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Er. 27-31.]

WASHINGTON'S DOMESTIC HABITS.

105

rivers, especially the Potomac, carried on an | thing with his own eyes, and often aiding with immediate trade with England. Their tobacco his own hand. was put up by their own negroes, bore their own marks, was shipped on board of vessels which came up the rivers for the purpose, and consigned to some agent in Liverpool or Bristol, with whom the planter kept an account.

The Virginia planters were prone to leave the care of their estates too much to their overseers, and to think personal labor a degradation. Washington carried into his rural affairs the same method, activity, and circumspection that had distinguished him in military life. He kept his own accounts, posted up his books, and balanced them with mercantile exactness. We have examined them, as well as his diaries recording his daily occupations, and his letter-books, containing entries of shipments of tobacco, and correspondence with his London agents. They are monuments of his business habits.*

The products of his estate also became so noted for the faithfulness, as to quality and quantity, with which they were put up, that it is said any barrel of flour that bore the brand of George Washington, Mount Vernon, was exempted from the customary inspection in the West India ports.t

He was an early riser, often before daybreak in the winter when the nights were long. On such occasions he lit his own fire, and wrote or read by candle-light. He breakfasted at seven in summer, at eight in winter. Two small cups of tea and three or four cakes of Indian meal (called hoe cakes), formed his frugal repast. Immediately after breakfast he mounted his horse, and visited those parts of the estate where any work was going on, seeing to every

* The following letter of Washington to his London correspondents will give an idea of the early intercourse of the Virginia planters with the mother country.

"Our goods by the Liberty, Capt. Walker, came to hand in good order and soon after his arrival, as they generally do when shipped in a vessel to this river [the Potomac], and scarce ever when they go to any others; for it don't often happen that a vessel bound to one river has goods of any co..sequence to another; and the masters, in these cases, keep the packages till an accidental conveyance offers, and for want of better opportunities frequently commit them to boatmen who care very little for the goods so they get their freight, and often land them wherever it suits their convenience, not where they have engaged to do so. * A ship from London to Virginia may be in Rappahannock or any of the other rivers three months before I know any thing of their arrival, and may make twenty voyages without my seeing or even hearing of the captain."

Dinner was served at two o'clock. He ate heartily, but was no epicure, nor critical about his food. His beverage was small beer or cider, and two glasses of old Madeira. He took tea, of which he was very fond, early in the evening, and retired for the night about nine o'clock.

If confined to the house by bad weather, he took that occasion to arrange his papers, post up his accounts, or write letters; passing part of the time in reading, and occasionally reading aloud to the family.

He treated his negroes with kindness; attended to their comforts; was particularly careful of them in sickness; but never tolerated idleness, and exacted a faithful performance of all their allotted tasks. He had a quick eye at calculating each man's capabilities. An entry in his diary gives a curious instance of this. Four of his negroes, employed as carpenters, were hewing and shaping timber. It appeared to him, in noticing the amount of work accomplished between two succeeding mornings, that they loitered at their labor. Sitting down quietly he timed their operations; how long it took them to get their cross-cut saw and other implements ready; how long to clear away the branches from the trunk of a fallen tree; how long to hew and saw it; what time was expended in considering and consulting, and after all, how much work was effected during the time he looked on. From this he made his computation how much they could execute in the course of a day, working entirely at their ease.

At another time we find him working for a part of two days with Peter, his smith, to make a plough on a new invention of his own. This, after two or three failures, he accomplished. Then, with less than his usual judgment, he put his two chariot horses to the plough, and ran a great risk of spoiling them, in giving his new invention a trial over ground thickly swarded.

Anon, during a thunderstorm, a frightened negro alarms the house with word that the mill is giving way, upon which there is a general turn out of all the forces, with Washington at their head, wheeling and shovelling gravel, during a pelting rain, to check the rushing water. Washington delighted in the chase. In the

† Speech of the Hon. Robert C. Winthrop on laying hunting season, when he rode out early in the morning to visit distant parts of the estate,

the corner-stone of Washington's Monument.

