after he had undertaken his task.

It was in 1802 that Mr. Tazewell, who had qualified as an attorney in
the Hustings Court of the Borough on the 26th day of June of the
previous year, took up his abode in Norfolk. Whoever would form an
opinion of the Norfolk of 1802 from the Norfolk of 1860, would be apt to
fall into many and capital mistakes. As you entered the harbor of that
day, many sloops, schooners, brigs, barques, and ships obstructed your
way; and you would see the wharves and the warehouses, such as they
were, in full employment. A number of small houses, which were used as
retail shops, sailor-boarding establishments, and for other purposes,
lined Broadwater, which was then not much more than half as long as it
is now, and Little Water, nearly their western length. Market square,
the houses of which were almost wholly wood, and mean and contemptible
in appearance, was the home of the wholesale and more respectable retail
dealers in dry goods and hardware. The larger grocery dealers centred
near the then head of Broadwater. The population ranged between 6,500
and 7,500, and consisted of a large infusion of French from the West
India islands, Scotch and English in considerable proportions, Irish,
and New English. There were some Dutch, Spanish, and Portuguese. Our
Norfolk born people, and the people from the neighboring counties,
formed the base--a pretty broad base, but only a base. Everybody was
busy. Wirt, writing a year or two later to a friend, likened the borough
to a hive in which their was no drone. The outward appearance of things
was bad enough. The houses on the wharves and in the business streets
were all of wood, and have since been swept away by successive fires.
There was not a paved street within the bills of mortality. Immense
pools of mud and water were seen everywhere; and it was a favorite
amusement of the boys to watch the attempt of a loaded dray to pass
through those beds of muck. There were three merchants at farthest,