Excerpt from Laird Lee's: Guide to Historic Virginia and the Jamestown Centennial Few people realize that the Cradle of the Republic was not the rock-bound coasts Of New England, but the rich valleys of Virginia. Upon her fertile fields, the armies of three wars bivouacked, and as early as 1765 the fires Of patriotism were kindled in the House Of Burgesses at Williamsburg. Since the days of Patrick Henry, the state has given birth to many illustrious men; patriots whose fame has shaken the thrones of the Old World and revolutionized the cus toms and usages of the New Republic. Many who visit Tidewater Virginia for the first time express the utmost astonishment on learning that nothing remains of historic Jamestown but a few crumbling ruins on an uninhabited island, nearly forty miles up the James River from Norfolk and the site of the Jamestown Exposition. In the blood stained soil of the Old Dominion lie buried the ancestry and chivalry of our Nation, and no patriotic American should neglect to visit the sacred shrines that have become interwoven with the very warp and woof of our national history. Any one making the itinerary laid out in these chapters, cannot fail to become imbued with admiration for the sturdy colonists who made the wilderness to blos som as the rose; out Of primeval forests erecting the sturdy foundations of our glorious Ship of State.' About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.