might have assumed the (Irish) peerage hereditary in his family, but for
an informality which he did not choose to set right. Tired of the
political struggles in which he had been engaged, and annoyed by family
circumstances in Europe, he preferred to establish himself in Virginia,
where he took possession of a large estate conferred by King Charles I.
upon his ancestor. Here Mr. Esmond's daughter and grandsons were born,
and his wife died. This lady, when she married him, was the widow of the
Colonel's kinsman, the unlucky Viscount Castlewood, killed in a duel by
Lord Mohun, at the close of King William's reign.

Mr. Esmond called his American house Castlewood, from the patrimonial
home in the old country. The whole usages of Virginia, indeed, were
fondly modelled after the English customs. It was a loyal colony. The
Virginians boasted that King Charles II. had been king in Virginia before
he had been king in England. English king and English church were alike
faithfully honoured there. The resident gentry were allied to good
English families. They held their heads above the Dutch traders of New
York, and the money-getting Roundheads of Pennsylvania and New England.
Never were people less republican than those of the great province which
was soon to be foremost in the memorable revolt against the British
Crown.

The gentry of Virginia dwelt on their great lands after a fashion almost
patriarchal. For its rough cultivation, each estate had a multitude of
hands--of purchased and assigned servants--who were subject to the
command of the master. The land yielded their food, live stock, and game.
The great rivers swarmed with fish for the taking. From their banks the
passage home was clear. Their ships took the tobacco off their private
wharves on the banks of the Potomac or the James river, and carried it to
London or Bristol,--bringing back English goods and articles of home