The Necessary

Today we went to Westover Plantation which was the home of the Byrds- as in William Byrd II and Lucy Byrd (or at least those were the two I had heard about before). William Byrd kept a coded and rather detailed diary- the students especially liked his entry about having sex with Lucy on a billiard table (that's really all he says about it- except he called it giving her a flourish). William and Lucy had a very tempestuous relationship and his diary gives us great insight into the battle between the sexes in the early 1700s. Anyway- I've read about them before so it was kind of fun seeing their home.

The fields didn't look so good- but then, what do I know about fields?



First we went to the cemetery on the plantation which is where Benjamin Harrison is buried.



Their plantation is right on the James River- which of course is a sign of how wealthy the Bryds were.







You can see the house from the river- which was a way for the Byrds to display their wealth to everyone who traveled up or down the river.



And here's the front of the house which is the side facing away from the river.







There were some very cute bunnies near the garden entrance.





And here are some pictures in the garden.





In addition to reading about the sex life of a member of the Virginia gentry we also read about "Necessaries" (which is a nice word for outhouse). Here are a couple pictures of the outhouse (one of them) at Westover. It's something else- it's a five seater with a window (with glass in it- a luxury most planters couldn't even afford for their homes let alone their outhouses) and a fireplace! If this seems a little over the top to you, keep in mind that William and Lucy likely never even used the necessary- they would have used chamber pots. Can you believe a historian actually wrote about this? Sorry if it's too much info for you.