The British Are Coming!!!!!

We're headed into Colonial Williamsburg to see those things we missed on our first day's visit and also to be a part of the excitement of having the British march into town to seize the colony. There was a long procession of British Commanders on their horses, British Infantry and the Scottish mercenaries marching into Williamsburg. Much yelling was being done by both sides and the Britsh had no qualms in arresting anyone who did not see eye to eye with them or who was not willing to pledge their allegiance to the King!



General Cornwallis rode up to the capitol building and ordered that the American flag be removed and the Britsh flag fly over the capitol. Once this was accomplished, the British commenced occupation of the town.

After the seige had taken place, we decided to walk down to the Governor's Palace and take the tour thru that building. I've placed a picture of the palace on the original Williamsburg blog so I won't repeat it on this one. The Governor's Palace was the residence of seven royal governors and the first two elected governors of Virginia, Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson. We are viewing the inside and outside as if Lord Dunmore, the last British governor of the Virginia colony lived there. He liked very lavish things and the Ballroom had a specially built heating stove while the dining hall off the ballroom was always furnished with gold plates, goblets and silverware. The dining when there is a Ball, is interesting in that it is made up entirely of sweets and drinks. Once the guests have eaten and drank, they return to the ballroom for more dancing. Most of the Balls did not end until 7:00 or 8:00 a.m. the next day.

The grounds encompassed ten acres of formal English gardens which included mazes, ponds, and flowers of all types.
After visiting the Palace, we decided to drop by the George Wythe (pronounced "with") house. Mr. Wythe was a pofessor of law and teacher of Thomas Jefferson. Wythe was first among Virginia's signers of the Declaration of Independence. Washington used the house as his headquarters in 1781 before the siege of Yorktown. In addition to the house, the grounds contain four major outbuildings and a garden plan which reflects a plantation layout. Furnishings in the home are a bit lower standard than in the palace, no gold plates, but still very beautiful and reminescent of a well-to-do eighteenth century Virginia household.

Though we were running out of time, we wanted to stop by the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum and the Dewitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum, both accessed through the underground of the old Public Hospital. The Old Public Hospital was opened in 1773 and was North America's first institution devoted solely to the care and treatment of the mentally ill. The Folk Art Museum is also the first museum in the United States devoted to American folk art. It includes selections from Mrs. Rockefeller's original collection, paintings, sculpture, furniture, and weather vanes, just to mention a few of the items. (By the way, in case I forgot to mention this somewhere in my posts on Williamsburg, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. was the person responsible for funding Colonial Williamsburg. ) The Dewitt museum is home to an extensive collection of American and British antiques, including furniture, metals, ceramics, glass, paintings, firearms, and clothing dating from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Both of these museums were just opened in February of this year. We could have spent an entire day here, but since we still had more to see in Colonial Williamsburg, we walked back the few blocks to the main part of town and stopped at the Bruton Parish Church.

Many prominent men of the Revolution attended Bruton Parish Church, including Thomas Jefferson, George Washington (Jan is standing in his pew box in the picture below), Richard Henry Lee, George Wythe, Patrick Henry and George Mason. An Episcopal church, Bruton has been in use since 1715 and still serves an active congregation. This original building still houses the old bell, made in the same year and by the same person as the "Liberty Bell". It still rings and is clear as can be. Imagine, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson heard this same bell ringing just as we did!You will notice that the sides of the pews are quite high. This was done so that the entire family could sit in the pew box in a circle and bring warm coals to sit on the floor to keep their feet warm during the winter months. They closed the doors on the pews to keep the drafts out.

By the time we walked back to the visitor's center, we felt like we had made a pretty good dent in Colonial Williamsburg. We saw most of the things we wanted, however we could have still spent at least one more day to see everything. They have a different schedule every day of things that are going on in the main part of the town, in addition to just going thru the buildings. Sometimes, they have Patrick Henry giving a speech, or a slave telling you about their lives, or George Washington delivering an address to the townspeople. You could definitely fill up a week with no problem. However, since we are headed to Washington DC, we figure we'll get to see even more interesting things and learn more about the history of this wonderful country of ours. We hope you'll continue to tag along with us for the Washington DC leg of our trip. Since McKenzie couldn't go on any of these excursions, we did want to mention her in the post by letting you know that she has her own store in Colonial Williamsburg.

Stay healthy and be kind to one another. We miss all of you and wish you could be here with us, but at least hope that you can experience some of the fun we are having thru this blog.
"Life is Good!!!!"