T
THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
GIFT OF
COMMODORE BYRON MCCANDLESS
1 1 1
MOUNT VEKNON
ITS ASSOCIATIONS,
BY BENSON J. LOSSING.
ILLUSTRATED BY XUMP]ROUS EXGRAVIXGS,
CHIKPLY FROM ORIGINAL DRAWINGS BY THE AUTHOR, ENGRAVED BY LOSSING * BARRITT.
X K \\r Y 0 R K :
. A . T O AV 1ST S K N I) «to COMPANY, 46 WALKER 8 T U K E T . 1859.
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1859, by
BENSON J. L03SING. In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.
C. A. ALVOK1I, PK1NTKR, XKW YORK.
TO HIS PATRIOTIC COUNT
BY WHOSE EFFORTS
<T b t 1 o m f a n b <T o m b of <SH a s b i n 9 1 o n
£ &
HAVE BEEN RESCUED
FROM DECAY. This Volume is Dedicated
BY
THE AUTHOR,
PREFACE.
THE title of this volume is so fully indicative of its character that scarcely a word of " foretalk," as the Saxon expresses it, seems necessary, except a remark that the work, without pre- tension to the character of a biography, presents, by the consecutive arrangement of facts and illustrations, quite a complete picture of the Private and Domestic Life of Wash- ington ; for that life, from his early childhood, was associated with Mount Vernon.
The following words, explanatory of the origin of the book, appear proper.
Early in October, 1858, I visited Mount Vemon, and en- joyed the hospitalities of the mansion for two or three days. While there I sketched many things with which Washington was associated in life, and, on my return, wrote a narrative of the visit for Harper's New Monthly Magazine, entitled Mount Vernon as it Is, illustrating it by engravings from those sketches.
On the appearance of that narrative, last March, the pub- lishers of this volume conceived the plan of a more extended
8 PREFACE.
account of Mount Vernon and its Associations, and desired me to prepare it. As the possession of that estate was to pass, this year, from the Washington family forever, it ap- peared to be an appropriate time for the preparation of such a memorial, and I undertook it. The following pages are the result.
To make the work more complete, I visited Arlington House and other places, where I knew there were objects that were once at Mount Yernon, and made sketches of them. Those, and the drawings made for Harper's Magazine, and a few that are in my Field- Book of the Revolution, are given in this work.
To those friends who kindly afforded me facilities for form- ing drawings, and especially to the family of Colonel Lee, at Arlington House, and Mr. John A. "Washington, at Mount Vernon, I here acknowledge my obligations, and tender my
thanks.
B. J. L.
POUGHKEEPSIE, August, 1859.
ILLUSTRATIONS.
I'AOK
1. Portrait of Washington (steel).
2. Rear View of Mount Vernon in 1786 (steel).
3. Frontispiece — View of Mount Vernon.
4. Washington's Book-plate 13
5. Cave Castle 15
6. Washington Mortar 16
7. Washington's Seal 17
8. Washington's Seal-ring 17
9. Washington's Watch-seals 17
10. Fac-simile of signatures of Jane and Mary Washington. 18.
11. Dutch Tile — half the size of the original 20
12. Residence of the Washington Family 21
1 3. Washington's Birth-place 22
14. Lawrence Washington , , . ... 25
1 5. Admiral Vernon 2G
16. The Vernon Medal 28
17. Washington's Telescope 36
18. Pack-saddle 30
19. Leathern Camp-chest 39
20. Washington's first Head-quarters. 41
21. The Carey House in 1859 42
22. Mary Phillipse 45
23. Morris's House 46
24. Daniel Parke Custis 50
25. Mrs. Custis's Iron Chest. . . 50
26. Mrs. Washington's Children 52
27. Mrs. Washington at the time of her Marriage 53
28. Chairs once at Mount Vernon. . 55
10 ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
29. Custis Arms 60
30. Washington's Gold Pen with Silver Cape 66
31. Fac-simile of Page-headings in Washington's Diary 66
32. Fac-simile of Entry in Washington's Diary . . 67
33. Mount Vernon Landing 69
34. Ground-plan and Elevation of Pohick Church 74
.35. Mason L. Weems 76
36. Christ Church, Alexandria 77
