Robert, eager as always
for new scenes, and fresh knowledge, anticipated with curiosity his
first sight of Williamsburg, one of the oldest British towns in North
America. He knew that it was not large, but he found it even smaller
than he had expected.
He and his comrades reached it on horseback, and they found that it
contained only a thousand inhabitants, and one street, straight and
very wide. On this street stood the brick buildings of William and
Mary, the oldest college in the country, a new capitol erected in the
place of one burned, not long before, and a large building called the
Governor's Palace. It looked very small, very quiet, and very content.
Robert was conscious of a change in atmosphere that was not a mere
matter of temperature. Keen, commercial New York was gone. Here,
people talked of politics and the land. The men who came into
Williamsburg on horseback or in their high coaches were owners of
great plantations, where they lived as patriarchs, and feudal
lords. The human stock was purely British and the personal customs and
modes of thought of the British gentry had been transplanted.
"I like it," said Grosvenor. "I feel that I've found England again.
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