:

106

FOX-HUNTING-FISHING AND DUCK-SHOOTING.

[1759-63

that he now and then, in the hunting season, revisited his old haunts and former companions on the banks of the Potomac, and then the beautiful woodland region about Belvoir and Mount Vernon was sure to ring at early morn with the inspiring music of the hound.

where work was going on, he often took some of the dogs with him for the chance of starting a fox, which he occasionally did, though he was not always successful in killing him. He was a bold rider and an admirable horseman, though he never claimed the merit of being an accomplished fox-hunter. In the height of the season, however, he would be out with the foxhounds two or three times a week, accompanied by his guests at Mount Vernon and the gentlemen of the neighborhood, especially the Fairfaxes of Belvoir, of which estate his friend George William Fairfax was now the proprie-erally done with great success. Canvas-back tor. On such occasions there would be a hunting dinner at one or other of those establishments, at which convivial repasts Washington is said to have enjoyed himself with unwonted hilarity.

Now and then his old friend and instructor in the noble art of venery, Lord Fairfax, would be on a visit to his relatives at Belvoir, and then the hunting was kept up with unusual spirit.*

The waters of the Potomac also afforded occasional amusement in fishing and shooting. The fishing was sometimes on a grand scale, when the herrings came up the river in shoals, and the negroes of Mount Vernon were marshalled forth to draw the seine, which was gen

ducks abounded at the proper season, and the shooting of them was one of Washington's favorite recreations. The river border of his domain, however, was somewhat subject to invasion. An oysterman once anchored his craft at the landing-place, and disturbed the quiet of the neighborhood by the insolent and disorderly conduct of himself and crew. It took a campaign of three days to expel these invaders from the premises.

His lordship, however, since the alarms of A more summary course was pursued with Indian war had ceased, lived almost entirely at another interloper. This was a vagabond who Greenway Court, where Washington was occa- infested the creeks and inlets which bordered sionally a guest, when called by public business the estate, lurking in a canoe among the reeds to Winchester. Lord Fairfax had made him- and bushes, and making great havoc among the self a favorite throughout the neighborhood. canvas-back ducks. He had been warned off As lord-lieutenant and custos rotulorum of repeatedly, but without effect. As WashingFrederick County, he presided at county courts ton was one day riding about the estate, he held at Winchester, where, during the sessions, heard the report of a gun from the margin of he kept open table. He acted also as surveyor the river. Spurring in that direction he dashed and overseer of the public roads and highways, through the bushes, and came upon the culprit and was unremitted in his exertions and plans just as he was pushing his canoe from shore. for the improvement of the country. Hunting, The latter raised his gun with a menacing look; however, was his passion. When the sport but Washington rode into the stream, seized was poor near home, he would take his hounds the painter of the canoe, drew it to shore, to a distant part of the country, establish him- sprang from his horse, wrested the gun from self at an inn, and keep open house and open the hands of the astonished delinquent, and intable to every person of good character and re-flicted on him a lesson in "Lynch law that spectable appearance who chose to join him in effectually cured him of all inclination to tresfollowing the hounds. pass again on these forbidden shores.

It was probably in quest of sport of the kind

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The Potomac, in the palmy days of Virginia, was occasionally the scene of a little aquatic

* Hunting memoranda from Washington's journal, state and ostentation among the rich planters

Mount Vernon.

Nov. 22.-Hunting with Lord Fairfax and his brother, and Colonel Fairfax.

Nov. 25.-Mr. Bryan Fairfax, Mr. Grayson, and Phil. Alexander came here by sunrise. Hunted and catched a fox with these, Lord Fairfax, his brother, and Col. Fairfax,—all of whom, with Mr. Fairfax and Mr. Wilson of England, dined here. 26th and 29th.-Hunted again with

the same company.

