. . .They are more inclinable
to read Men by Business and Conversation, than to dive into Books . . .
they are apt to learn, yet they are fond of and will follow their own Ways,
Humours and Notions, being not easily brought to new Projects and Schemes."
It was as Governor of these people that, in succession to Nicholson, Edward
Nott came to Virginia, the deputy of my Lord Orkney. Nott died soon
afterward, and in 1710 Orkney sent to Virginia in his stead Alexander
Spotswood. This man stands in Virginia history a manly, honorable, popular
figure. Of Scotch parentage, born in Morocco, soldier under Marlborough,
wounded at Blenheim, he was yet in his thirties when he sailed across the
Atlantic to the river James. Virginia liked him, and he liked Virginia. A
man of energy and vision, he first made himself at home with all, and then
after his own impulses and upon his own lines went about to develop and to
better the colony. He had his projects and his hobbies, mostly useful, and
many sounding with a strong modern tone. Now and again he quarreled with
the Assembly, and he made it many a cutting speech. But it, too, and all
Virginia and the world were growing modern. Issues were disengaging
themselves and were becoming distinct. In these early years of the
eighteenth century, Whig and Tory in England drew sharply over against each
other. In Virginia, too, as in Maryland, the Carolinas, and all the rest of
England-in-America, parties were emerging. The Virginian flair for
political life was thus early in evidence.
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