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Show The Gentry of Colonial Maryland. The gentry of colonial Maryland, under un-der the rule of the earlier Calverts, lived liv-ed on the great plantations in dwellings that were accessible by water. The bay and rivers were almost their only highways, high-ways, and the obliterated little thorp of St Mary's, founded on the site of an Indian village whereof the memory is dear to every son of the soil, was their only city. At home they sat on stools and forms and dined without forks, cutting their moat with their rapiers. But their walls were wainscoted and their chambers comfortably bedded. Tea and coffee they rarely tasted, and sugar was a luxury, but sack and cider and punch flowed freely. Witness the facetious instructions of Governor Calvert to Colonel Price to bring certain articles to Fort St. Inigoe'a for the use of the soldiers: "And upon motion of sack the said governor 'bade him bring saok, if he found any." In the early records of the province there Is more sack than Falstaff 's drawer ever scored. The colonial gentry dispensed ardent spirits at funerals and clinked the sack cup at christenings, and they affected signet rings with their leather breeches and boot hose. Cattle stealing was not in fashion. Only a sheriff of Kent was once charged with that offense, while a governor of Virginia was convicted. con-victed. Neither was there ever an execution exe-cution for witchcraft in the province of Maryland. "Old Maryland Homes and Ways" in Century. |