Abstract

Virginia: a Gentle Dominion

The article presents information on Virginia. In rural Virginia the old aristocracy still clings to a few of its ancient seats, such as Shirley on the James and Mount Airy on the Rappahannock, but elsewhere it has perished or migrated and has had no successor. Nowhere in the South is the passing of the old order more manifest than in certain of the older counties. Some of the old mansions remain, though fire has claimed more, but these often are habited by people ignorant of the history of the houses in which they dwell. One gets almost the impression that plague or an approaching army had driven the natives before it and that after years of decay another race has moved in. With the lesser aristocracy and the middle classes the change has not been so great.