population was small and widely scattered; and the country was cut
off as much by nature as by distance from the older civilisation of
the East. The parallel ranges of the Alleghanies, with their pathless
forests and great canyons, were a formidable barrier to all
intercourse. The West was a world in itself. The only outlets
eastward were the valleys of the Potomac and the James, the one
leading to Washington, the other to Richmond; and so seldom were they
used that the yeomen of the Ohio uplands were almost as much opposed,
both in character and in mode of life, to the planters beyond the
Blue Ridge, as the Covenanters of Bothwell Brig to the gentlemen of
Dundee's Life Guards.

Although the sturdy independence and simple habits of the borderers
were not affected by contact with wealthier communities, isolation
was not in every way a blessing. Served by throngs of slaves, the
great landowners of East Virginia found leisure to cultivate the arts
which make life more pleasant. The rambling houses on the banks of
the James, the Rappahannock, and the Potomac, built on the model of
English manors, had their libraries and picture-galleries. A
classical academy was the boast of every town, and a university
training was considered as essential to the son of a planter as to
the heir of an English squire. A true aristocracy, in habit and in
lineage, the gentlemen of Virginia long swayed the councils of the
nation, and among them were many who were intimate with the best
representatives of European culture. Beyond the Alleghanies there
were no facilities for education; and even had opportunities offered
few would have had the leisure to enjoy them. Labour was scarce,
either slave or hired. The owners of farms were their own managers
and overseers, and young men had to serve a practical apprenticeship
to lumbering and agriculture. To this rule, despite his uncle's