"This House stands pleasantly upon the North side of the River, and a tolerable garden seemed to be in as decent order as most I have seen in America. The method of Single men having House-keepers is esteemed here very reputable and genteel. In the morning while my Breakfast and Horse was getting ready, I sought after some instruction for my journey, and as it happened, I found a Person up that kepped a store, who gave me a draught of the road to Hoes Ferry on Potomac River. I have since been informed of my true Route was from Southern on this Rappahannocke River to Lovels Ferry on Potomac River, it being not only a better Road, but I should have saved at least Ten or Twelve miles in the Riding of Thirty, the only objection being that at the Hoes the River is not more than five miles wide; but at Lovels to Cedar Point (in Md.) it is eight or ten, consequently in windy weather the passage is more difficult and unsafe; but at this time of the year no great danger was to be apprehended. The Gentleman's name who delineated the Road for me to Hoes Ferry is Thompson."
It was for a special reason that Nelly wanted to go back home. It was not that she was unhappy in her new home for it was beautiful there at the head of the deeply wooded valley with the Blue Ridge towering in the distance. The frame house, which had been built by her husband's father, was modest but comfortable, and there were slaves to do the heavy work. Still, she wanted to go home and her husband humoured his nineteen-year-old wife, and prepared for the journey.
To Nelly home was the low country--the flat lands where the air was damp and the fogs rolled in from the River.
Nelly probably traveled home in a carriage of some sort for the trail led through the virgin forest. The nights were doubtless spent at farmhouses along the way. As they neared Fredericksburg they probably met up with other travelers on horseback, and teamsters with wagons loaded with wheat and tobacco for export.
Fredericksburg was all "a-bustle" at that time with foreign ships lying at the wharves and wagons rumbling along the streets. What a welcome sight the Rappahannock must have been to Nelly! And there was the ferry which would carry her across to her homeland! It was a rope-hauled ferry, pulled back and forth across the River by the ferryman.