The pioneers dressed universally in the hunting shirt or blouse, sometimes fringed and decorated, and perhaps the most convenient frock ever conceived.  It fit loosely, was open in front, reached almost to the knees, and had large sleeves, and a cape for the protection of the shoulders in bad weather.  In the ample bosom of this shirt the hunter carried his bread and meat, the tow with which to wipe out the barrel of his rifle, and other small requisites.  To his belt, tied or buckled behind, he suspended his mittens, bullet-pouch, tomahawk, and knife and sheath.  His hunting-shirt was made of dressed deer-skin—­very uncomfortable in wet weather—­or of linsey, when it was to be had.  The pioneer dressed his lower body in drawers and leathern cloth leggins, and his feet in moccasins; a coon-skin cap completing the attire.

His wife wore a linsey petticoat, home-spun and home-made, and a short gown of linsey or “callimanco,” when that material could be obtained.  She wore no covering for the feet in ordinary weather, and moccasins, coarse, “country-made” shoes, or “shoe-packs” during more rigorous seasons.  To complete the picture Kercheval, the historian of the Shenandoah Valley, is here quoted:  “The coats and bed-gowns of the women, as well as the hunting-shirts of the men, were hung in full display on wooden pegs around the walls of their cabins, so that while they answered in some degree the purpose of paper-hangings or tapestry, they announced to the stranger as well as the neighbor the wealth or poverty of the family in the articles of clothing.”

* * * * *

It is to be hoped that the desultory sketch furnished above will not be found uninteresting despite its imperfections.  Many details have been omitted or neglected, but enough has been written to illustrate in a general way the qualities for which our ancestors were most distinguished, for which their characters have excited most comment and perhaps deserved most praise.

As a whole, they were a generous, large-hearted, liberal-minded people, and their faults were far fewer than their virtues.  The yeomanry, in their own rude, rough-and-ready manner, reflected the same sort of personal independence of character and proud sense of individuality as the social aristocracy.

FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

Little can be learned of Loudoun’s participation in the last great French and Indian War (1754-1763).  It had its beginning three years prior to her admission into the sisterhood of Virginia counties, and the services she must have rendered during that period are, of course, accredited to Fairfax, of which county she was then a part.  The few existing or available records of the remaining six years of warfare, as of the entire period, are imperfect and unlocalized and would baffle the most experienced and persevering compiler.

The only deductions that have seemed at all noteworthy are here presented: