OUTING.

OUTING.VOL. XIII.NOVEMBER, 1888.NO. 2.

VOL. XIII.NOVEMBER, 1888.NO. 2.

Country House

BY JOHN P. FOLEY.

THE great cities have not yet given the country a President. From Washington to Cleveland the chief magistrates have all come from great Southern plantations, lonely Western farms, rural towns or villages, scattered up and down the Republic. The early Virginia Presidents were, as a rule, more fortunate in the circumstances of their birth than any of their successors. Washington’s infant eyes opened amid scenes of rare natural beauty. The home of his parents was on the banks of the Potomac, one hundred miles below Mount Vernon. It was a large, comfortable cottage, filled with all the luxuries which a wealthy planter of that period could command. From its lawn could be seen a wide expanse of the majestic river, ten miles broad at that point, and on the opposite shore the forest-crowned hills and plains of Maryland. Thomas Jefferson was born on the handsome estate of his father, in Albemarle County, part of which he afterward inherited. Madison’s father, too, was a large landed proprietor, the owner of slaves, and the possessor of a fortune sufficient to gratify his ambition. James Monroe was equally fortunate. His father lived in a fair Virginia home, surrounded by all the semi-feudal splendor of that distant slave era. To complete the group of the Revolutionary Presidents the name of John Adams must be added. In his youth his prospects in life were as cold and hard as his native New England hills. His father was poor, and had to strain every pecuniary nerve to send him to Harvard College. When he left that institution he was compelled to earn his living as a teacher. The story of the deeds ofthese five men in the cabinet, the field, and the halls of legislature has been written by many pens and told in many tongues. Their fame is one of the precious inheritances of the Republic whose foundations they so materially helped to lay, and to whose magnificent structure of popular government they contributed perhaps more than any other five leaders and statesmen of the Revolution. But it is with their private home life, and that of their successors, we are now concerned.

Washington is the most stately figure in our history. It requires an effort of the imagination to think of him except, as it were, in full-dress. He is ever the commander-in-chief, mounted on a spirited war-horse; serene in the hour of victory; undaunted in adversity; full of hope and confidence when all others are in gloom and despair. Again, we love to picture him as the majestic President, ceremonious as the most imperial of monarchs, provoking the harsh criticism of enemies by what they termed his mimicry of foreign potentates—of the English court and king whose political fetters he had shattered. And, still again, he towers up in our imagination as the American Cincinnatus, laying down the sword and the sceptre, retiring from the pomp and power to which he had been so long accustomed, to his picturesque home in the Virginia woods, leaving behind him an example of lofty patriotism without a parallel in all human annals. But there was another Washington whom we seldom see except in stray glimpses, when the curtain rises before the scene is fully set, or when the side wings hitch and halt in their grooves. His biographers tell us that his military propensities were early developed; that when a boy he was in the habit of forming his school companions into military companies, who paraded, marched, and fought mimic battles, and that he showed his genius for command by being always the leader of one of the rival parties. He was fond of athletic amusements; of running, jumping, tossing heavy bars, and other feats of agility and strength. “Indeed,” says Mr. Sparks, “it is well known that these practices were continued by him after he had arrived at the age of mature life.”

WASHINGTON SKIPPING THE ROPE FOR EXERCISE.

This story is told of him while he was commander-in-chief of the Continentalarmies: Colonel Timothy Pickering, to whom Washington was very much attached, had a negro body-servant named “Primus.” Washington visited Pickering’s quarters one day, and found him absent.

WASHINGTON GIVES THE COLT HIS FIRST LESSON.

“It does not matter,” said General Washington to Primus, “I am greatly in need of exercise, and you must help me to get some before your master returns.”

Under Washington’s directions the negro tied a rope to a neighboring tree, about breast high, and Primus was ordered to stand at some distance and hold it horizontally extended. Washington ran forward and backward for some time, jumping over the rope as he came and went, until he expressed himself satisfied with the exercise. It is said that he frequently visited Primus and amused himself in this primitive fashion.

