The domestic happiness found in these plantation mansions was apparently ideal.  Families were generally large; there was much inter-marriage, generation after generation, within the aristocratic circle; and thus everybody was related to everybody.  This gave an excuse for an amount of informal and prolonged visiting that would be almost unpardonable in these more practical and in some ways more economical days.  There was considerable correspondence between the families, especially among the women, and by means of the numerous references to visits, past or to come, we may picture the friendly cordial atmosphere of the time.  Washington, for instance, records that he “set off with Mrs. Washington and Patsy, Mr. [Warner] Washington and wife, Mrs. Bushrod and Miss Washington, and Mr. Magowen for ‘Towelston,’ in order to stand for Mr. B. Fairfax’s third son, which I did with my wife, Mr. Warner Washington and his lady.”  “Another day he returns from attending to the purchase of western lands to find that Col.  Bassett, his wife and children, have arrived during his absence, ’Billy and Nancy and Mr. Warner Washington being here also.’  The next day the gentlemen go a-hunting together, Mr. Bryan Fairfax having joined them for the hunt and the dinner that followed.”

Again, we find Mrs. Washington writing, with her usual unique spelling and sentence structure, to her sister: 

     “Mt.  Vernon Aug 28 1762.

“MY DEAR NANCY,—­I had the pleasure to receive your kind letter of the 25 of July just as I was setting out on a visit to Mr. Washington in Westmoreland where I spent a weak very agreabley.  I carried my little patt with me and left Jackey at home for a trial to see how well I could stay without him though we ware gone but won fortnight I was quite impatient to get home.  If I at aney time heard the doggs barke or a noise out, I thought thair was a person sent for me....

“We are daly expect(ing) the kind laydes of Maryland to visit us.  I must begg you will not lett the fright you had given you prevent you comeing to see me again—­If I coud leave my children in as good Care as you can I would never let Mr. W——­n come down without me—­Please to give my love to Miss Judy and your little babys and make my best compliments to Mr. Bassett and Mrs. Dawson.

“I am with sincere regard
“dear sister
“yours most affectionately
“MARTHA WASHINGTON."[163]

Because of the lack of good roads and the apparently great distances, the mere matter of travelling was far more important in social activities than is the case in our day of break-neck speed.  A ridiculously small number of miles could be covered in a day; there were frequent stops for rest and refreshment; and the occupants of the heavy, rumbling coaches had ample opportunity for observing the scenery and the peculiarities of the territory traversed.  Martha Washington’s grandson has left an account of her journey from Virginia to New York, and recounts how one team proved balky, delayed the travellers two hours, and thus upset all their calculations.  But the kindness of those they met easily offset such petty irritations as stubborn horses and slow coaches.  Note these lines from the account: