After visiting Col. Spotswood at his home and seeing his iron mine and furnace ["Tubal"], William Byrd took his leave and made his way to Fredericksburg where his host was Col. Harry Willis. The day was now October 2, 1732. The story resumes the next morning.
"3 [October 1732]. I was obliged to rise early here that I might not starve my landlord, whose constitution requires him to swallow a beefsteak before the sun blesses the world with its genial rays. However, he was so complaisant as to bear the gnawing of his stomach till eight o'clock for my sake. Colonel Waller, after a score of loud hems to clear his throat, broke his fast along with us.
"When this necessary affair was dispatched, Colonel Willis walked me about his town of Fredericksburg. It is pleasantly situated on the south shore of Rappahannock River, about a mile below the falls. Sloops may come up and lie close to the wharf, within thirty yards of the public warehouses, which are built in the figure of a cross. Just by the wharf is a quarry of white stone that is very soft in the ground and hardens in the air, appearing to be as fair and fine-grained as that of Portland. Besides that, there are several other quarries in the river bank, within the limits of the town, sufficient to build a great city. The only edifice of stone yet built is the prison, the walls of which are strong enough to hold Jack Sheppard [a notorious highwayman of the 1720's], if he had been transported hither.
"Though this be a commodious and beautiful situation for a town, with the advantages of a navigable river and wholesome air, yet the inhabitants are very few. Besides Colonel Willis, who is the top man of the place, there are only one merchant, a tailor, a smith, and an ordinary keeper though I must not forget Mrs. Levistone, who acts here in the double capacity of a doctress and coffee woman. And were this a populous city, she is qualified to exercise two other callings. 'Tis said the courthouse and the church are going to be built here, and then both religion and justice will help to enlarge the place.
"Two miles from this place is a spring strongly impregnated with alum, and so is the earth all about it. This water does wonders for those that are afflicted with dropsy. And on the other side the river, in King George County, twelve miles from hence, is another spring of strong steel water as good as that at Tunbridge Wells. Not far from this last spring are England's Iron Mines, called so from the chief manager of them, though the land belongs to Mr. Washington [father of George]. These mines are two miles from the furnace, and Mr. Washington raises the ore, and carts it thither for 20s. the ton that it yields. . . ."
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