Suggestive of the days when colonial belles were toasted about Shirley’s table, are the old punch bowl and the punch strainer and the wine coasters; though a more noteworthy object, having the same associations, is an antique mahogany wine chest with many of the original cut glass bottles still in its compartments.

[Illustration:  Some noteworthy pieces of old Shirley plate.]

And looking at Shirley’s old silver in Shirley’s old dining-room, we thought of the lavish colonial entertainments in which both had played their part.  What hospitable places were those early planters’ homes!  As courts, assemblies, races, funerals, weddings, and festivals took the people up and down the country, they found few inns; but, instead, at every great plantation, wide-spreading roofs and ever-open doors.  The spirit of welcome even stood at the gates and laid hands upon the passing traveller, drawing him up the shady avenues and into the hospitable homes.

In the days of the colonial Carters (who, through a complicated network of intermarriages, were cousins to all the rest of Virginia), Shirley must often have been full to overflowing.

And, along with our thoughts of Shirley’s hospitality, came the recollection of a pretty story that had been told to us one day at Brandon by Miss Mary Lee, daughter of General Robert E. Lee.  It was a story of one of the merry, old-time gatherings about Charles Carter’s long table in the Shirley dining-room.  Among the guests was a dashing young cavalry officer who had won fame and the rank of general in the Revolutionary War; and who, in his unsatisfied military ardour, was contemplating joining the Revolutionary Army of France.  But just now, he was contemplating only his host and his dinner.

Suddenly, he became aware of a flushed and charming maiden in distress.  She had lifted a great cut glass dish filled with strawberries, and it was more than her little hands could hold.  She strove to avert a crash; and, just in time, the gallant young General caught the appealing look from the dark eyes and the toppling dish from the trembling hands.  But in saving the bowl and the berries, he lost his heart.

And the maiden was Anne Hill Carter, daughter of the genial host; and the young General was “Light Horse Harry” Lee.  The dreams of further glory on French battlefields were abandoned; and there was another feast at Shirley when bridal roses of June were in bloom.  The young people went to live at Stratford, the ancestral home of the Lees; and there was born their famous son, Robert E. Lee.

As Shirley’s old dining-room thus brought to our minds that greatest Virginian of our day, so it brought to mind the greatest Virginian of all days; for, even as we looked at silver and thought of love stories, a life-size portrait of George Washington, by Charles Wilson Peale, stood looking down upon us from the panelled wall.