He learned fencing when he was quite young; his teacher being an old soldierwho had seen service with his brother in the Indies. His stone-throwing feats across the Rappahannock, over the Palisades, and to the top of the Natural Bridge in Virginia, are mentioned by nearly all his biographers. Charles W. Peale, the artist, tells us that when he was at Mount Vernon in 1772, painting Washington’s picture, he saw him toss a bar very much farther than the most athletic and expert of a number of young men who were, on one occasion, testing their strength in that way. He was then forty years old, and proudly remarked, “You perceive, young gentlemen, that my arm yet retains some portion of the vigor of my early days.” He was a good wrestler, and many stories of his prowess in this respect are told.

LORD FAIRFAX’S COTTAGE.

General Washington was a splendid horseman. There was no animal he could not master, and he never lost his seat in the saddle. The well-known hatchet dialogue between his father and himself is suspected to have no better foundation than the imagination of the Rev. Mr. Weems. The following incident in his young life, and the subsequent interview between his mother and himself, rest on more substantial historical data: Lady Washington owned a fine span of gray horses, in which she took very great pride. One of them had never been broken to the saddle. It entered into the heads of some young friends of Washington to give the colt his first lesson in this particular branch of his education. The animal resisted their efforts, and would not allow any one of them to mount him. George, although one of the youngest of the party, managed to pacify the terrified creature and to bestride him. Then came a battle royal between horse and boy. All the animal’s efforts to free himself from his rider were vain, and he started to run. Washington gave him free rein. The horse never stopped till he fell prostrate beneath his young master. George, as may be imagined, was very much alarmed at what had occurred, but he immediately told his mother. “I forgive you,” she replied, “because you have had the courage to tell me the truth at once.”

Washington loved a good horse, and long before the war of the Revolution his blooded stock was not inferior to any in the country. Fox-hunting was one of his favorite amusements, and at the “meet” few of his planter friends and neighbors were better mounted than he was. All his hunting paraphernalia was imported from England. His costume was made by the best tailors in London. It consisted of a blue cloth coat, scarlet waistcoat, buckskin breeches, with velvet cap, and admirably became his splendid form and figure. He usually rode a large, fiery animal of great endurance, called “Blueskin.” The names of some of his other horses were “Chinkling,” “Valiant,” “Ajax,” and “Magnolia.” “Will Lee,” his huntsman, was famous through the province as a daring rider. “Mounted on Chinkling,” we are told, “this fearless horseman would rush through brake and tangled wood in a style at which modern huntsmen would stand aghast.” Washington’s kennel was an excellent one. When a mere boy he rode to the hounds with Lord Fairfax, who brought a pack from England, the only one, it is said, in the country at the time. Washington, therefore, knew what a good pack should be, and “it was his pride,” says Lossing, “to have it so critically drafted as to speed and bottom that, in running, if one leading dog should lose the scent another was at hand immediately to receive it, and thus, when in full cry, to use a racing phrase ‘you might cover the pack with a blanket.’” Here are the names of some of the dogs: “Vulcan,” “Ringwood,” “Singer,” “Truelove,” “Music,” “Sweetlips,” “Forester” and “Rockwood.” Lafayette sent Washington some hounds after the close of the war, but he had then given up hunting. Previous to that he hunted in the season two or three times a week. He is candid enough to admit, in his correspondence and diary, that the foxes nearly always escaped, but he philosophically consoled himself with the reflection that the main end in view—excitement and recreation—had been achieved.

During the Presidency he sometimes drove six horses to his carriage in New York and Philadelphia. His servants wore livery, for which Tom Paine bitterly attacked him, and he was often accompaniedby outriders. George W. Parke Custis, his adopted son, in his “Recollections and Private Memoirs of Washington,” gives an interesting account of the management of the stables when the seat of government was at Philadelphia. “The President’s stables,” he says, “were under the direction of ‘German Tom,’ and the grooming of the white chargers will rather surprise the moderns. The night before the horses were expected to be ridden they were covered entirely over with a paste, of which whiting was the principal component part; then the animals were swathed in bed-cloths and left to sleep upon clean straw. In the morning the composition had become hard, and was well rubbed in, and curried and brushed, which process gave to the coats a beautiful glossy and satin-like appearance. The hoofs were then blackened and polished, the mouths washed, the teeth picked and cleaned, and the leopard-skin housings being properly adjusted, the white chargers were led forth for service.” When Washington rode out he was always accompanied by his servant “Bishop.” This was his favorite exercise in New York and Philadelphia while he was President. He sometimes walked, however, and around the Battery, then a fashionable promenade in New York, and now given over almost entirely to immigrants from all quarters of the world, was the direction he most frequently took in this city. He frequently drove and rode what was then called the “fourteen miles around.” This route was up the old King’s Bridge road to McGowan’s Pass, at 108th Street, thence across on a line with the Harlem River to Bloomingdale, and down on the west side of the island to the city.

