Joanna Burke

ENG 241

Survey of American Literature I

Archive/Rare Book Collection Report

Dr. Thomas Long

Summer 2001

A Report on

As I entered the Martha Woodruff Hiden Virginia Room in the Newport News public library, I immediately felt a drop in temperature compared to the main section of the library. "Morgues are also kept at colder temperatures," I thought to myself. On the shelves were volumes of genealogies, volumes of archives of specific states, volumes of the documents of the American Revolution, volumes of the names of soldiers in the continental wars. The climate controlled chill was keeping the past available for the living to view. Aisle by aisle, I perused the shelves searching for just the book of a life to be told. Poised inconspicuously between thicker books, I noticed a rusty-clay colored, about eight and a half by twelve inch, thin, worn book. Upon further examination, I saw that the edges of the cover and pages were frayed from wear; the off-white pages had a symmetrical, brown stain at the top that had penetrated from cover to cover. On the front cover, this image of antiquity was titled JOURNAL OF A Young Lady of Virginia, 1782.

The copy that I was looking at was actually published in 1871, nearly a century after the journal was written. The preface of the book explains that the journal "was found torn, and discolored by age, in an old desk at the country place in Maryland, to which Polly Brent carried it." The author of the journal, Lucinda, wrote the entries while she was visiting relatives in lower Virginia. Lucinda’s relations, the Lee family of whom General Robert E. Lee was a descendent, are mentioned very often. "It is believed the publication of this Journal will be well received, at a period when everything relating to the family of General Lee is of peculiar interest. (Preface) (Reconstruction era nostalgia for the "Old South") The publishers of the journal had, almost a century after the original was found, similar sentiments to my own over two centuries later. The journal "presents…a curious picture of the life and manners of that day."

Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia is indeed a brief glimpse of a young lady’s life, interests, customs, manners, and lifestyle that was written informally and candidly (orthography was of scant importance) to a dear friend of hers, Marcia Brent (Polly), between September 16, 1782 and November 12, 1782. Almost immediately, I was amused to read what the young lady thought necessary to mention to Polly. Lucinda had just met a girl from the vicinity that she was visiting and describes her to Polly, "…Lucy Gordon (the new acquaintance)—very clever, though not a Beauty." Throughout the journal, Lucinda describes the people she meets. She usually describes them as "affable," "agreeable," "genteel," "polite," "impertinent," or "clever," but one of the main critiques is always whether they are "handsome" or not. Peculiarly, the word "handsome" was used to describe both male and female as opposed to describing just the males.

Lucinda meets and describes so many people, because she is traveling by chariot from residence to residence. The residences were given titles such as Belleview, Chantilly, Richland, Lee Hall, and Stratford. For example, Stratford was the name of the residence of Philip Ludwell Lee. The residences were perhaps estates worthy of titles. Lucinda’s relations were presumably of the upper class. The relatives entertained senators and colonels and were people of position themselves. For example, the editor’s footnote on the September 27 entry says that Mr. Charles Lee was Attorney-General in General Washington’s second Cabinet.

It is not understood whether Lucinda’s lifestyle was one of pleasure, because she was on vacation, or if Lucinda’s lifestyle was one of leisure because of her class status. In the brief period of time Lucinda wrote about, she describes a life of leisure, playing cards, having tea, taking walks, riding horses for pleasure, going to a dance or ball, and reading. Lucinda dearly missed her friend Polly during the walks wishing that she "could have her Polly to point out the Beauties too, and make her observations." Whether Lucinda was playing cards, having tea, or going to a dance, she always had to dress for the occasion and made it a point to tell Marcia (Polly) what the women wore. "Mrs. P. wears a brocade; Cousin M. her pink Great-Coat, and I my pink. Adieu. Mrs. P. is going to dress my hair." Lucinda also passed the time reading many books like Malvern Dale ("It is something like Evelina, though not so pretty."), Telemechus (It is really delightful, and very improveing."), Victoria ("I can’t say I admire the Tale, though I think it prettyly told."), Lady Julia Mandeville ("I never cried more in my life reading a Novel: the stile is beautiful, but the tale is horrid.") The thread of self-improvement that began in the early colonial days is evident in a quote from Lucinda to Polly, "I have a piece of advice to give you, which I have before urged—that is, to read something improving. Books of instruction will be a thousand times more pleasing [after a little while] than all the novels in the World."

When Lucinda wrote her journal, she probably never anticipated that it would be published or that posterity would be appreciating or analyzing it for history or literature reports. She may have paid more attention to orthography, or not shared the secrets as friends often do about admirers, or related how "two horred Mortals, Mr. Pinkard and Mr. Washington, (who) seized me and kissed me a dozen times in spite of all the resistance I could make. They really think, now they are married, they are prevaliged to do anything." While I did gain historical insight to the word choice, book choice, lifestyle and manners of eighteenth century upper class behavior (riding in chariots, being exempt from labor, going to balls), it was the warmth and freshness of youth pervading the tone of the journal that kept my interest. Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia, 1782, is a precious, unpretentious, preserved lingering breath of young lady Lucinda.

Journal of a Young Lady of Virginia. Baltimore: John Murphy and Company, 1871.