times remained faithful adherents of the creed, their peculiar
character, manners, and tenets differing to no considerable extent
from those of other like colonies, wherever implanted.

It is doubtful if any race has done more to stimulate and direct real
progress, and to develop the vast resources of Loudoun, than that
portion of our earlier population known as the Scotch-Irish. Their
remarkable energy, thrift, staidness, and fixed religious views made
their settlements the centers of civilization and improvement in
Colonial times; that their descendants proved sturdy props of the
great cause that culminated in the independence of the United States
is a matter of history.


EARLY HABITS, CUSTOMS, AND DRESS.

HABITS.

The earliest permanent settlements of Loudoun having been separately
noted in the foregoing paragraphs a generalized description of the
habits, customs, and dress of these settlers, as well as their
unorganized pioneer predecessors and the steady promiscuous stream of
home-seekers that poured into the County until long after the
Revolution, will now be attempted.

The early settlers, with but one class exception, had no costly tastes
to gratify, no expensive habits to indulge, and neither possessed nor
cared for luxuries. Their subsistence, such as they required, cost but
little of either time or labor. The corn from which they made their
bread came forth from the prolific soil almost at the touch of their