37. Pohick Church in 1859 78
38. Pulpit in Pohick Church 79
39. Charles Willson Peale 81
40. Washington's Military Button 81
41. Washington as a Virginia Colonel, at the age of forty 82
42. Fac-simile of Peale's Receipt 83
43. John Parke Custis 84
44. Patrick Hohry 89
45. General Charles Lee . . 94
46. General Horatio Gates 96
47. Gold Medal awarded to Washington for the Deliverance of Boston 102
48. Hessian Flag' taken at Trenton 103
49. British Flag taken at Yorktown 104
50. Count de Rochambeau 107
51. Marquis de Chastellux. 109
52. Eleanor Parke Custis 114
53. Washington's Military Clothes 119
54. The Sword and Staff 121
55. Washington's Camp-chest 122
56. Silver Camp-goblet 1 24
57. Washington's travelling Writing-case 125
58. Washington's Tents in their Portmanteaux 126
59. Order of the Cincinnati 129
60. Order presented by French Officers 130
61. Cincinnati Society — Member's Certificate 131
62. Western Front of Mount Vernon in 1858 137
63. Section of shaded Carriage-way 140
64. General plan of the Mansion and Grounds at Mount Vernon 141
65. Garden-house 143
66. Century-plant and Lemon-tree 144
67. View in the Flower-garden at Mount Vernon — the Sago Palm 145
68. Ruins of the Conservatory at Mount Vernon 146
69. Ice-house at Mount Vernon .. . 147
ILLUSTRATIONS. 11
PAG a
70. Summer-house at Mount Vernon ... 148
71. Lafayette.— Painted by C. W. Peale, in 1778 152
72. Masonic Apron wrought by the Marchioness Lafayette 153
73. Houdou's Bust of Washington 163
74. Houdou's Statue of Washington 164
75. Elizabeth Parke Custis 168
76. G. W. P. Custis when a child 169
77. Italian Chimuey-piece 172
78. Tablet on the left, of Chimney-piece 173
79. Centre Tablet 173
80. Tablet on the right of Chimney-piece 173
81. Porcelain Vases 174
82. Oolouel David Humphreys 181
83. Engraving of Louis XVI 183
84. Washington and Lafayette 185
85. Washington's Destiny 186
86. Charles Thomson 193
87. Travelling Boot-jack 195
88. Ancient entrance to Mount Vernon in 1858 , . . . . 196
89. Bible used at the Inauguration of Washington 202
90. Washington's Lepine Watch, Seal and Key 207
91. Washington's last Watch-seal 207
92. Washington's Dress Sword 211
93. Secretary and Circular Chair 215
94. Destruction of the Bastile 221
95. Key of the Bastile 223
96. Washington's Spy-glass 224
97. Washington's Pistol 226
98. Bust of M. Necker 229
99. Bust of Lafayette 230
100. Washington's English Coach 232
101. Emblazon .ng on Washington's Coach 233
102. Picture of a Panel on Washington's Coach 234
103. Cincinnati China 240
104. Mrs. Washington's China 241
105. China Butter-bowl and Dish 242
106. Wine-coolers and Coaster 251
107. Specimens of Washington's Plate 252
108. The Presidential Mansion 253
109. Martha Washington 261
1 10. Nelly Custis's Harpsichord 268
12 ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAOI
111. George Washington Lafayette 286
112. G. W. P. Custis at the age of seventeen years 294
113. Crayon Profile of Washington 296
114. Crayon Profile of Mrs. Washington 297
115. Washington's Inkstand 300
116. Mural Candelabra 301
117. Ancient Lantern 301
118. Sideboard, Tea-table and Punch-bowl 303
119. Washington's Silver Candlestick 303
120. Morning — a Landscape by Winstanley 305
121. Evening — a Landscape by Winstanley 305
122. Dr. James Craik 318
123. Bed and Bedstead on which Washington died 323
124. Room in which Washington died 324
125. Silver Shield on Washington's Coffin 327
126. Washington's Bier 329
127. The Old Vault in 1858 330
128. General Henry Lee 332
129. McPherson's Blue 334
130. Bushrod Washington 337
131. Westford 333
132. Washington's Marble Coffin 342
133. Lid of Washington's Coffin 342
134. Washington's Tomb 343
135. Washington's Liquor-chest 347
136. Washington's Mirror 347
137. Water-mark . 343
138. Washington's Address Card 348
139. Pitcher Portrait .350
MOUNT YERNON AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS.
