WASHINGTON'S YOUTH.--FIRST SURVEYING EXPEDITION.
The attachment of Lawrence Washington to his brother George seems to
have acquired additional strength and tenderness on their father's
death; he now took a truly paternal interest in his concerns, and had
him as frequently as possible a guest at Mount Vernon. Lawrence had
deservedly become a popular and leading personage in the country. He
was a member of the House of Burgesses, and adjutant-general of the
district, with the rank of major, and a regular salary. A frequent
sojourn with him brought George into familiar intercourse with the
family of his father-in-law, the Hon. William Fairfax, who resided at
a beautiful seat called Belvoir, a few miles below Mount Vernon, and
on the same woody ridge bordering the Potomac.
William Fairfax was a man of liberal education and intrinsic worth. Of
an ancient English family in Yorkshire, he had entered the army at the
age of twenty-one; had served with honor both in the East and West
Indies, and officiated as governor of New Providence, after having
aided in rescuing it from pirates. For some years past he had resided
in Virginia, to manage the immense landed estates of his cousin, Lord
Fairfax, and lived at Belvoir, in the style of an English country
gentleman, surrounded by an intelligent and cultivated family of sons
and daughters. An intimacy with a family like this, in which the
frankness and simplicity of rural and colonial life were united with
European refinement, could not but have a beneficial effect in
moulding the character and manners of a somewhat home-bred school-boy.
Other influences were brought to bear on George during his visit at
Mount Vernon. His brother Lawrence still retained some of his military
inclinations, fostered, no doubt, by his post of adjutant-general.
William Fairfax, as we have shown, had been a soldier, and in many
trying scenes. Some of Lawrence's comrades of the provincial regiment,
who had served with him in the West Indies, were occasional visitors
at Mount Vernon; or a ship of war, possibly one of Vernon's old fleet,
would anchor in the Potomac, and its officers be welcome guests at the
tables of Lawrence and his father-in-law. Thus military scenes on sea
and shore would become the topics of conversation. We can picture to
ourselves George, a grave and earnest boy, with an expanding
intellect, and a deep-seated passion for enterprise, listening to such
conversations with a kindling spirit and a growing desire for military
life. In this way most probably was produced that desire to enter the
navy which he evinced when about fourteen years of age. The great
difficulty was to procure the assent of his mother. She was brought,
however, to acquiesce; a midshipman's warrant was obtained; but at the
eleventh hour the mother's heart faltered. This was her eldest born. A
son, whose strong and steadfast character promised to be a support to
herself and a protection to her other children. The thought of his
being completely severed from her, and exposed to the hardships and
perils of a boisterous profession, overcame even her resolute mind,
and at her urgent remonstrances the nautical scheme was given up.
To school, therefore, George returned, and continued his studies for
nearly two years longer, devoting himself especially to mathematics,
and accomplishing himself in those branches calculated to fit him
either for civil or military service. Among these, one of the most
important in the actual state of the country was land surveying. In
this he schooled himself thoroughly, using the highest processes of
the art; making surveys about the neighborhood, and keeping regular
field books, some of which we have examined, in which the boundaries
and measurements of the fields surveyed were carefully entered, and
diagrams made, with a neatness and exactness as if the whole related
to important land transactions instead of being mere school exercises.
Thus, in his earliest days, there was perseverance and completeness in
all his undertakings. Nothing was left half done, or done in a hurried
and slovenly manner. The habit of mind thus cultivated continued
throughout life. He took a final leave of school in the autumn of
1747, and went to reside with his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon.
Here he continued his mathematical studies and his practice in
surveying. Being a favorite of Sir William Fairfax, he was now an
occasional inmate of Belvoir. Among the persons at present residing
there was Thomas, Lord Fairfax, cousin of William Fairfax, and of
whose immense landed property the latter was the agent. Another inmate
was George William Fairfax, about twenty-two years of age, the eldest
son of the proprietor. He had been educated in England, and since his
return had married a daughter of Colonel Carey, of Hampton, on James
River. He had recently brought home his bride and her sister to his
father's house.
The merits of Washington were known and appreciated by the Fairfax
family. Though not quite sixteen years of age, he no longer seemed a
boy, nor was he treated as such. Tall, athletic, and manly for his
years, his early self-training, and the code of conduct he had
devised, gave a gravity and decision to his conduct; his frankness and
modesty inspired cordial regard. Lord Fairfax was a staunch
fox-hunter, and kept horses and hounds in the English style. The
hunting season had arrived. The neighborhood abounded with sport; but
fox-hunting in Virginia required bold and skilful horsemanship. He
found Washington as bold as himself in the saddle, and as eager to
follow the hounds. He forthwith took him into peculiar favor; made him
his hunting companion; and it was probably under the tuition of this
hard-riding old nobleman that the youth imbibed that fondness for the
chase for which he was afterwards remarked.
