Continuously came in folk from the Old Country, and continuously Virginians were born.

Maryland dwelt to the north, Carolina to the south.

Virginia, seeking space, must begin to grow westward.
There were settlements from the sea to the Falls of the James, and upon the York, the Rappahannock, and the Potomac.

Beyond these, in the wilderness, might be found a few lonely cabins, a scattered handful of pioneer folk, small blockhouses, and small companies of rangers charged with protecting all from Indian foray.

All this country was rolling and hilly, but beyond it stood the mountains, a wall of enchantment, against the west.
Alexander Spotswood, hardy Scot, endowed with a good temperamental blend of the imaginative and the active, was just the man, the time being ripe, to encounter and surmount that wall.