"The first Virginians," said Grey, "thought that over the hills lay the western ocean and the road to Cathay.

But I am very sure that our sons will be Virginians.

It is true that Thackeray, in his Virginians, gave us in fiction the finest picture of our colonial life, and the late and deeply lamented Lord Bryce wrote one of the best commentaries upon our institutions in The American Commonwealth.

Of this great leader, one of the noblest that ever "lived in the tide of time," it is only necessary to quote the fine tribute paid to him by the greatest of the Victorian novelists in his Virginians: "What a constancy, what a magnanimity, what a surprising persistence against fortune!...

CONTENTS HENRY ESMOND THE VIRGINIANS BECKY SHARP

THE VIRGINIANS

Mr. Esmond previously to this had married Rachel, widow of the late Francis Castlewood, Baronet, by whom he had one daughter, afterwards Madame Warrington, whose twin sons, George and Henry Warrington, were known as the Virginians.

The Virginians boasted that King Charles II. had been king in Virginia before he had been king in England.

The Virginians, Madame Rachel Warrington's sons, inherited the finest blood and traditions, and the rightful king of England had not two more faithful little subjects than the young twins of Castlewood.

There were a number of persons gathered along the low rail, attracted by the unusual spectacle, and curiously watching us being herded aboard, and dispatched below, but, to judge from their appearance, these were probably all passengerssome of them adventurers seeking the new land on their first voyage, although among them I saw others, easily recognized as Virginians on their way home.

Another was clearly enough a Colonial proprietor, a heavily built man of middle age, purple faced, and wearing the broad hat with uplifted brim characteristic of Virginians.

Giles Peram, having regained his strength and breath, sprang to his feet and ran as fast as his short legs could carry him to the far end of the street to escape from the town; but half a dozen mounted Virginians with broadswords blocked up his passage.

Matches were burning, the cocks of the fusees raised, and the Virginians stood cool and undaunted.

The Virginians hated him for his merciless vengeance on their people, and a rumor reached his ears that he was no better liked in England.

Two other novels, The Newcomes (1855) and The Virginians (1859), complete the list of Thackeray's great works of fiction.

That whole portion of the line gave way in disorder, and fled from the field, which was strewed with their dead; and, as the other supports had not kept up, the Virginians under Pickett were left alone to breast the tempest which had now burst upon them in all its fury.

Garnett was killed; Armistead fell, mortally wounded, as he leaped on the breastworks, cheering and waving his hat; Kemper was shot and disabled, and the ranks of the Virginians were thinned to a handful.

"The Virginians, as a rule," he replied, "are certainly a very well-grown and vigorous race.

Thus Virginians and North Carolinians, crossing the Alleghanies, settled Kentucky and Tennessee; thus people from New England filled up the central and northern parts of New York, and passed on into Michigan and Wisconsin; thus Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois received many settlers from New York and Pennsylvania.

The Virginians affected fell into three classes.

Then tell me this: why do Kentuckians in this part of Kentucky think so much of themselves compared with the rest of the world?" "Perhaps it's because they are Virginians.

It was followed by "Pendennis" in 1850, "Esmond" in 1852, "The Newcomes" in 1855, and "The Virginians" in 1859.

The Virginians were a singular compound of gayety and gravity.

Robert, Tayoga and Grosvenor were in a group of nearly fifty young Virginians.

Though this was the easiest method, yet the danger from Indians was so very great that most immigrants, the Pennsylvanians as well as the Marylanders, Virginians, and North Carolinians, usually went overland by the Wilderness Road.