MOUNT VERNON.

Fowling was another favorite amusement of the first President. His own estates and the country around them abounded in game of all kinds. A century and a half ago, and, we suppose, long before that time, the waters of the Chesapeake were the resort, as they are now, of the incomparable canvas-back and other wild-duck. Tradition has it that Washington was a good shot. He knew the favorite feeding-places of the finest flocks, and he could steal a march on them as secretly as, in after years, it was his wont to surprise the fortified camp lines of the British redcoats. Although Washington loved to follow his own game-birds and bring them down when he could, he rigorously prohibited other people from breaking in on his preserves. His principal biographer has preserved a story from oblivion which illustrates his sentiments in this respect together with his personal courage and resolution. A lawless person was in the habit of crossing the Potomac opposite Mount Vernon in a canoe, and, concealing himself in the woods, filling his game-bag at Washington’s expense. Repeated warnings to desist were sent him, but, poacher-like, he was a believer in the doctrine that game is common property and belongs to him who can capture it. Washington was determined to stop the raids upon his birds, and the poacher’s end at last came. Hearing ashot one day, and suspecting who had fired it, Washington mounted his horse and rode in the direction of the sound. The poacher discovered his approach, and had time to enter his canoe and push a few yards from the banks before the master of Mount Vernon appeared in view. When Washington, with anger in his eye, became visible, the poacher raised his gun, cocked it, and took deliberate aim. Washington did not betray the slightest sign of alarm or timidity. He strode into the water, seized the canoe and pulled it ashore. Disarming his antagonist, Washington gave him so severe a chastisement that he never again ran the risk of meeting a similar reception. Washington in the latter part of his life was something of a fisherman. There is an entry in one of his diaries, while the Federal Convention was in session in Philadelphia, telling of a fishing party near Valley Forge. While President, he also drew in a codfish with his own hand on the fishing banks off Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

WASHINGTON CHASTISING THE POACHER.

No one of the presidents lived so much in the open air as Washington. With the exception of the eight years in the Presidency, he was almost constantly in the field, the woods, the wilderness, or the farm. His first occupation was that of a surveyor, upon which he entered when he was sixteen years of age. During his last summer at school he amused himself by surveying the grounds around the school-house. The adjoining plantations then became the field of his experiments, and their angles and boundaries were all marked down by him with the most minute detail. At this time he thought of going to sea. His brother Lawrence obtained a midshipman’s warrant for him, but his mother objected, and an admiral, perhaps, was lost to the navy of the English king whose most famous general he was destined to defeat. He then received a commission to survey the western lands of Lord Fairfax. This led him across the first range of the Alleghany Mountains into the wilderness. He was accompanied on this expedition by George, the eldest son of William Fairfax. They endured much hardship and privation, but the trip, in all probability, was the means of laying the basis of the splendid physical health which Washington enjoyed all through life. The country was almost uninhabited. The dwellings, mere huts at the best, were few and far apart. Storms very often swept away their tents, and frequently they were compelled to sleep with no roof except the skies. Three years, the severe winter months excepted, were spent in this work, which, like everything Washington undertook, was well executed. His success led to promotion. He received an appointment as official surveyor, which enabled him to make his entries in the county offices. The lands surveyed lay on the south bank of the Potomac, seventy miles above the present Harper’s Ferry. Washington did not foresee that in a short time he would have an opportunity to turn to very great advantage in the public service the knowledge he was then acquiring of this comparatively unknown region. But, nevertheless, the French-Indian war, in which he bore so conspicuous a part, was not far distant. In 1751, the western boundaries of the colony of Virginia were so harassed by the Indians that measures had to be adopted for their protection. The country was divided into districts, to one of which Washington was appointed inspector with the rank of major. He was now a soldier. In 1755, when he was only twenty-three years of age, the command of the Virginia troops was given to him. He resigned his commission in 1758 and the following year he was married.

