CHAPTER IV

GEORGE AND THE FAIRFAX FAMILY

Lord Fairfax's Friendship for Young Washington

George was highly favored in having four homes or places where he could "make himself at home"-his mother's house, of course; his brother Austin's, where the young wife laughed at the lad for imitating her husband; at Mount Vernon, where Mrs. Lawrence shared her husband's fondness for him, and Belvoir, where his eldest brother's wife, having been a member of the family, made the Fairfaxes and Washingtons connections by marriage. Mr. Fairfax, (frequently styled Sir William) besides his own estate, controlled vast stretches of Virginia country belonging to a wealthy cousin, Lord Thomas Fairfax, who had been a leader in English society, as the friend of Addison and Steele, and had even written for the "Spectator. But it was related that this nobleman had been betrothed to a lady of beauty and rank, who, after all the wedding preparations were made, jilted him for a little higher title, marrying a duke instead.

Enraged and humiliated, Lord Fairfax retired from society and sought the seclusion of his wild estates in Virginia, where he spent the rest of his long life in bitterness against womankind. While at Belvoir, he, like everyone else, was favorably impressed with George Washington. The sincere friendship of the accomplished nobleman proved a lifelong advantage to the younger man. It was through the penetration and kindness of Lord Fairfax that George kept on with his surveying, though the Washington family deemed it rather beneath the dignity of a Virginia gentleman. His lordship, being an able man of affairs, as

well as a shrewd man of the world, was disposed to advise and warn his bashful young friend, with whose diffidence he had the keenest sympathy. Also, the influence of his lordship's excellent literary taste was manifested in George's reading and in the clear, direct, simple style of writing which characterized the correspondence of both men through life.

George and his elderly companion used to ride across country and often went fox-hunting together. Sometimes they rode side by side for hours without either speaking a word. At other times Lord Fairfax, always taciturn in society, would talk freely about Oxford and his varied experiences "at home" (in England). His lordship's chief warning, however, was against women.

The Washington Story-Calendar, Wayne Whipple, March 27 to April 2,1910.

Fox-hunting with Lord Fairfax

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 skillful horsemanship. He found Washington as bold as himself in the saddle, and 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 proportioned 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.

Life of George Washington, Washington Irving, Vol. I, p. 63.

Encouraged to Take up Surveying

At the age of fifteen, in the fall of 1747, I went once more, for a time to reside with Lawrence at Mount Vernon, where it was to be finally determined what I should do for a livelihood. As I look back on this period of my life, I perceive that it was the occasion of many changes. much more of George William Fairfax and George Mason, ever since my friends, and was often with George's father, the master of Belvoir, only four miles from Mount Vernon.

I saw

There came often, for long visits, William's cousin, Lord Fairfax, over whose great estates in the valley William was the agent. I learned later that when first his Lordship saw me he pronounced me to be a too sober little prigand this, no doubt, I was; but after a time, when he began to show such interest in me as flattered my pride and pleased my brother Lawrence. At this period Lord Fairfax was a tall man and gaunt, very ruddy and near-sighted.