K many an ancient volume in the lib- rary at Mount Yer- ; non, while the man- sion remained in the possession of the "Washington family, was the engraved book-plate of the il- lustrious proprietor, which displayed, as usual, the name and armorial bearings of the owner. The lan- guage of heraldry learnedly describes the family arms of "Washington as " argent, two bars gules in chief, three mullets of the second. Crest, a raven, with wings, indorsed proper, issuing out of a ducal coronet, or" All this may be in- interpreted, a white or silver shield, with two red bars across
WASHINGTON S BOOK-PLATE.
14 MOUNT VERNON
it, and above them three spur rowels, the combination ap- pearing very much like the stripes and stars on our national ensign. The crest, a raven of natural color issuing out of a golden ducal coronet. The three mullets or star-figures indi- cated the filial distinction of the third son.
Back into the shadowy past six hundred years and more we may look, and find the name of Washington presented with "honorable mention" in several counties in England, on the records of the field, the church, and the state. They were generally first-class agriculturists, and eminently loyal men when their sovereigns were in trouble. In that trying time for England's monarch, a little more than two hundred years ago, when a republican army, under the authority of a revo- lutionary parliament, was hunting King Charles the First, Sir Henry Washington, a nephew of the Duke of Buckingham, is observed as governor of Worcester, and its able defender during a siege of three months by the parliamentary troops under General Fairfax. And earlier than this, when Charles, as Prince Royal, was a suitor for the hand of the Infanta of Spain, we find a Washington attached to his person. The loyal James Howell, who suffered long imprisonment in Fleet-street Jail because of his attachment to Charles, was in the train of the Prince while at Madrid ; and from that city he wrote to his "noble friend, Sir John North," in the sum- mer of 1623, saying :
" Mr. Washington, the Prince his page is lately dead of a Calenture, and I was at his buriall under a Figtree behind my Lord of Bristol's house. A little before his death one Hoi- lard, an English Priest, went to tamper with him, and Sir
AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS.
15
Edmund Varney meeting him coming down the stairs out of Washington^ chamber, they fell from words to blows : but they were parted. The business was like to gather very ill blond, and com to a great hight, had not Count Gondamar quasht it, which I beleeve he could not have done, unless the times had bin favorable ; for such is the reverence they bear to the Church here, and so holy a conceit they have of all Ecclesiastics, that the greatest Don in Spain wrill tremble to offer the meanest of them any outrage or affront."
CAVE CASTLE.
From this loyal family came emigrants to America nine years after King Charles lost his head. These were two
1C MOUNT VEKXOH
brothers, true Cavaliers, who could not brook the rule of Cromwell, the self-styled Lord Protector of England. They left their beautiful residence of Cave Castle, north of the Huinbcr, in Yorkshire, and sought more freedom of life in the virgin soil of the New World. And in later years the repre- sentatives of the Washingtous and Fairfaxes, who were neigh- bors and friends in Virginia, found themselves, in political positions, opposed to those of their ancestors; that of the former being the great leader of a republican army, and of the latter a most loyal adherent of the crown.
The Washingtons who first came to America seem not to have been possessed of much wealth. They brought with them no family plate as evidences of it ; for the heiress of the family had given her hand and fortune to an English baronet, the master of the fine estate of Studley Royal, where now the eldest son of the late Earl of Ripon. resides. It is believed that there is only one relic of the old Washington family in this country, and that is a small bronze mortar, having the letters " C. W." (the initials of CIMOX
>'-*!>-, "
WASHINGTON) and the date, "1664," cast upon it. That mortar is in In- dependence Hall, in Philadelphia.
The Northamptonshire family, from whom George Wash- ington was descended, wTore the motto seen upon his book- plate— EXITUS ACTAPKOBAT: "The end justifies the means;" and it was borne and heeded by the line from generation to generation, until the most illustrious of them all had achieved the greatest ends by the most justifiable means.
WASHINGTON MORTAR.
AXD ITS ASSOCIATIONS.
WASHINGTON S SEAL.
The annexed engraving is from an impression of General Washington's seal, bearing his family arms, attached to the death-warrant of a soldier executed at Morristown, in 1780. Below it is an engraving of the face of his seal-ring, « which also bears his arms and motto ; and also of two watch-seals which he wore together in early life. Upon each of the last two is engraved his mono- gram, one of them being a fac-simile of his written initials. One of these was lost by Washington himself on the bloody field of Monongahela, where Braddock was defeated in 1755 ; and the other by his nephew, in Virginia, more than twenty-five years ago. Both were found in the year 1854, and restored to the Washington family.*
Of all the volumes in the Mount Vernon library which contain Washington's book- plate none appears more interesting than Sir Matthew Ilale's Contemplations, Moral and Divine, printed at the beginning of the last century. It is well worn by frequent use ; for it was from that volume that Washington's mother drew many of those great maxims which she instilled into the mind of her WASHINGTON'S son, and wdiicli had a powerful influence in
SKAL-K1KG.
