Note (return) — Replies.

As to Colonel Byrd's portrait. There were, I believe, three gentlemen of this name and title, more or less confounded in reputation, the second of whom, generally known as "Colonel Byrd the Elder," by reason of his son's history, was born in 1674. The picture is of his father, that is, of "old," or "the first Colonel Byrd," and is in the same style as that of Colonel Hill's, representing a shepherd lad. He was an English gentleman of great wealth, and certainly of some benevolence. In Campbell's Virginia, p. 104. (see also Oldmixon, vol. i. p. 427.), it is stated, 1690, a large body of Huguenots were sent to Virginia. "The refugees found in Colonel Byrd, of Westover, a generous benefactor. Each settler was allowed a strip of land running back from the river to the foot of the hill (Henrico County). Here they raised cattle," &c. He sent his son to England to be educated under the care of a friend, Sir Robert Southwell. The son became a Fellow of the Royal Society, "was the intimate and bosom friend of the learned and illustrious Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery," was the author of the Westover MSS. (mentioned in Oldmixon's preface, 2nd ed.), portions of which, "Progress to the Mines," "History of the Dividing Line," &c., have been printed, others are in the library of the American Philosophical Society.[3] His portrait is "by Kneller, a fine old cavalier face," says Campbell. The letters received at Westover might prove not uninteresting even to C., seeing that there were so many titled people among the writers; and to a gentleman of education and intelligence, the Westover library would have been a treasure-house. In the Loganian Library in this city is a large MS. folio, whose title-page declares it to be "a catalogue of books in the library at Westover, belonging to William Byrd, Esq.," from which it appears that in Law there were the English reporters (beginning with Y. B.) and text-writers, laws of France, Scotland, Rome (various editions of Pandects, &c.); Canon Law, with numerous approved commentators on each. In Physic a great many works, which, as I am told, were, and some still are, of high repute: I note only one, Poor Planter's Physician interleaved. This, to every one who has been upon a great Virginia plantation, bespeaks the benevolence characteristic of the proprietors of Westover. In Divinity, besides pages of orthodox divines, Bibles in various languages (several in Hebrew, one in seven vols.), are Socinius, Bellarmine, &c. The works on Metallurgy, Natural History, Metaphysics, Military Science, Heraldry, Navigation, Music, &c., are very numerous; and either of the collections of history, or entertainment, or classics, or political science, would form no inconsiderable library of itself. An impression of Colonel Byrd's book-plate, given by a friend, is enclosed. I must add that the pictures at Brandon are at that mansion, through the marriage of Mr. Harrison (a signer of the Declaration of Independence) with the daughter of the third Colonel Byrd.