PATERNAL CONDUCT OF AN ELDER BROTHER--THE FAIRFAX FAMILY--WASHINGTON'S CODE
OF MORALS AND MANNERS--SOLDIERS' TALES--THEIR INFLUENCE--WASHINGTON
PREPARES FOR THE NAVY--A MOTHER'S OBJECTIONS--RETURN TO SCHOOL--STUDIES AND
EXERCISES--A SCHOOL-BOY PASSION--THE LOWLAND BEAUTY--LOVE DITTIES AT MOUNT
VERNON--VISIT TO BELVOIR--LORD FAIRFAX--HIS CHARACTER--FOX-HUNTING A REMEDY
FOR LOVE--PROPOSITION FOR A 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; he had
seen much of the world, and his mind had been enriched and ripened by
varied and adventurous experience. 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 homebred schoolboy. It was probably his intercourse with them, and
his ambition to acquit himself well in their society, that set him upon
compiling a code of morals and manners which still exists in a manuscript
in his own handwriting, entitled "rules for behavior in company and
conversation." It is extremely minute and circumstantial. Some of the rules
for personal deportment extend to such trivial matters, and are so quaint
and formal, as almost to provoke a smile; but in the main, a better manual
of conduct could not be put into the hands of a youth. The whole code
evinces that rigid propriety and self control to which he subjected
himself, and by which he brought all the impulses of a somewhat ardent
temper under conscientious government.
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. The capture of Porto Bello; the bombardment of
Carthagena; old stories of cruisings in the East and West Indies, and
campaigns against the pirates. 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 opportunity for gratifying it appeared at hand. Ships of war
frequented the colonies, and at times, as we have hinted, were anchored in
the Potomac. The inclination was encouraged by Lawrence Washington and Mr.
Fairfax. Lawrence retained pleasant recollections of his cruisings in the
fleet of Admiral Vernon, and considered the naval service a popular path to
fame and fortune. George was at a suitable age to enter the navy. The great
difficulty was to procure the assent of his mother. She was brought,
however, to acquiesce; a midshipman's warrant was obtained, and it is even
said that the luggage of the youth was actually on board of a man of war,
anchored in the river just below Mount Vernon.
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; so that however complicated his tasks and
overwhelming his cares, in the arduous and hazardous situations in which he
was often placed, he found time to do every thing, and to do it well. He
had acquired the magic of method, which of itself works wonders.
In one of these manuscript memorials of his practical studies and
exercises, we have come upon some documents singularly in contrast with all
that we have just cited, and, with his apparently unromantic character. In
a word, there are evidences in his own handwriting, that, before he was
fifteen years of age, he had conceived a passion for some unknown beauty,
so serious as to disturb his otherwise well-regulated mind, and to make him
really unhappy. Why this juvenile attachment was a source of unhappiness we
have no positive means of ascertaining. Perhaps the object of it may have
considered him a mere school-boy, and treated him as such; or his own
shyness may have been in his way, and his "rules for behavior and
conversation" may as yet have sat awkwardly on him, and rendered him formal
and ungainly when he most sought to please. Even in later years he was apt
to be silent and embarrassed in female society. "He was a very bashful
young man," said an old lady, whom he used to visit when they were both in
their nonage. "I used often to wish that he would talk more."
Whatever may have been the reason, this early attachment seems to have been
a source of poignant discomfort to him. It clung to him after 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, disturbed at times by recurrences of
his unlucky passion. Though by no means of a poetical temperament, the
waste pages of his journal betray several attempts to pour forth his
amorous sorrows in verse. They are mere common-place rhymes, such as lovers
at his age are apt to write, in which he bewails his "poor restless heart,
wounded by Cupid's dart," and "bleeding for one who remains pitiless of his
griefs and woes."
The tenor of some of his verses induce us to believe that he never told his
love; but, as we have already surmised, was prevented by his bashfulness.
"Ah, woe is me, that I should love and conceal;
Long have I wished and never dare reveal."
It is difficult to reconcile one's self to the idea of the cool and sedate
Washington, the great champion of American liberty, a woe-worn lover in his
youthful days, "sighing like furnace," and inditing plaintive verses about
the groves of Mount Vernon. We are glad of an opportunity, however, of
penetrating to his native feelings, and finding that under his studied
decorum and reserve he had a heart of flesh throbbing with the warm
impulses of human nature.
