Such at a later day was Arthur Lee, doctor and diplomat, student and politician.

But most of these young gentlemen thus sent abroad to improve their minds and manners led a life not materially different from that of our charming friend, Harry Warrington, after his arrival in England.
The sons who stayed at home sometimes gathered a little learning from the clergyman of the parish, or received a fair education at the College of William and Mary, but very many did not have even so much as this.

There was not in truth much use for learning in managing a plantation or raising horses, and men get along surprisingly well without that which they do not need, especially if the acquisition demands labor.

The Virginian planter thought little and read less, and there were no learned professions to hold out golden prizes and stimulate the love of knowledge.

The women fared even worse, for they could not go to Europe or to William and Mary's, so that after exhausting the teaching capacity of the parson they settled down to a round of household duties and to the cares of a multitude of slaves, working much harder and more steadily than their lords and masters ever thought of doing.
The only general form of intellectual exertion was that of governing.
The planters managed local affairs through the vestries, and ruled Virginia in the House of Burgesses.