WATCH-SEALS.
* This statement is made on tlie authority of Charles J. Bushnell, Esq., of New York, whose investigations in numismatic science and kindred subjects have been careful and extensive. The engravings of the seals are copied, by his permission, from a work ol his now in preparation for the press. 2
18
MOUNT V E R N 0 X
moulding his moral character. Upon a fly-leaf of the volume are written, in bold characters, the names of the two wives of Augustine Washington, the father of our be- loved Friend. These were JANE BUTLER and MAEY BALL. Their names were written by themselves, the first with ink that retains its original blackness, and the second with a color that has faded to the tint of warm sepia.
FAC-SIMILE OF SIGNATURES.
These signatures send the thoughts on busy retrospective errands to the pleasant mansions and broad and fertile plant- ations of Virginia, when the Old Dominion was as loyal to the second King George of England as to the second King Charles in the days of Berkeley, almost a hundred years before ; or when royal governors held vice-regal courts at Williamsburg, the capital of the Commonwealth twenty years after repub- lican Bacon's torch had laid old Jamestown in ashes. Espe- cially do they send the thoughts to the beautiful spot near the Potomac, half way between Pope's and Bridge's Creek, in Westmoreland, where stood a modest mansion, surrounded by the holly and more stately trees of the forest, in which lived Mary, the mother of the great Washington.
AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. 19
In the possession of an old Virginian family may be seen a picture, in which is represented a rampant lion holding a globe in his paw, a helmet and shield, a vizor strong, and coat of mail and other emblems of strength and courage; and for a motto the words, from Ovid, Ccelumque tueri. On the back of the picture is written :
" The coat of arms of Colonel "William Ball, who came from England with his family about the year 1650, and settled at the mouth of Corotoman River, in Lancaster county, Vir- ginia, and died in 1669, leaving two sons, "William and Joseph, and one daughter, Hannah, who married Daniel Fox. William left eight sons (and one daughter), five of whom have now (Anno Domini 1779) male issue. Joseph's male issue is extinct. General George Washington is his grandson, by his youngest daughter, Mary." Here we have the Amer- ican pedigree of the mother of "Washington.
In that modest mansion near the Potomac, of which we have just spoken, a great patriot was born of a mother eight- and-twenty years of age, when the popular "William Gooch was royal governor of Virginia ; and in an old family Bible, in Hanover county, of quarto form, dilapidated by use and age, and covered with striped Virginia cloth, might have been seen, a few years ago, the following record, in the handwriting of the father of that Patriot :
" George Washington, son to Augustine and Mary his wife, was born y" llth day of February, 1731-2, about ten in the morning, and was baptized the 3d of April following; Mr, Beverly Whiting and Captain Christopher Brooks, godfathers, and Mrs. Mildred Gregory godmother."
Almost three hundred years ago Pope Gregory the Thir-
20
MOUNT VERNON
teenth ordained that ten days should be added to the tally of all past time since the birth of Jesus, to make up some frac- tional deficiencies in the calendar ; and twenty years after the above record was made, the British government ordered the Gregorian calendar, or new style, as it was called, to be adopted. The deficiency was then eleven days, and these were added. So we date the birth of Washington, and cele- brate its anniversary, on the twenty-second instead of the eleventh of February.
Washington's birth-place was a " four-roomed house, with a chimney at each end," perfectly plain outside and in. The
DUTCH TILE. — HALF THE SIZE OF THE ORIGINAL.
only approach to ornament was a Dutch-tiled chimney-piece in the best room, covered with rude pictures of Scriptural scenes ; but around the mansion there were thrift and abun- dance. George was the eldest of his mother's six children,
AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. 21
and only his infant years were passed under the roof where he first saw the light ; for fire destroyed the house, and his father removed to an estate in Stafford county, near Fredericksburg, and dwelt in an equally plain mansion, pleasantly seated near the north bank of the Rappahannock River.
RESIDENCE OF THB WASHINGTON FAMILY.