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. As this nobleman was one of Washington's earliest
friends, and, in some degree the founder of his fortunes, his character and
history are worthy of especial note.
Lord Fairfax was now nearly sixty years of age, upwards of six feet high,
gaunt and raw-boned, near-sighted, with light gray eyes, sharp features and
an aquiline nose. However ungainly his present appearance, he had figured
to advantage in London life in his younger days. He had received his
education at the university of Oxford, where he acquitted himself with
credit. He afterwards held a commission, and remained for some time in a
regiment of horse called the Blues. His title and connections, of course,
gave him access to the best society, in which he acquired additional
currency by contributing a paper or two to Addison's Spectator, then in
great vogue.
In the height of his fashionable career, he became strongly attached to a
young lady of rank; paid his addresses, and was accepted. The wedding day
was fixed; the wedding dresses were provided; together with servants and
equipages for the matrimonial establishment. Suddenly the lady broke her
engagement. She had been dazzled by the superior brilliancy of a ducal
coronet.
It was a cruel blow, alike to the affection and pride of Lord Fairfax, and
wrought a change in both character and conduct. From that time he almost
avoided the sex, and became shy and embarrassed in their society, excepting
among those with whom he was connected or particularly intimate. This may
have been among the reasons which ultimately induced him to abandon the gay
world and bury himself in the wilds of America. He made a voyage to
Virginia about the year 1739, to visit his vast estates there. These he
inherited from his mother, Catharine, daughter of Thomas, Lord Culpepper,
to whom they had been granted by Charles II. The original grant was for all
the lands lying between the Rappahannock and Potomac rivers; meaning
thereby, it is said, merely the territory on the northern neck, east of the
Blue Ridge. His lordship, however, discovering that the Potomac headed in
the Allegany Mountains, returned to England and claimed a correspondent
definition of his grant. It was arranged by compromise; extending his
domain into the Allegany Mountains, and comprising, among other lands, a
great portion of the Shenandoah Valley.
Lord Fairfax had been delighted with his visit to Virginia. The amenity of
the climate, the magnificence of the forest scenery, the abundance of
game,--all pointed it out as a favored land. He was pleased, too, with the
frank, cordial character of the Virginians, and their independent mode of
life; and returned to it with the resolution of taking up his abode there
for the remainder of his days. His early disappointment in love was the
cause of some eccentricities in his conduct; yet he was amiable and
courteous in his manners, and of a liberal and generous spirit.
Another inmate of Belvoir at this time 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,
and the melancholy, of which he speaks, may have produced a softness in his
manner calculated to win favor in ladies' eyes. According to his own
account, the female society by which he was surrounded had a soothing
effect on that melancholy. The charms of Miss Carey, the sister of the
bride, seem even to have caused a slight fluttering in his bosom; which,
however, was constantly rebuked by the remembrance of his former
passion--so at least we judge from letters to his youthful confidants,
rough drafts of which are still to be seen in his tell-tale journal.
To one whom he addresses as his dear friend Robin, he writes: "My residence
is at present at his lordship's, where I might, was my heart disengaged,
pass my time very pleasantly, as there's a very agreeable young lady lives
in the same house (Col. George Fairfax's wife's sister); but as that's only
adding fuel to fire, it makes me the more uneasy, for by often and
unavoidably 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," &c.
Similar avowals he makes to another of his young correspondents, whom he
styles, "Dear friend John;" as also to a female confidant, styled "Dear
Sally," to whom he acknowledges that the company of the "very agreeable
young lady, sister-in-law of Col. George Fairfax," in a great measure
cheers his sorrow and dejectedness.
The object of this early passion is not positively known. Tradition states
that the "lowland beauty" was a Miss Grimes, of Westmoreland, afterwards
Mrs. Lee, and mother of General Henry Lee, who figured in revolutionary
history as Light Horse Harry, and was always a favorite with Washington,
probably from the recollections of his early tenderness for the mother.
Whatever may have been the soothing effect of the female society by which
he was surrounded at Belvoir, the youth found a more effectual remedy for
his love melancholy in the company of Lord Fairfax. His lordship 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.
Their fox-hunting intercourse was attended with more 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--having noticed the exercises in
surveying which he kept up while at Mount Vernon, and the aptness and
exactness with which every process was executed. He was well calculated,
too, by his vigor and activity, his courage and hardihood, to cope with the
wild country to be surveyed, and with its still wilder inhabitants. 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 a very few days he was ready for his first expedition
into the wilderness.