kind of bonnet very commonly worn, which, in particular, disfigures them amazingly; it is made with a caul, fitting close on the back part of the head, and a front stiffened with small pieces of cane, which projects nearly two feet from the head in a horizontal direction. To look at a person at one side, it is necessary for a woman wearing a bonnet of this kind to turn her whole body round. In the upper parts of the country, towards the mountains, the women are totally different, having a healthy comely appearance. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ +LETTER + XII.