Of the birth-place of Washington nothing now remains but a chimney and a few scattered bricks and stones ; and around it, where the smiles of highest culture were once seen, there is an aspect of desolation that makes the heart feel sad. Some decayed fig-trees and tangled shrubs and vines, with here and there a pine and cedar sapling, tell, with silent eloquence, of neglect and ruin, and that decay has laid its blighting fingers
22
MOUNT VERNON
upon every work of man there. The vault of the Washington family, wherein many were buried, is so neglected that some of the remains exposed to view have been carried away by plunderers. All around it are stunted trees, shrubs, and briers ; and near it may be seen fragments of slabs once set up in commemoration of some of that honored family.
WASHINGTON S BIRTH-PLACE.
On the spot where Washington was born, the late George Washington Parke Custis, a grandson of Mrs. Washington, placed a piece of freestone in 1S15, with the simple, inscrip- tion:
HEKE,
ON THE UTII OF FEBRUARY, 1732, GEORGE WASHINGTON WAS BORN
"We gathered together," says Mr. Custis, in a published account, " the bricks of the ancient chimney that once formed the hearth around which Washington, in his infancy, had played, and constructed a rude kind of pedestal, on which we
AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. 23
reverently placed the FIRST STONE, commending it to the re- spect and protection of the American people in general, and the citizens of Westmoreland in particular." But such re- spect and protection have been withheld, and that stone is now in fragments and overgrown with brambles.
In this vicinity lived some of the Lees, always a distin- guished family in Virginia ; and one of the most intimate of Washington's friends, in his earliest childhood, was Richard Henry Lee,' afterward the eminent statesman and patriot. They were very nearly of the same age, Lee being one month the oldest. I have before me a copy of a letter written by each when they were nine years old, and which are supposed to be among the earliest, perhaps the very first, epistles penned by these illustrious men. They were sent to me a few years ago, by a son of Richard Henry Lee (who then possessed the originals), and are as follows :
KICHAKD HENRY LEE TO GEOEGE WASHINGTON.
" Pa brought me two pretty books full of pictures he got them in Alexandria they have pictures of dogs and cats and
tigers and elefants and ever so .many pretty things cousin bids
< me send you one of them it has a picture of an elefant and a
little indian boy on his back like uncle jo's sam pa says if I learn my tasks good he will let uncle jo bring me to sep you will you ask your ma to let you come to see me.
" Richard henry Lee."
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S REPLY.
" Dear Dickey I thank you very much for the pretty pic- ture book you gave me. Sam asked me to show him the
24: MOUNT VERNON
pictures and I showed him all the pictures in it ; and I read to him how the tame Elephant took care of the master's little boy, and put him on his back and would not let any body touch his master's little son. I can read three or four pages sometimes without missing a word. Ma says I may go to see you and stay all day with you next week if it be not rainy. She says I may ride my pony Hero if Uncle Ben will go with me and lead Hero. I have a little piece of poetry about the picture book you gave me, but I mustnt tell you wrho wrote
the poetry.*
" G. W.'s compliments to E. H. L., And likes his book full well, Henceforth will count him his friend, And hopes many happy days he may spend.
"Your good friend,
" George Washington.
" I am going to get a whip top soon, and you may see it and whip it."
Augustine Washington died in the spring of 1743, when his son George was eleven years of age, and by his last will and testament bequeathed his estate of Hunting Creek, upon a bay and stream of that name, near Alexandria, to Lawrence Washington, a son by his first wife, Jane Butler. It was a
* In a letter to me, accompanying the two juvenile epistles, Mr. Lee writes : "The letter of Richard Henry Lee was written by himself, and, uncorrected, was sent by him to his boy-friend, George Washington. The poetical effusion was, I have heard, written by a Mr. Howard, a gentleman who used to visit at the house of Mr. Washington."
AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS.
25
noble domain of many hundred acres, stretching for miles along the Potomac, and bordering the estates of the Fairfaxes, Masons, and other distinguished families.
LAWRENCE WASHINGTON.