Washington was barely twenty-seven years old when this interesting event took place, and when he may be said to have settled down to lead the life of a country gentleman. He was in every sense of the term what is called a favorite of fortune. Rich, honored, loved, married to a beautiful woman of distinguished family and large wealth, the possessor of a splendid estate, which he had just inherited, of handsome person and superb health, with more fame than falls to the share of most young men at his period of life, a keen relish for the good things of the world with the means to obtain and the capacity to enjoy them—the prospect before him was, indeed, an alluring one. Mount Vernon was one of the loveliest homes in the country and the landscape around it unrivaled on the continent. Through its hospitable gates came the governors and leading men of old colonial Virginia as the friends and guests of its master. Gay hunting parties, with hounds and horns to rouse the fox in his hill-side cover, gathered on its spacious lawns. Stately dames talked over the latest society gossip from the colonial capitals and across the seas on its broad verandas and under its overarching trees. To speak of more material things, there was a small army of slaves to employ, to clothe, to feed, to watch and to attend, for Washington was one of the most humane of masters. Thousands of broad acres awaited cultivation and improvement, while flocks and herds innumerable claimed protection from winter storm and summer heat. Into this manifold life, with all its cares and responsibilities, Washington entered with the keenest zest. His ambition in a public way seemed to have been satisfied with the fame he had won in the French war. But, whatever may have been his thoughts or aspirations, he set himself to the task of cultivating and adorning his property. Mount Vernon consisted of five farms, each one of which had its own appropriate set of laborers under the direction of an overseer. Washington visited them all daily and gave instructions for the day following. He was one of the most methodical of men, rising at a regular hour in the morning, and retiring at a fixed time at night. He loved his stock, and paid particular attention to their comfort. Prize cattle shows and exhibitions had not then come into fashion. If they had existed at the time it is very certain that the name of the young soldier-planter would have headed the lists of exhibitors, and that he would have filled Mount Vernon with cups and premiums testifying to his pre-eminence as a breeder. He had an attachment even for the lower animals, and never destroyed life when there was no necessity for it. A gentleman, who at one time lived in his family as secretary, tells us that, as he was walking one day with Washington in his grounds, a snake of a harmless species started up in front of them. The secretary lifted his heel to crush the reptile, when Washington caught his arm and exclaimed, “Stay, sir! Is there not room enough in this world for you and that harmless little reptile? Remember that life is all—everything to the creature—and cannot be unnecessarily taken without indirectly impugning its Creator, who bestowed it to be enjoyed with its appropriate pleasures through its own natural term of existence.”

He was the model farmer of his time. Though not a student in the ordinary acceptation of the term, he read a good deal on agricultural and kindred subjects, investigated the nature and character of his soils, and grew his crops on a scientificbasis. Fond of flowers and trees, he was never weary of ornamenting his estate with the choicest specimens, native and foreign, that he could find. Life for him had flowed along in this tranquil way during a period of fifteen years when the first mutterings of the Revolutionary storm were borne to Mount Vernon. He was as eager to do battle for the rights of his country as any gentleman within the boundaries of the thirteen colonies. The war came, and he was chosen commander-in-chief. Before he departed for the scene of operations in New England, he gave his superintendent minute instructions in regard to the management of his property while he was absent. During the progress of the long struggle, he corresponded with him as frequently as possible, and an immense number of letters, written from the camp and his ever-shifting headquarters, many of them before and immediately after important engagements, attest the deep interest he took in the smallest matter connected with his beloved home. The manager is told what crops to sow in different fields; the precise spots on which young trees of different families should be planted, and what old and decaying ones should be cut down. We can see in these curious and interesting letters how deeply he was attached to every animate, and indeed inanimate, object on his estate, and how he yearned to be restored to them. Only once in the long eight years did he visit Mount Vernon. He was then on his way to lay siege to Cornwallis at Yorktown, and finally receive the sword of the best English general in America. To describe his outdoor life while in the army would be to re-tell the story of the Revolution.