Dec. 5.-Fox-hunting with Lord Fairfax and his brother,

and Colonel Fairfax. Started a fox and lost it. Dined at Belvoir, and returned in the evening.

who resided on its banks. They had beautiful
barges, which, like their land equipages, were
imported from England; and mention is made
of a Mr. Digges who always received Washing-
ton in his barge, rowed by six negroes, arrayed
in a kind of uniform of check shirts and black
velvet caps.
At one time, according to notes
in Washington's diary, the whole neighborhood
is thrown into a paroxysm of festivity, by the

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND
TILDEN FOUNDATIONS

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Er. 30-31.]

LIFE AT ANNAPOLIS-THE DISMAL SWAN

those of Mrst Word th
him parental care fun auf je
tion of their raids and wan
the dearest objects of the
mestic concerns wel somal
ever, were not pertutted e-
public duties. He was auring

anchoring of a British frigate (the Boston) in
the river, just in front of the hospitable man-
sion of the Fairfaxes, A succession of dinners
and breakfasts takes place at Mount Vernon
and Belvoir, with occasional tea parties on
board of the frigate. The commander, Sir
Thomas Adams, his officers and his midship-
men, are cherished guests, and have the free-eminently a man of busine
dom of both establishments.

Occasionally he and Mrs. Washington would pay a visit to Annapolis, at that time the seat of government of Maryland, and partake of the gayeties which prevailed during the session of the legislature. The society of these seats of provincial governments was always polite and fashionable, and more exclusive than in these republican days, being, in a manner, the outposts of the English aristocracy, where all places of dignity or profit were secured for younger sons, and poor, but prond relatives. During the session of the Legislature, dinners and balls abounded, and there, were occasional attempts at theatricals. The latter was an amusement for which Washington always had a relish, though he never had an opportunity of gratifying it-effectually. Neither was he disinclined to mingle in the dance, and we remember to have heard venerable ladies, who had been belles in his day, pride themselves on having had him for a partner, though, they added, he was apt to be a ceremonious and grave one.*

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judge of the county court, and start
House of Burgesses, br, Jah Kangth
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undertook, he was 602

exactness.

About this time we find
other men of enterprise, in,
the great Dismal Swands ui
of cultivation, This rest
thirty miles long, and ten and
interior but little knowa,

and hardihood he explored it on instsejur kinol
on foot. In many parts it was entered with
dark and gloomy woods of cedar, express, and
hemlock, or deciduous trees, the branches of
which were hung with long decoping moss,
Other parts were almost inaccessible, from the
density of brakes and thickets, entangled with
vines, briers, and creeping plants, and inter-
sected by creeks and standing pools. Octae
sionally the soil, composed of dead vegetable
fibre, was over his horse's fetlocks, mund some-
times he had to dismount and make his way on
foot over a quaking bog that shook beneath his
tread.

In the centre of the morass he came to a great piece of water, six miles long, and three

In this round of rural occupation, rural atnusements, and social intercourse, Washington passed several tranquil years, the haleyon season of his life: His already established reputation drew, many visitors to Mount Ver-broad, called Drummond's Poud, but more ponon; some of his early companions in arms were his occasional guests, and his friendships and connections linked him with some of the most prominent and worthy people of the country, who were sure to be received with cordial, but simple and unpretending hospitality. His marriage was unblessed with children; but

We have had an amusing picture of Annapolls, as it

etically celebrated as the Lake of the Dial
Swamp. It was more elevated than goy ether
part of the swamp, and capable of n
canals, by which the whole might be tray
Having made the circuit of it, and soled
characteristics, he encamped for the
the firm land which bordered to actul
his explorations

Ju the ensuing

was a this period, furnished to us some years ago by aulature, the associations
octogenarian who had resided there in his boyhood. "In
those parts of the country," said he, "where the roads had acted, was chet
were too rough for carriages, the ladies used to ride on the Dismal Swamp
pontes, followed by black seryants on horseback; in this servations and forecas
way his mother, then advanced in life, used to travel, in a
scarlet cloth riding habit, which she had procured from sequent imprimere at Ind
E gland. Nay, in this way, on emergencies," he added,
once desolatd Tog
"the young ladies from the country used to come to the
balls at Annapolis, riding with their hoops arranged fore
and aft like lateen salls; and after dancing all night,
would ride home again in the morning."

that

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