Lawrence, who seems to have inherited the military spirit of his family, had lately been to the wars. Admiral Vernon, commander-in-chief of England's navy in the West Indies, had lately chastised the Spaniards for their depredations upon British commerce, by capturing Porto Bello, on the isthmus of Darien. The Spaniards prepared to strike an avenging blow, and the French determined to help them. England and her colonies were aroused. Four regiments, for service in the West Indies, were to be raised in the American col-
MOUNT V K R N 0 X
onies ; and from Massachusetts to the Carolines, the fife and drum of the recruiting sergeant were lieard. Lawrence, then a spirited young man of twenty-two, was among the thou- sands who caught the infection, and obtaining a captain's
\
ADMIKAL VERNON.
commission, he embarked for the West Indies in 1741, with between three and four thousand men under General Went- worth. That officer and Admiral Vernon commanded a joint expedition against Carthagena, in South America, which re-
AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. 27
suited iii disaster. According to the best authorities not less than twenty thousand British soldiers and seamen perished, chiefly from a fatal sickness that prevailed, especially among the troops who were commanded by General Wentworth. To that scourge Thompson, in his " Summer," thus touchingly alludes :
'• You, gallant Yernon, saw The miserable scene ; you, pitying, saw To infant weakness sunk the warrior's arm ; Saw the deep-racking pang, the ghastly form. The lip pale-quivering, and the beamlcss eye No more with ardor bright ; you heard the groans Of agonizing ships, from shore to shore ; Heard, nightly plung'd amid the sullen waves, The frequent corse — while on each other fixed, In sad presage, the blank assistants seemed, Silent, to ask, whom fate would next demand."
In the midst of that terrible pestilence the system of Law- rence Washington received those seeds of fatal disease against whose growth it struggled manfully for ten years, and then yielded.
Lawrence returned home in the autumn of 1742, the provincial army in which he had served having been dis- banded, and Admiral Yernon and General Wentworth re- called to England. He had acquired the friendship and confidence of both those officers. For several years he kept up a correspondence with the former, and received from him a copy of a medal struck in commemoration of the capture of Porto Bello by Admiral Yernon. This was preserved at Mount Yernon until Washington's death, and is probably in possession of some member of the family. The only speci-
28 MOUNT VERNON
men of the medal I have ever seen is in my own possession, from which the engraving \vas made.
TUK VEE.VON MEDAL.
Lawrence intended to go to England, join the regular army, and seek preferment therein ; but love changed his resolution and the current of his life, for
" Love rules the court the camp, the grove, And man below, and saints above.''
Beautiful Anne, the eldest daughter of the Honorable Wil- liam Fairfax, of Fairfax county, became the object of his warm attachment, and they were betrothed. Their nuptials were about to be celebrated in the spring of 1743, when a sudden attack of gout in the stomach deprived Lawrence of his father. But the marriage took place in July. All thoughts of military life as a profession passed from the mind of Lawrence, and, taking possession of his Hunting Creek estate, he erected a plain, substantial mansion upon the highest eminence along the Potomac front of his domain, and named the spot MOUNT YERNON, in honor of the gallant admiral.
AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. 29
In that mansion Lawrence resided until his death, and but little change was made in its appearance from the time when it came into the possession of his brother George by inheri- tance, until the close of the Old War for Independence. It has been described as a house of the first class then occupied by thrifty Virginia planters; two stories in height, with a porch in front, and a chimney built inside, at each end, con- trary to the prevailing style. It stood upon a most lovely spot, on the brow of a gentle slope which ended at a thickly- wooded precipitous river bank, its summit nearly one hundred feet above the water. Before it swept the Potomac with a magnificent curve, its broad bosom swarming with the grace- ful swan, the gull, the wild duck, and smaller water-fowl; and beyond lay the green fields and shadowy forests of Mary- land.
When Lawrence was fairly settled, with his bride, in this new and pleasant home, little George was a frequent and much-petted visitor at Mount Vernon. His half-brother loved him tenderly, and after their father's death he took a paternal interest in all his concerns. The social influences to which lie was subjected were of the highest order. The Fair- faxes held the first rank in wealth and social position, both in England and in Virginia; and the father-in-law of Law- rence, who occupied a beautiful country seat not far from Mount Vernon, called Belvoir, was a man of distinction, having served as an officer of the British army in the East and West Indies, and officiated as governor of New Provi- dence, one of the Bermudas. He now managed an immense landed estate belonging to his cousin, Lord Fairfax, a tall, gaunt, rawboned, near-sighted man, upon whom had fallen
30 MOUNT VERNON
the snows of sixty winters, and who, made shy and eccentric by disappointed love in early life, was now in Yirginia, and living at Belvoir, but secretly resolving to go over the Blue Mountains of the "West, and make his home in the deep wilderness, away from the haunts of men. Thither he went a few years later, and in the great valley of Yirginia took up his abode in a lodge at a spot where he resolved to build a manor-house, in the midst of ten thousand acres of arable and grazing land, call it Greenway Court, and live, a solitary lord over a vast domain. But the mansion was never built, and in that lodge (which remained until a few years ago) the lord of the manor lived during all the stormy days of the French and Indian war, and as a stanch loyalist throughout the struggles of the Americans for independence, until the news came one day that his young friend Washington had captured Corn- wallis and all his army. Then, says tradition, he called to his servant and said, " Come, Joe, carry me to my bed, for I'm sure it's high time for me to die ! "
" Then up rose Joe, all at the word,
And took his master's arm, And to his bed he softly led
The lord of Greenway farm. Then thrice he called on Britain's name,
And thrice he wept full sore, Then sighed — '0 Lord, thy will be done!'