At last the end came, and the foremost commander of his age, the liberator of his country, was again a private citizen and a country gentleman. Mount Vernon had suffered severely from his long absence, for his instructions had been imperfectly carried out. The soil was in many places exhausted by successive crops of tobacco, while the necessity for extensive repairs confronted him on every hand. He was fifty-one years of age. The work of restoring his estate to its former splendid condition was at once begun. He plunged into agriculture with all the ardor of his youthful days. In a letter to Lafayette, he describes his feelings at this time. “At length,” he writes, “I am become a private citizen on the banks of the Potomac, and, under the shade of my own fig-tree, free from the excitement of the camp and the busy scenes of public life, I am solacing myself with those tranquil enjoyments of which the soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fame, the statesman whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent in devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own, perhaps the ruin of other countries (as if this globe were insufficient for us all), and the courtier, who is always watching the countenance of his prince in hopes of catching a gracious smile, can have very little conception.” Troops of friends and admirers visited him in his retirement and were entertained in a most hospitable manner.

In the autumn he began on a systematic plan to renovate his worn-out fields; each parcel of land was numbered, and the precise crops to be planted in it were set down several years in advance. This method proved so successful that he adhered to it during the remainder of his life. He next turned his attention to his grounds. Early in the spring he began with the lawn. To it he transferred the choicest trees in his forests, setting them out with evergreens and flowering shrubs intermingled in such a manner as to produce the most pleasing effect. The removal and replanting of each one received his personal attention, and from day to day he watched them with the greatest solicitude, keeping in his diary the record of their life or death. Next came the replenishing of his orchards and gardens. Fruit-trees of rare and valuable varieties were procured at whatever cost. Flowering shrubs were planted in abundance—in fact, nothing that could add to the beauty and decoration of Mount Vernon was left undone. The pruning-knife now took the place of the sword, and he never tired of wandering among his plants, cutting away useless branches and shoots which marred their beauty or hurt their growth. There was no law on the statute book against foreign contract labor, and he imported skilful gardeners to enable him to carry out his plans of improvement. His habits were most regular. He was out of bed with the sun, and the hours until breakfast were passed in his study, writing letters or reading. Breakfast over, his horse was ready at the door to take him on the round of his farms. If his guests wished to accompany him, or to make excursions into the surrounding country, horses for them also were led out. Returning from his fields, he again shut himself up in his study, where he remained until three o’clock, when dinner was announced. The remainder of the day and evening was given to his guests until ten o’clock, when he retired.

The repose of this fascinating life was not destined to be of long duration. With the close of the war the young confederacy found itself confronted with new difficulties and dangers. To meet them, and bring order out of the political chaos, there assembled that body of patriotic and illustrious men who, as the result of their deliberations, gave the world the constitution of the United States. Washington presided over their deliberations, and, in due time, his election to the Presidency followed. It was hard to be compelled again to leave Mount Vernon and to abandon all his cherished plans for its improvement. This entry is found in his diary in the summer of 1789: “At ten o’clock I bade adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life and to domestic felicity, and with a mind oppressed with more anxious and painful emotions than I have words to express, set out for New York, having in company Mr. Thomson and Colonel Humphrey; with the best dispositions to render service to my country in obedience to its call, but with less hope of answering its expectations.” He was loath to leave home for many private reasons, chief among which was his desire to pursue the system he had matured for the improvement of his estate. Since the war he had procured from England the best works on agriculture, and was impatient to put his ideas and theories into practical operation. Now all had to be given up, at least for four years, when, he hoped, the term of his second servitude in public life would come to an end. But what was to be done in the meantime? The seat of government was hundreds of miles away, and roads next to impassable except at certain seasons of the year, made communications tedious and difficult. He did the best thing possible, namely, to appoint a manager and leave with him instructions in writing for his guidance.

