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attacks on the fort were collected, and buried reverently by their comrades; and then a garrison was formed of Virginian troops, and the name of the place was changed from Duquesne to Fort Pitt-so called after the English minister whose wisdom had made this expedition possible. The town which was erected on this spot is now known as Pittsburg. "The French domination of the Ohio was at an end. The Indians, as usual, paid homage to the conquering power, and a treaty of peace was concluded with all the tribes between the Ohio and the lakes."

Washington went home, glad at heart; and in January, 1759, was married to Mrs. Custis. Long after his death, an old negro servant expressed his opinion of the hero on his wedding day to a member of the Custis family. "Never seed the like, sir-never the like of him, though I have seen many in my day-so tall, so straight! And then he sat on a horse and rode with such an air! Ah, sir, he was like no one else! Many of the grandest gentlemen, in the gold lace, were at the wedding; but none looked like the man himself."

CHAPTER VI.

As a proof of the gratitude which his countrymen felt for him, Washington had been elected with great enthusiasm as representative of Fredericktown in the House of Burgesses; and shortly after his marriage he took his seat at Williamsburg.

Mr. Robinson, the Speaker, publicly gave him the thanks of Virginia for his services to his country. "Washington rose to reply, blushed, stammered, trembled, and could not utter a word. 'Sit down, Mr. Washington,' said the Speaker, with a smile; 'your modesty equals your valour, and that surpasses the power of any language I possess."

He continued to attend the House during this session, and at the end of it took his bride home to Mount Vernon. It was a pleasant and happy home. Washington's own description sounds as if he loved it. "It is most pleasantly situated," he says, "in a high, healthy country; in a latitude between the extremes of heat and cold; on one of the finest rivers in the world-a river well stocked with various kinds of fish at all seasons of the year. The borders of the estate are washed by more than ten miles of tide water." The house was two stories in height, with a porch in front, and a chimney built inside at each end. "It stood

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upon a most lovely spot, on the brow of a gentle slope, which ended at a thickly-wooded, precipitous river bank; its summit nearly 100 feet above the water. Before it swept the Potomac, with a magnificent curve

and beyond lay the green fields and shadowy forests of Maryland."

There were large plantations of tobacco and of wheat on the property, and Washington was most careful in the management of them. The work that Virginian planters generally left to their slaves he superintended personally; and it became so well known that whatever he exported was sure to "be faithful in quantity and quality, that any barrel of flour that bore the brand of 'George Washington, Mount Vernon,' was exempted from the customary inspection in the West India ports."

He was a most kind and careful master, earnestly considering the welfare of all his dependants; and this gave him a good deal of occupation, for we are told by Washington Irving that a large Virginian estate in those days was a little empire. "The mansion-house was the seat of government, with its numerous dependencies, such as kitchens, smoke-houses, workshops, and stables. In this mansion the planter ruled supreme. He had his legion of house-negroes for domestic service; his host of field negroes for the culture of tobacco, Indian-corn, and other crops, and for other out-of-door labour. Their quarter formed a kind of hamlet apart, composed of various huts, with little gardens and poultry-yards, all well stocked, and swarms of little negroes playing in the sunshine. Then there were large wooden edifices for curing tobacco-the staple and most profitable production-and mills for grinding wheat and Indian corn, of which large fields were cultivated for the supply of the family and the maintenance of the negroes."

Washington always kept a diary; the heading of its pages was "Where and how my time is spent." He was an early

LIFE AT MOUNT VERNON.

61

riser, "often being up 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 and at eight in winter. Two small cups of tea and two or three hoe-cakes formed his repast. Immediately after breakfast he mounted his horse, and visited those parts of the estate where any work was going on, seeing to everything with his own eyes, and often aiding with his own hands. Dinner was served at two o'clock. He ate heartily, but was no epicure, nor critical about his food. He drank 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."

But in this busy life he had time to show much domestic kindness, and especially to his two little step-children. He had no children of his own, but little Jacky and Martha were treated by him as if they belonged to him.

Lists have been found, made out in his handwriting, of things ordered from England for them; amongst others, "Small Bibles and Prayer-books, neatly bound in leather, and 'John Parke Custis' and 'Martha Parke Custis' wrote on the inside in gilt letters. 1 fashionable dressed doll, to cost a guinea, I ditto to cost 5 shillings. A box of gingerbread. Toys, and sugar images and comfits," &c. &c. Later on, we have an entry in his diary occurring several times: "Went a-hunting with Jacky Custis, and catched a fox."

Washington was fond of hunting, and of sport of all kinds. He kept a beautiful barge on the Potomac, rowed by six negroes in uniform dress, and spent some of his time both in fishing and shooting.

Mount Vernon was one of the most hospitable of all the

hospitable Virginian houses. "My manner of living is plain," Washington wrote to a friend, “and I do not mean to be put out of it. A glass of wine and a bit of mutton are always ready, and such as will be content to partake of them are always welcome. Those who expect more will be disappointed.”

He took some pains in the decoration of his house, and it is curious to see his warlike taste coming out in this respect. He ordered from England a bust of Alexander the Great, another of Julius Cæsar, another of Charles XII., and a fourth of the King of Prussia; also smaller busts of Prince Eugene and the Duke of Marlborough; and furthermore, "Two wild beasts, not to exceed twelve inches in height and eighteen inches in length." Many years later the great Frederick of Prussia sent him a portrait of himself, accompanied by the words, "From the oldest general in Europe to the greatest general in the world.”

From his early days Washington had had a great passion for horses; his stables were filled with some of great beauty, and his military experience had made him, at the age of seven-and-twenty, a perfect horseman. He must have been an imposing-looking figure as he rode about "in a riding-frock of handsome drab-coloured broadcloth, with plain double gilt buttons, and a riding waistcoat of superfine scarlet cloth and gold lace, with buttons like those of the coat;" his servant, Bishop, who had been bequeathed to him by General Braddock, riding behind him in scarlet livery.

It was a pleasant life that went on for nearly fifteen years at Mount Vernon, but it was not an untroubled time, for the great American world outside the calm home of Washington was heaving and tossing with the rising of the storm of revolution.

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