thing of even the very smallest detail. smallest detail.

There is a clever effort made to sustain the reputation which Washington afterwards acquired for spelling well, ' and poor Master Lee is relegated back to the ranks of those who cannot spell. The letters, however, must be classed with a very large number of myths, some of them interesting and some of them very stupid, which the enthusiasm of a hundred years has encouraged in relation to Washington and the different details of his career. make the misery of his biographer.

The boy letters are these :

These

FROM RICHARD H. LEE TO GEO. WASHINGTON.

"Pa brought me two pretty books full of pictures he got them in Alexandria they have pictures of dogs and cats and tigers and elefants and ever so many pretty things cousin bids me send you one of them it has a picture of an elefant and a little indian boy on his back like uncle jo's sam pa says if I learn my tasks good he will let uncle jo bring me to see you will you ask your ma to let you 66 'RICHARD HENRY LEE."

come to see me.

To which this is the answer:

"Dear Dickey, I thank you very much for the pretty picture book you gave me. Sam asked me to show him the pictures and I showed him all the pictures in it; and I read to him how the tame Elephant took care of the master's little boy, and put him on his back and would not let anybody touch his master's little son. I can read three

SEA LIFE PROPOSED.

9

or four pages sometimes without missing a word. Ma says I may go to see you and stay all day with you next week if it be not rainy. She says I may ride my pony Hero if Uncle Ben will go with me and lead Hero. I have a little piece of poetry about the picture book you gave me, but I mustn't tell you who wrote the poetry.

"G. W.'s compliments to R. H. L.,
And likes his book full well,

Henceforth will count him his friend,

And hopes many happy days he may spend.

"Your good friend,

"GEORGE WASHINGTON."

George Washington was about fourteen years old when the proposal was seriously entertained at his mother's home that he should be sent to sea. It is thought that some steps were taken to obtain a midshipman's warrant for him. But in this case a very

sound letter of advice from her brother in London, dissuaded Mrs. Washington from carrying out this plan. The traditions are that she herself was unwilling to expose him to the dangers of a sailor's life, and had yielded, rather unwillingly, to his boyish eagerness for the service. It was a time when the successes of the English navy were such as to excite enthusiasm. The capture of Porto Bello was recent, an event which then was a matter of great triumph, and which has indeed escaped total forgetfulness in another century, because it forms the subject of two or three chapters in one of the great novels of that time.

It is remembered that Lawrence Washington, who had served in the provincial contingent against Carthagena, received from Admiral Vernon a copy of the medal struck in honor of the victory. This medal bears the quaint inscriptions: "Glory revived by Admiral Vernon," and again, “He took Porto Bello with six ships only."

The letter of her brother was a sufficient excuse to permit Mrs. Washington to change all the plans for seamanship. Picturesque traditions, to which most American children have been educated, represent the boy as already dressed in the midshipman's uniform, when his mother determined that he should stay at home. The story says that his luggage was already on board the ship.

He did stay at home, however. That is, he stayed in Virginia, sometimes at his mother's house, sometimes at his brother's in Mt. Vernon, and sometimes at Belvoir, the home of the Fairfaxes, opposite Mt. Vernon, on the river. At Belvoir he met Lord Fairfax, the cousin of Lawrence Washington's father-inlaw, and the owner of immense landed estates in Virginia. Lord Fairfax became very fond of him, and interested himself personally in his education. He was a very interesting man, who had removed from England in the early part of the century, to reside on his Virginia estates. He had lived in England long enough to win the respect of some of the best Englishmen ; he was well educated and, in

deed, versed in the best accomplishments of the age; and thus he brought to the little colony a good illustration of the life of the best English society. He had been the companion of Addison and of Steele, and contributed one or two papers to the Spectator. We have letters of his which show an easy pen, and we may thank him for the simplicity and directness of Washington's literary style, which suffers little. by comparison with that of Franklin or other of the best writers of our language. Lord Fairfax became fond of George Washington, the younger brother of his cousin's son-in-law, and to his interest the young man owed the first steps in his career.

There is a certain satisfaction in knowing that the clear and simple English in which Washington expressed himself in his later life, was an accomplishment for which he was, in large part at least, indebted to the personal tuition of the friend of Joseph Addison. And when one observes the thorough goodbreeding which characterized George Washington, in his intercourse with the highest or with the lowest, one remembers with interest, that his training in that side of morals which we call manners, had such assistance as could be given him by one of the best trained gentlemen of his time.

We must satisfy our curiosity by such imaginations as we can form of the life of an intelligent, active, pure-minded boy, living in that fortunate climate of Northern Virginia, where he can be much in the open

air, among people who are disposed to encourage him in his out-door pursuits, and in training for a work which requires him to attend much to out-door exercise. In the midst of such life he has the great opportunities that are offered by frequent visits at the home of George Fairfax and at Mt. Vernon. Life is not without its social attractions, and his education by no means limited to the requirements of a country surveyor, but is that of a young Virginia gentleman, surrounded with the best which his time. has to offer. It is in the midst of such social attractions that Washington met one young lady, who is remembered under the fond appellation of "The Lowland Beauty." Her real name is not certainly known. He was but fifteen years old at the time, but the charms of "The Lowland Beauty" were enough to make him very miserable. And he had been trained by Lord Fairfax enough in the very dangerous art of the writing of verses to try his boy powers in that direction.

We find, therefore, in one of the early note-books, in the midst of scraps of surveyor's memoranda and an occasional copy, perhaps, of an engineer's formula, two different experiments upon poems which he addressed to the cruel Lowland Beauty. It may readily be imagined that she was some young lady a little older than himself, who, in the midst of other admiration, disregarded the homage of her boy lover. We copy below, from the original