This fox-hunting intercourse was attended with important results. His
lordship's possessions beyond the Blue Ridge had never been regularly
settled nor surveyed. Lawless intruders--squatters, as they were
called--were planting themselves along the finest streams and in the
richest valleys, and virtually taking possession of the country. It
was the anxious desire of Lord Fairfax to have these lands examined,
surveyed, and portioned out into lots, preparatory to ejecting these
interlopers or bringing them to reasonable terms. In Washington,
notwithstanding his youth, he beheld one fit for the task. The
proposition had only to be offered to Washington to be eagerly
accepted. It was the very kind of occupation for which he had been
diligently training himself. All the preparations required by one of
his simple habits were soon made, and in the month of March, 1748,
just after he had completed his sixteenth year, Washington set out on
horseback, in company with George William Fairfax.
Their route lay by Ashley's Gap, a pass through the Blue Ridge, that
beautiful line of mountains which, as yet, almost formed the western
frontier of inhabited Virginia. They entered the great valley of
Virginia, where it is about twenty-five miles wide; a lovely and
temperate region, diversified by gentle swells and slopes, admirably
adapted to cultivation. The Blue Ridge bounds it on one side, the
North Mountain, a ridge of the Alleghanies, on the other; while
through it flows that bright and abounding river, which, on account of
its surpassing beauty, was named by the Indians the Shenandoah--that
is to say, "the daughter of the stars."
The first station of the travellers was at a kind of lodge in the
wilderness, where the steward or land-bailiff of Lord Halifax resided,
with such negroes as were required for farming purposes, and which
Washington terms "his lordship's quarter." It was situated not far
from the Shenandoah, and about twelve miles from the site of the
present town of Winchester. In a diary kept with his usual minuteness,
Washington speaks with delight of the beauty of the trees and the
richness of the land in the neighborhood, and of his riding through a
noble grove of sugar maples on the banks of the Shenandoah; and, at
the present day, the magnificence of the forests which still exist in
this favored region justifies his eulogium.
His surveys commenced in the lower part of the valley some distance
above the junction of the Shenandoah with the Potomac, and extended
for many miles along the former river. Here and there partial
"clearings" had been made by squatters and hardy pioneers, and their
rude husbandry had produced abundant crops of grain, hemp, and
tobacco. More than two weeks were passed by them in the wild
mountainous regions of Frederick County, and about the south branch of
the Potomac, surveying lands and laying out lots, camped out the
greater part of the time, and subsisting on wild turkeys and other
game. Having completed his surveys, Washington set forth from the
south branch of the Potomac on his return homeward; crossed the
mountains to the great Cacapehon; traversed the Shenandoah valley;
passed through the Blue Ridge, and on the 12th of April found himself
once more at Mount Vernon. For his services he received, according to
his note-book, a doubloon per day when actively employed.
The manner in which he had acquitted himself in this arduous
expedition, and his accounts of the country surveyed, gave great
satisfaction to Lord Fairfax, who shortly afterwards moved across the
Blue Ridge, and took up his residence at the place heretofore noted as
his "quarters." Here he laid out a manor, containing ten thousand
acres of arable grazing lands, vast meadows, and noble forests, and
projected a spacious manor house, giving to the place the name of
Greenway Court.
It was probably through the influence of Lord Fairfax that Washington
received the appointment of public surveyor. This conferred authority
on his surveys, and entitled them to be recorded in the county
offices, and so invariably correct have these surveys been found that
to this day, wherever any of them stand on record, they receive
implicit credit. For three years he continued in this occupation,
which proved extremely profitable, from the vast extent of country to
be surveyed and the very limited number of public surveyors. It made
him acquainted, also, with the country, the nature of the soil in
various parts, and the value of localities; all which proved
advantageous to him in his purchases in after years.
While thus employed for months at a time surveying the lands beyond
the Blue Ridge, he was often an inmate of Greenway Court. The
projected manor house was never even commenced. On a green knoll
overshadowed by trees was a long stone building one story in height,
with dormer-windows, two wooden belfries, chimneys studded with
swallow and martin coops, and a roof sloping down in the old Virginia
fashion, into low projecting eaves that formed a verandah the whole
length of the house. It was probably the house originally occupied by
his steward or land agent, but was now devoted to hospitable purposes
and the reception of guests.
Here Washington had full opportunity, in the proper seasons, of
indulging his fondness for field sports, and once more accompanying
his lordship in the chase. The conversation of Lord Fairfax, too, was
full of interest and instruction to an inexperienced youth, from his
cultivated talents, his literary taste, and his past intercourse with
the best society of Europe, and its most distinguished authors. He had
brought books, too, with him into the wilderness, and from
Washington's diary we find that during his sojourn here he was
diligently reading the history of England, and the essays of the
"Spectator." Three or four years were thus passed by Washington, the
greater part of the time beyond the Blue Ridge, but occasionally with
his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon.