Tonight, the second of November, we have just added a night to our delightful stay in Williamsburg. Rather than stay in a hotel or B & B in town, we reserved a house inside the historic village and were given an upgrade to a cottage that fronts on the Duke of Gloucester Street in the heart of this amazing reconstruction of an eighteenth century town. Our bedroom has a working fireplace, a fourposter bed, a wing chair, an old oriental rug, and just enough room in a big closet to bring most of our carload inside to sort. The town lives all day long in front of the house: bullock carts, ladies in costume with baskets, crowds going to re-enactments in front of taverns that sell real ale and real food. Beautiful trees sport fall colors as girls and boys playing fife and drum march up and down with serious purpose.
There is a streaming video clip here of the fife and drum corps.
Penny would be at home in this daylong play, but it is tempered by the seasoned skill of the players, who are neither stale nor over-actors. The story being told is that of the birth of our country, and – perhaps because I have lived without the repetition of the dramas for so long, I find it riveting. For someone who slogged through sleet in Concord, Massachusetts on April 19th to remember those (from Acton!) and others who fought at the Old North Bridge, it was moving to hear Virginians act out their admiration for the New Englanders who drove the British from Boston, and called for Virginians to join them in New York. I was also glad that we had roamed the interior of Virginia for a week before coming here. It gave depth and perspective to all the references to Jefferson and Washington – even to the story of Benedict Arnold. What a collection of intellects, aspirations, dreams and privations are represented here!
Besides, this place is just plain beautiful. If, indeed, John D. Rockefeller said that his walk around Williamsburg was the most expensive walk he ever took, we can be glad he took it. There is so much that was/is worth preserving here. Even if we searched in vain for a second monument to religious freedom, the Virginian statute was cited in context tonight as a critical step in building America. Has it been forgotten so fast?
Religious freedom was also a topic at court this morning when Daniel B. Hinckley was brought to trial for not having attended Church of England services in this town.
His excuse was that he was a Roman Catholic and there were no places to worship according to his convictions in town. Under the laws of Virginia at the time (Virginia’s boundaries extended to the Pacific), he could have been tried for treason, but having a lenient judge on his side, he was fined five shillings and advised to move to Pennsylvania.
Walking about in Williamsburg can be a little unnerving when someone comes up to you dressed in period costume and wants to sell a pig or buy a haycart. As you bumble about trying to work out a suitable response they are very clever at filling in the blanks and leading you along, and you generally don’t end up buying a pig in a poke. The whole experience can be quite convincing, and fun, once you indulge in the appropriate willing suspension of disbelief….
Additional galleries of imagery from around Williamsburg.
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