coarse, "country-made" shoes, or "shoe-packs" during more rigorous
seasons. To complete the picture Kercheval, the historian of the
Shenandoah Valley, is here quoted: "The coats and bed-gowns of the
women, as well as the hunting-shirts of the men, were hung in full
display on wooden pegs around the walls of their cabins, so that while
they answered in some degree the purpose of paper-hangings or
tapestry, they announced to the stranger as well as the neighbor the
wealth or poverty of the family in the articles of clothing."

* * * * *

It is to be hoped that the desultory sketch furnished above will not
be found uninteresting despite its imperfections. Many details have
been omitted or neglected, but enough has been written to illustrate
in a general way the qualities for which our ancestors were most
distinguished, for which their characters have excited most comment
and perhaps deserved most praise.

As a whole, they were a generous, large-hearted, liberal-minded
people, and their faults were far fewer than their virtues. The
yeomanry, in their own rude, rough-and-ready manner, reflected the
same sort of personal independence of character and proud sense of
individuality as the social aristocracy.


FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

Little can be learned of Loudoun's participation in the last great
French and Indian War (1754-1763). It had its beginning three years
prior to her admission into the sisterhood of Virginia counties, and