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56 Chronicles of the Cape Fear Rwer

the present age. Some of them had town residences, but most
of them lived on their plantations, and they were not the thrift-
less characters that by some means it became fashionable to
assume all Southern planters were. There was much gaiety and
festivity among them, and some of them rode hard to hounds,
but as a general rule they looked after their estates, and kept
themselves as well informed in regard to what was going on
in the world as the limited means of communication allowed.
There was little display, but in almost every house could be
found valuable plate, and, in some, excellent libraries. The
usual mode of travel was on horseback, and in ‘gigs,’ or ‘chairs,’
which were vehicles without springs but hung on heavy straps,
and to which one horse, and sometimes by young beaux, two
horses, tandem, were driven; a mounted servant rode behind,
or, if the gig was occupied by ladies, beside the horse. The
family coach was mounted by three steps, and had great carved
leather springs, with baggage rack behind, and a high, narrow
driver’s seat and box in front. The gentlemen wore clubbed
and powdered queues and knee-breeches, with buckled low-
quartered shoes, and many carried gold or silver snuffboxes
which, being first tapped, were handed with grave courtesy to
their acquaintances when passing the compliments of the day.
There are persons still living who remember seeing these things
in their early youth. The writer of these lines himself remem-
bers seeing in his childhood the decaying remains of old ‘chairs,’
and family coaches, and knew at that time several old negroes
who had been body servants in their youth to the proprietors of
these ancient vehicles. It is no wonder they sometimes drove
the coaches four-in-hand. It was not only grand style, but the
weight of the vehicle and the character of the roads made it
necessary.

“During the period embraced in these pages, four-wheeled
pleasure vehicles were rare, and even two-wheeled ones were not
common, except among the town nabobs and well-to-do planters.
The coaches, or chariots, as a certain class of vehicles was called,
were all imported from England, and the possession of such a
means of locomotion was evidence of high social position. It
was less than twenty years before the period named, that the
first stage wagon in the colonies, in 1738, was run from Trenton
to New Brunswick, in New Jersey, twice a week, and the ad-
vertisement of it assured the public that it would be fitted up
with benches and covered over ‘so that passengers may sit easy

and dry.’ ”

 
  
 
  
  
   
  
   
  
  
   
  
  
 
 
  
 
 
  
 
  
  
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
  
  
 
   
  
 
 
  
   

Permanent Settlement 57

e, of Howe’s Point; Nathaniel Moore,
thur Dobbs, of Russellboro—all below Orton.

Moore, of Orton; James Smith, of Kendal;
of Lilliput; John Moore, of Pleasant Oaks ;

ae f Old T Oreck -
See | 0 own Creek; John Baptista Ashe, of
Pring Garden, afterwards called Grovely ; Chief Justice Hasell,

of y Q
Der ee Schencking Moore, of Hullfields; John Davis, of
Johnston) a remy John Dalrymple (who commanded Fort
HEAR : 0 se Place; John Ancrum, of Old Town;
Forks: Jy Fag Fa of Clarendon; Richard Eagles, of The
tills Gao fred Moore, of Buchoi; John Waddell, of Bel-
balsa Wil ' enjamin Smith, of Belvidere. These were all
mington. Many others equally important resided
Plantations above Wilmington. All are recorded in
8 History of New Hanover County, but these

rae in support of the statement that the Cape
of olden time were men of mark.

7? pa a
El .
eazar Allen,

N athaniel] Rice,

are mentioned h
Fear planters

COLONIAL ORTON.
d homesteads described by Colonel Waddell

ecay and some of the residences have entirely

, which was distinguished in
appeared, but Te and liberal hospitality, has long since dis-
branches e grand old oaks which lifted their majestic

, © the soft south breezes in colonial times still sing

rm
ured requiem above a “boundless contiguity of

t ; ‘
Atlantic — eastern shore, is heard the booming of the broad
1t Sweeps in its might and majesty from Greenland