And word spake never more."
It was early in 1782, at the age of ninety-two years, that Lord Fairfax died at Greenway Court, loved by many for his generosity and benevolence.
Lawrence Washington MTas also distinguished for his wealth
AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. 31
and intelligence. He was adjutant-general of his district, with the rank and pay of major, and at this time was a popu- lar member of the Virginia House of Burgesses. At Mount Vernon and at Belvoir the sprightly boy George, who was a favorite everywhere, became accustomed to the refinements and amenities of English social life, in its best phases, and this had a marked influence upon his future character.
There were other influences there which made a deep im- pression upon the mind of the thoughtful boy. Sometimes the companions-in-arms of his brother, or officers from some naval vessel that came into the Potomac, would be guests at Mount Yernon, and perils by field and flood would be related. In these narratives Sir William Fairfax often joined, and related his experience in the far-off Indies, in marches, battles, sieges, and retreats. These fired the soul of young Wash- ington with longings for adventure, and accordingly, we find him, at the age of fourteen years, preparing to enter the English navy as a midshipman, a warrant having been pro- cured. His brother and Mr. Fairfax encouraged his inclina- tion, and his mother's reluctant consent was obtained. A vessel-of-war was lying in the Potomac, and the lad's luggage was on board, when his mother received the following letter from her brother, in England, dated Stratford-by-Bow, 19th May, 1747 :
" I understand that you are advised and have some thoughts of putting your son George to sea. I think he had better be put apprentice to a tinker, for a common sailor before the mast has by no means the common liberty of the subject ; for they will press him from a ship where he has fifty shillings a
32 MOUNT VERNON
month and make him take twenty-three, and cut, and slash, arid use him like a negro, or rather like a dog. And, as to any considerable preferment in the navy, it is not to be ex- pected, as there are always so many gaping for it here who have interest, and he has none. And if he should get to be master of a Virginia ship (which it is very difficult to do), a planter that has three or four hundred acres of land and three or four slaves, if he be industrious, may live more comfort- ably, and leave his family in better bread, than such a master of a ship can. He must not be too
hasty to be rich, but go on gently and with patience, as things will naturally go. This method, without aiming at being a fine gentleman before his time, will carry a man more com- fortably and surely through the world than going to sea, unless it be a great chance indeed. I pray God keep you and yours.
" Your loving brother,
" JOSEPH BALL."
This letter, without doubt, made the mother decide to act according to the desire of her heart, for already a friend had written to Lawrence, " I am afraid Mrs. Washington will not keep up to her first resolution. * * I find
that one word against his going has more weight than ten for it." She could not expose her son to the hardships and perils of the British navy, so vividly portrayed by his uncle. Her consent was withdrawn, and George Washington, with dis- appointed ambition, returned to school, fell desperately in love with a " lowland beauty" (who reciprocated not his pas- sion, but became the mother of General Henry Lee), indited
AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. 33
sentimental verses, as young lovers are apt to do, sighed for a time in aieat unhappiness, and then went to live with his brother at Mount Yeinon, in partial forgetf illness that he had once dreamed that
" She was his life,
The ocean to the river of his thoughts, "Which terminated all."
Xow it was that young Washington's real intimacy with the Fairfax family commenced, and an attachment was formed between himself and George William Fairfax, his senior by six or seven years, who had just brought his bride and her sister to Belvoir.
