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As we set out for our afternoon's exploration we saw with certainty the effects of Virginia's climate on the vegetation. Everywhere the foliage was green and lush, due in no small part to the humidity that sits upon the countryside every summer like a moist towel. Green trees crowded one another for available space in the sun while below them, carpeting the forest floor were bushes, vines, and creepers. The effect was one of nature threatening to reclaim that which man in his hubris had cleared. The office of the colonial secretary, sitting adjacent to the magnificently reconstructed capitol building, presents a mighty facade to those who approach it from Duke of Gloucester Street. Yet from behind it is lost in a tangle of verdant growth. Just a few short steps from Colonial Williamsburg's main thoroughfare the feeling that one was leaving the twenty-first century behind was intensified. Here man had just begun to carve out his empire from the wilderness and the wilderness still appeared to have the upper hand. |
| We strolled down a tar macadam surface, the only concession to a more modern existence overlaying Williamsburg's colonial character, and approached the Publik Gaol. The jail was part and parcel of the existence of any capitol city in the colonies. While most civil matters and minor infractions of the criminal code could be dealt with by local authorities, any crime for which the punishment could be death would have to be dealt with by the top officials in the colony. Such prisoners were transported to the colonial capitol for trial and possible execution. Even today we refer to those offences punishable by death as "capitol crimes." The gallows in Williamsburg is built in a large field behind the jail. There are four cells in the jail, two with windows that face the inner courtyard and two that face the field. Those prisoners for whom death by hanging was an alternative had only to look out of their windows to see what fate might await should the colonial judiciary decide against them. It was on these very gallows that thirteen members of the infamous Blackbeard's crew were hanged in 1719. Today the gallows green is put to a more pastoral purpose with horses grazing peacefully over the grass. |
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After we finished touring the jail our hunger began to assert itself and we wound our
way through the underbrush on a barely visible path that skirted the east side of the
Secretary's Office to return to the relative bustle of Duke of Gloucester Street.
Our goal was the Ralegh Tavern Bake Shop and some of the delightful ham biscuits
sold there. Sustinence now in hand we proceeded west toward Palace Street and
the Governor's Palace. As we approached the main entrance to the palace we were
met with some other visitors taking a carraige ride around town. We immediately
decided that we too would tour Williamsburg in that same relaxing manner, but it was
one of the many promises we simply did not have time to keep. But then one must
have a reason for returning, musn't one. What we did do was pay a visit to the St. George Tucker House on Nicholson Street. The Tucker House has been set aside for those who contribute to the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation that it may continue it's efforts to preserve America's colonial history for future generations. Before Robin and I left for Virginia we joined as members of the Duke of Gloucester Society. This entitled us to relax |
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I'm afraid I presented quite a perplexing sight to the gracious hostesses of the Tucker
House dressed as I was in my linen shirt, waistcoat, breeches and New Balance sneakers.
Incongruities aside they were most welcoming and we enjoyed relaxing with a cool
glass of lemonade while we discussed some of the finer points of Virginia's colonial
history with a couple from Washington. It was an experience that we would enjoy
again and again; kindred spirits eager to openly share their love of American history.
As we talked about Thomas Jefferson our new friends withdrew volume after volume of
a multi-part Jefferson biography from their shopping bag and proudly informed us that
they were all on sale at the Colonial Williamsburg Visitors Center, and at a
substantial discount as well. Reluctantly we bid our hosts and our new-found friends a cordial farewell and left the cool comfort of the St. George Tucker House and continued up Palace Street to the official residence of the Royal Govenor of Virginia. |
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Like many of the buildings one now sees in Colonial Williamsburg the Governor's Palace simply didn't exist when the renovation project began in 1926. Destroyed by fire in 1790 and driven into further ruin by northern troops during the Civil War the home of Virginia's Royal Governor was painstakingly recreated from drawings, written recollections, and modern archaeological techniques. From such varied sources as a floor plan drawn by Thomas Jefferson when he studied law at William and Mary and lived with George Wythe only a few yards from the mansion, to descriptions of the palace set down by the grandson of the last Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore, in 1835, and the famous copperplate engraving dating from about 1740 discovered in the Bodleian Library at Oxford University in 1929. This so-called Bodleian Plate is the only known eighteenth-century architectural drawing of the major buildings in the colonial capitol and has proven invaluable time and again during the course of the restoration efforts. The curators of the Bodleian Library presented the copperplate to Rockefeller who said it was the "foundation upon which we have based the restoration of the Wren Building (of the College of William and Mary---Ed.) and the reconstruction of the Governor's Palace and the Capitol. Without it, we would have been acting in the dark; with it, we have gone forward with absolute certainty and conviction."
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We started our tour of the Governor's Palace in the kitchen. Like most large
estates in colonial times the kitchen was a seperate structure built some distance
from the main house. Here interpreters showed us likely foodstuffs that would
have graced the governor's table. Once inside we stood awestruck in the main
foyer, elegant with its wood paneling and intimidated by row upon row of Brown Bess
muskets with fixed bayonets, flintlock pistols, and an array of interlaced cutlasses
displayed on every wall. There is even a rosette of muskets affixed to the
ceiling! The governor left no doubt in the minds of those who visited him where
the power in the colony rested. We then were led upstairs past more muskets and pistols on the walls and through the rooms where colonial policy was made. Going back downstairs we went through the main ballroom where the governor entertained. Portraits of the king and queen hung on the walls and elegant carvings were everywhere in abundance. We left the palace through the rear door into the garden; the same rear |
Robin and I wandered through the magnificent gardens, slowly taking in all that we had seen. The rest of our tour group were off to other places to see other things but she and I remained, relaxing and enjoying our "vacation in time." We ambled down to the "canal," an artificial lake on the west side of the palace, complete with wooden bridge, and watched the fish rise to take the insects that lit upon the water. We simply sat and luxuriated in the quietude that is Colonial Williamsburg. Soon we would leave and walk back to our own colonial house to prepare for the evening meal at Christiana Campbell's Tavern but for now we allowed the serenity of an earlier time to have its way with us.
Tomorrow we would get up and drive to Jamestown then Yorktown and have a first-hand look at both the beginning and the end of British America.---JBW