When they got out of the wilderness he parted from his companions and rode off alone. He now stayed at the settler’s house that was nearest when night overtook him. At a large house, such as that of the Campbell’s, near Abingdon, he was of course welcomed to the best, and treated with a generous hospitality, for which it would have been an insult to offer money in return. At the small cabins he paid his way; usually a shilling and threepence or a shilling and sixpence for breakfast, bed, and feed for the horse; but sometimes four or five shillings. He fell in with a Captain Campbell, with whom he journeyed a week, finding him “an agreeable companion.” They had to wait over one stormy day, at a little tavern, and probably whiled away the time by as much of a carouse as circumstances allowed; at any rate, Clark’s share of the bill when he left was L1 4_s_. [Footnote: The items of expense jotted down in the diary are curious. For a night’s lodging and board they range from 1s. 3d. to 13s. In Williamsburg, the capital, they were for a fortnight L9 18s.] Finally, a month after leaving Harrodsburg, having travelled six hundred and twenty miles, he reached his father’s house. [Footnote Seventy miles beyond Charlottesville; he gives an itinerary of his journey, making it six hundred and twenty miles in all, by the route he travelled. On the way he had his horse shod and bought a pair of shoes for himself; apparently he kept the rest of his backwoods apparel. He sold his gun for L15 and swapped horses again—this time giving L7 l0_s_. to boot.]
After staying only a day at his old home, he set out for Williamsburg, where he was detained a fortnight before the State auditors would settle the accounts of the Kentucky militia, which he had brought with him. The two things which he deemed especially worthy of mention during this time were his purchase of a ticket in the State lottery, for three pounds, and his going to church on Sunday—the first chance he had had to do so during the year. [Footnote: When his accounts were settled he immediately bought “a piece of cloth for a jacket; price, L4 15_s_; buttons, etc., 3_s_.”] He was overjoyed at the news of Burgoyne’s surrender; and with a light heart he returned to his father’s house, to get a glimpse of his people before again plunging into the wilds.
Clark and Patrick Henry.