Young Washington's heart was tender and susceptible, and that bride's beautiful sister tried its constancy to his first love very sorely. To his young friend " Robin," he wrote : " My residence is at present at his lordship's, where I might, was my beart disengaged, pass my time very pleasantly, as there is a very agreeable young lady lives in the same house (Colonel George Fairfax's wife's sister) ; but as that is only adding fuel to fire, it makes me the more uneasy, for by often and un- avoidably being in company with her, revives my former passion for your Lowland Beauty; whereas, was I to live more retired from young women, I might in some measure alleviate my sorrows, by burying that chaste and troublesome passion in the grave of oblivion." Thus wrote George Wash- ington before he was sixteen years of age.
He was soon taken from these temptations. He was a tall, finely-formed, athletic youth, and Lord Fairfax, who was a passionate fox-hunter, though old in years, iavited him one day 3
34 MOUNT VERNON
to join him in the chase. His lordship was so charmed with his young friend's boldness in the saddle and enthusiastic pursuit of the hounds and game, that he took him to his bosom as a companion ; and many a hard day's ride this roung and old man had together after that, in the forests of Virginia.
T But a more noble, because a more useful pursuit than the mere pleasures of the chase, now offered its attractions to the lad. Master Williams had taught him the mysteries of sur- veying, and the old Lord Fairfax, having observed his prac- tice of the art at Mount Vernon, and his extreme care and accuracy, proposed to him to go to his broad possessions beyond the Blue Kidge, where lawless intruders were seated, and prepare his domain for settlement, by running boundary lines between large sections. The lad gladly acceded to the proposition, and just a month from the time he was sixteen years of age, he set off upon the arduous and responsible enterprise. And to this day a little log-house, near Battle Town, in Clarke county, is pointed out to the traveller, wherein the young surveyor lodged;; and in the same county, not far from Winchester, stood, a few years ago, the lodge of Green- way Court.
In the wilderness, around the south branch of the Potomac, the future Leader received those lessons in wood-craft — that personal knowledge of the country and its dusky inhabitants, and, above all, that spirit of self-reliance which was ever a most marked and important trait in his character — which fitted him for the great duties of a commander.
So satisfactory were young Washington's services on that occasion, that he received, soon after his return, the appoint-
AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. 35
inent of public surveyor, and upon the records of Culpepper county may be read, under date of July 20th, 1749 (O. S.), that " GEORGE WASHINGTON, Gent., produced a commission from the President and Master of William and Mary College, ap- pointing him to be surveyor of this county, which was read, and thereupon he took the usual oaths to his Majesty's person and government, and took and subscribed the abjuration oath and test, and then took the oath of a surveyor, according to law." Part of each year he was beyond the Alleghanies, with no other instruments than compass and chain, acquiring strength of limb and purpose for future great achievements, and put- ting money in his purse at the rate of a doubloon and some- times six pistoles a day. These expeditions he always remem- bered as the greatest pleasures of his youth. ")(,
After Washington's death, more than fifty years later, the simple compass and chain and other mathematical instru- ments of his earlier and later years, were distributed among his family connections, but only one of them, a small library instrument, was mentioned in his will, as follows :
" To David Stuart I give my large shaving and dressing table, and my telescope"
Dr. Stuart married the widow of John Parke Custis, the son of Mrs. Washington. The telescope is now in possession of his granddaughter, wife of the Reverend A. B. Atkinson, of Germantown, Pennsylvania.
And now another and more extended field of action opened before the young resident at Mount Vernon. Beneath the roof of that pleasant mansion, toward the spring of 1751, he received- from acting Governor Burwell the commission of adjutant of his military district, with the rank and pay of
36
MOUNT VEBNON
major. It was an acceptable honor. His military spirit was kindling; for it had been fanned by old Major Muse, a fellow-soldier with Lawrence at Carthagena, who was a fre-
WASHINGTON'S TELESCOPE.
quent and welcome guest at Mount Vernon, and by the stout Dutchman, Yan Braam (who afterward figured ingloriously in history), who had taught him the art of fencing.
Young Washington had scarcely taken his initial steps in the performance of his new duties when he was drawn from public life. Dark and ominous shadows were alternating with the sweet domestic sunlight that smiled so pleasantly around Mount Ycrnon. They were cast by the raven wing of the angel of disease. A hectic glow was upon the cheeks
AND ITS ASSOCIATIONS. 37
of Lawrence Washington, and his physicians advised him to go to the more genial climate of Barbadoes in search of health. George went with him. It was in bright September, 1751, when they sailed, and in dark and stormy January he returned to tell the anxious wife of his brother that her loved one must go to Bermuda in the spring ; for the hectic glow was growing brighter and his manly strength less. She was preparing to join him there, when