OLD VIRGINIA

[Applause] [Music] Mount Vernon the home of George Washington from which one looks out over the broad Potomac River is a fitting place to start a tour of old Virginia as we wander about the grounds we are reminded that many famous Virginians including Washington himself who personally designed the pattern of his vegetable gardens were farmers and that the prosperity of early Virginia derived from her soil Washington and his family worshiped at pohe Church as did the president's friend George Mason who lived at Gunston Hall Mason was the author of the Virginia Declaration of Rights adopted at Williamsburg [Music] in early Virginia there were almost no roads the plantations were located along the Great Rivers and each had its wharf where ships from England discharged goods from the mother colony and took on the tobacco raised on plantations like Mount Vernon Gunston Hall and West over at Jamestown the story of Virginia began here on the north bank of the James River now protected from erosion the sea weary travelers from the Sarah constant the good speed and the discovery came ashore in May 1607 to build a church and found the first permanent English colony on this new continent at Jamestown Princess Pocahontas married John Rolfe the first colonists to experiment with the culture of tobacco Pocahontas had befriended the white men in the year of their landing by persuading her father the great Chief Powhatan to spare the life of Captain John Smith when the colonies intrepid explorer was the Chiefs prisoner in 1699 the seat of the government was moved to middle plantation which was renamed Williamsburg Williamsburg is now restored thanks to the generosity of john d rockefeller jr. and the vision of dr. Goodwin rector of bruton parish church for years dr. Goodwin dreamed of seeing Williamsburg restored to its colonial glory so once again the British great Union flag flies from the cupola of the Capitol built in 1705 and destroyed by fire in 1747 in the rebuilt Capitol George Mason's Declaration of Rights was adopted and Patrick Henry fanned the flames of the American Revolution with such stirring words as if this Beach reason make the most of it Virginia and Massachusetts saw eye-to-eye on pre-revolutionary matters and fighting started in Virginia on the 20th of April 1775 one day after the battles of Lexington and Concord things started at this magazine in Williamsburg [Music] during colonial days Williamsburg was the center of the social as well as the political life of the colony in the governor's palace lived a long line of British governors and also the first two governors of the Commonwealth of Virginia Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson the palace with its many servants was the scene of brilliant banquets and balls [Music] of all the parties given in the palace none was gayer than the King's birth night during the course of these lavish Affairs a cannon was fired once for every year of the Kings age and each time the cannon went off another Hogsett of liquor was opened some of the George's whose coat of arms is over the door to the ballroom lived to a ripe old age so the morning after must have been pretty foggy for many a resident of Williamsburg during the revolution the palace was used as a hospital for the wounded from the Yorktown campaign in 1781 while being so used it burned to the ground the government had already moved to Richmond so the heyday of Williamsburg came to an end other buildings burned and the once beautiful palace garden grew up to weeds [Music] before its restoration Williamsburg was best known for its College William and Mary founded in 1693 and save for Harford the oldest college in the United States while its oldest buildings was designed by the great English architect Sir Christopher Wren who did st. Paul's Cathedral in London in front of the Christopher Wren building is a statue of Lord Botetourt popular British governor to whom all passing freshmen pay homage in 1704 according to one account a strong sweet jail was completed and in 1718 Blackbeard's pirates were confined in this jail until they were taken out and hanged Williamsburg's well shaded streets are aligned with fine old houses in which people really live among the finest are the simple house and the st. George Tucker house a hundred miles to the northwest at Charlottesville is the University of Virginia it's impressive rotunda stands at the end of a wide lawn flanked by dormitories the university was chartered in 1819 and designed by Thomas Jefferson third President of the United States one of its show spots is a beautiful old serpentine wall laid out by Jefferson who lived at nearby Monticello the author of the Declaration of Independence started his mountaintop house in 1770 when still in his 20s but on the stormy night when Jefferson brought his bride Martha Skelton home on horseback after their coach had broken down only honeymoon Lodge was ready not far from Monticello is Morphin a beautiful old house with a beautiful garden Morvan like Monticello lies in the half footed half open but always rolling Piedmont section of Virginia Marvin's owner raises thoroughbred horses and the mayors and Falls are a joy to watch [Applause] the Old Dominion raises fine cattle as well as fine horses and also fine hogs [Music] this little Virginia ham seems set on getting out on his own at a tender age or maybe he's just taking a stroll before lunch Virginia farmer is now used red clover for a cover crop and for soil enrichment so the countryside is brightened by great fields of waving crimson today Virginia raises chiefly tobacco corn and hay during colonial days its chief crops were tobacco corn and wheat in those early days the good earth did not get as careful treatment as it does today although some of the more intelligent plantation owners like Washington and Jefferson practiced soil conservation measures that for their time were very advanced Jefferson is said to have once remarked he is the greatest Patriot who stops the most gullies this was early recognition of the fact that our soil is one of our most priceless possessions and that he who destroys it through carelessness or greed is indeed a poor citizen from Charlottesville West the hills grow higher until it last one comes to the Blue Ridge Mountains the Blue Ridge Mountains of song and story today on the Skyline Drive you ride through Shenandoah National Park high on the crest of the Blue Ridge the backbone of the Old Dominion in which a great english-speaking nation had its real beginning [Music]