These instructions throw a strong light on the character of Washington, a light for which we might search in vain among the many volumes of his State papers, public addresses and private correspondence. His dearest interests were involved in the management of his property, and he naturally wrote with a freedom, directness and emphasis concerning it which he scarcely could have employed on any other occasion. In these simple memoranda, made when he was on the eve of assuming the highest honor his country could confer—an honor all the greater because of the transcendent ability and character it was supposed the position demanded—we can see, that while the world was ringing with the fame of his achievements, his innermost thoughts were occupied with those beloved fields on which he had lavished so much care. He intended that everything should run along in his absence precisely as if he were present. There is a military ring in the following sentences which reveals the old commander-in-chief: “One thing I cannot forbear to put in strong terms. It is that whenever I order a thing to be done it must be done; or a reason given at the time, or as soon as the impracticability can be discovered why it cannot be done, which will produce a countermand or a change. But it is not for the person receiving the order to suspend or dispense with its execution; and, after it has been supposed to have gone into effect, to be told that nothing has been done in it; that itwillbe done or that it could not be done—either of these is unpleasant and disagreeable to me, having been all my life accustomed to regularity and punctuality. Nothing but system and method are required to accomplish any reasonable requests.” Due notice that he will expect every man to do his duty at Mount Vernon while he is in New York is given as follows: “To request that my people must be at work as soon as it is light; work until it is dark, and be diligent while they are at it, can hardly be necessary, because the propriety of it must strike every manager who attends to my interests, or regards his own character, and he, on reflecting, must be convinced that lost labor is never to be regained.” His plan, or system, was very comprehensive. It contained instructions what to plant and where to plant it, not only for the year but for many years in advance. Every one of the five overseers was required to make a minute weekly report concerning the operations on the farm he had in charge. This was given to the manager and by him sent to the President. The work performed by the laborers and their condition, whether ill or well, were to be noted. The slightest incident or accident connected with everything on the estate—the stock, the crops, the trees, the fences, the farming implements—was to be made known to him. And, no matter how public business pressed, time and opportunity were found or made, during all the eight years of thePresidency, to consider and attend to the affairs of Mount Vernon. Each weekly report was closely examined and answered, sometimes at great length.

“STAY SIR! DO NOT KILL THAT REPTILE.”

This extract from one of his communications shows how closely he watched his slaves and how well he was acquainted with them personally: “What sort of sickness is Dick’s that he should have been confined with it for weeks? And what kind of sickness is Betty Davis’s that it should have a similar effect upon her? If pretended ailments without apparent causes or visible effects will screen her from work, I shall get no service out of her, for a more lazy, deceitful and impudent huzzy is not to be found in the United States than she is.” In another letter, he refers to a young negro whom he wished to have trained as a house-servant. “Put him in the house,” he says, “give him good clothes, so as to make him self-respecting, and a stout horn comb. Make him comb his hair, or wool, so that it will grow long.”

What a many-sided character Washington possessed! No President ever held the helm of state more firmly than he did during those eight years while the young Republic was beginning its career as a nation. The ablest men in our history as a people were then in public life, but he was the master of them all. He was supreme in a cabinet containing two men of such vast acquirements as Hamilton and Jefferson, and he ruled them as completely as he governed “Dick” and “impudent Betty Davis” down at Mount Vernon.

The summer months were usually spent on his estate, though not invariably. During the Presidency, he traveled a good deal in different parts of the country—Long Island, the Eastern States, and down South and out West. No man of his time probably knew the geography and topography of the country better than he did. As we have pointed out, the French-Indian war led him across the Alleghanies, and he twice again visited that region, less known then almost than the middle of Africa is to-day. He explored the middle of New York with De Witt Clinton, penetrated to the very centre of the Dismal Swamp, and took the field once more when the Whisky Insurrection broke out.

After the expiration of his second term, he again returned to the banks of the Potomac and resumed the occupations he laid down eight years before. Writing to a friend soon after his arrival, he tells him that he “began his daily course with the rising of the sun and first made preparations for the business of the day. By the time I have accomplished these matters breakfast is ready. This being over, I mount my horse and ride around my farms, which employs me till it is time to dress for dinner, at which I rarely miss to see some strange faces, come, as they say, out of respect for me.” The farm was over eight thousand acres in extent, and these rides averaged twelve or fifteen miles in length. This description of Washington at the time was given by young Custis to a gentleman who had inquired for him: “You will meet with an old gentleman riding alone, in plain drab clothes, a broad-brimmed white hat, a hickory switch in his hand and carrying an umbrella with a long staff which is attached to his saddle-bow. That person, sir, is General Washington.” Another call to duty came in the threatened war with France. Washington was made lieutenant-general, but the storm soon blew over.

He was now sixty-eight years old, and the end of all was coming. He rode out as usual one morning in December, caught cold, and died in a few days. The trees he planted in his youth bend above his grave on the banks of the Potomac.

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