May 8th, 2021 … Summer of Fun continues!

Today we were able to live in Colonial Times as we toured Colonial Williamsburg. Eighteenth-century Colonial Williamsburg is not the place you visited in fourth grade. It’s the world’s largest living history museum. Stop by a historic tavern, see the life and work of the period people and learn the stories of Williamsburg’s 18th-century men, women and children. For the adventurous, you could sign up for the axe throwing or learn how to fire a flintlock musket.

The city of Williamsburg was the capital of the Colony and Commonwealth of Virginia from 1699 to 1780 and the center of political events in Virginia leading to the American Revolution. The first building we toured was the Capitol building. It is an accurate reconstruction of the Capitol as it was completed in 1705. The latter was replaced after a fire in 1747 by another building, which was in turn burned down in 1832. It is quite an imposing building.

The plan is H-shaped, with two apsidal-ended wings. The entrance is through a central linking block which, on the ground floor, takes the form of an open arched veranda and, on the first floor, housed a conference room for joint meetings between the Governor's Council and members of the House of Burgesses.

Built of brick and basically Georgian in character, the building shows the effect of climate on architectural style. Because of the heat of the Virginian summers, the proportion of solid to open space is considerably higher than in English examples. The open entrance veranda permits the free circulation of air. The building was built after the capitol was moved from Jamestown to Williamsburg and was not used any more when the capitol was moved to Richmond in 1780.

We took a casual stroll along Duke of Gloucester Street, referred to by FR as “the most historic avenue in America.” Our interpretive guide highlighted some of the 300 year old town’s many historic sites. In colonial times, a doctor was known as an apothecary. Yet these apothecaries were more than just doctors. They prescribed medical treatment and medicine, trained apprentices, performed surgery, and served as man-midwives. Apothecaries made house calls to treat patients. Apothecaries also used to MAKE medicine for patients – just think, they didn’t have to wait at a drug store for their prescription to be filled! How convenient. Our guide, pointed out the Pasteur & Galt Apothecary Shop located on the Duke of Gloucester Street where two apothecary-surgeons practiced. The Shop features copies of Dr. Galt’s certificates in surgery, medical theory, and midwifery for completed training at Saint Thomas’s Hospital in London. Our guide read how to treat a cough, the first treatment was to ride a horse vigorously for several hours in the afternoon and to wash your feet well. What does either have to do with a cough?!

So, if you had ever wondered what the Cure for Refractory was, it was a scare tactic for stubborn and disobedient colonists. If you decided to disobey (Refractory), you would get tarred and feathered (the Cure). Sometimes this was a fatal cure for colonists, for some had even drown from the tar. Talk about cruel and unusual! What could have been a more civil way to scare these American Colonists? Would you have obeyed to pay the British more money that wasn’t rightfully theirs to take? Or defy them? The Boston Tea Party, along with other protests in the American Colonies, led to Britain’s demanding the right to tax, and this increased the Colonists’ stubborn resistance and defiance to pay any levy. Many posters and newspapers printed in England mocked, commented, and pictured (much like our editorial cartoons we have today) the events that led to the American Revolution. A mezzotint (a print, etched on copper or steel) that represented events in Williamsburg is believed to depict an article that was printed in the London Chronicle, January 26th, 1775, referring to the signing of nonimportation from England agreements supporting American self-sufficiency. The paper noted “Many Virginians being reluctant to sign, a gibbet, inscribed ‘A Cure for the Refractory’ was erected in the capital, Williamsburg, from which were hung a barrel of tar and sack of feathers, which proved very effective in securing signatures.”

We enjoyed lunch at a tavern specializing in barbeque and other colonial quick fare. By day Chowning's is an 18th-century ale house and in the evenings it is widely known for Gambols, a late evening entertainment offered nightly, including balladeers, colonial games and other 18th-century "diversions."

I watched a blue bird fly into a bottle. What, a bottle? On the side of the house? Weird? Not, really ... In colonial times, bird bottles were hung beneath the eaves of buildings to encourage martins and other small birds to roost and help with insect control. Unique pottery bird bottles pictured in 18th century prints of Colonial Williamsburg suggest early Virginia colonists had an interest in attracting birds. The reason colonists provided nest sites for birds almost certainly had more to do with insect control than bird watching. Glazed, earthenware, wide-mouthed red bottles were turned horizontally and mounted beneath eaves on the walls of houses, outbuildings, taverns and stables. An inventory in 1716 of the possessions of one Williamsburg property listed "16 bird bottles." In the 1960s, archeologists excavating in the James Geddy House yard uncovered one of these bottles. 

After lunch, we walked toward the Green and headed for the Governor’s Palace. We found there are more than 30 gardens on the grounds of the Palace, consisting of various flowers and 18th century tree and shrub varieties. The Palace garden covers ten acres. By 1688 men of taste were building larger gardens than could be kept up in a formal style. Sir William Temple in 1685 detected the danger, writing: "As to the size of the garden which will perhaps in time grow extravagant among us, I think from four to five to seven acres is as much as any gentleman need design." 

We found out a few interesting features. The tree covered walkways. The gardener intertwined trees with climbing plants to screen any occupants of the arbor from intruding eyes.

Looking up the tree branches were intertwined like the wires of necklace.

Sadly, the members of today’s society have no care for things that should be left untouched and have defaced the tree trunks with initials and other engravings.

 

The gardener planted the slope with sweet-smelling herbs, made seats or benches of turf, and set them at intervals; he covered little paths with sand or gravel, and kept them free from weeds. 

We learned that artichokes are a cultivated variety of the cardoon, which is a member of the thistle family. You harvest and eat artichoke buds before they mature into flowers, but if you allow a bud to open, you'll see that the gorgeous bristly periwinkle bloom bears a strong family resemblance to thistle.

On our way to the bus stop, we found a local garden and saw more beautiful flowers.

Stay tuned as our adventures continue!