fact that barrels of flour stamped "George Washington, Mount Vernon," were exempted from inspection in the West India ports, was a distinction of which the owner was as proud as of his military honors. While her husband. was actively engaged upon his farms, Mrs. Washington, like the model woman of the Proverbs, "looked well to the ways of her household," and both seem to have delighted to "rise while it was yet night."

More than one contemporaneous chronicler has recorded that the master of Mount Vernon always rose betimes, usually at four o'clock in the morning, making his own fire in the winter season, in this way, as he himself explained, accomplishing a day's work while others slept. Mrs. Washington, not to be outdone by her spouse, gave many of her household orders before breakfast, thus securing leisure for her devotions, which always occupied the first hour after breakfast, for her gardening, her needlework, her charities, and, above all, time to attend to the health and education of her children, and to receive and entertain the numerous guests who were constantly arriving at the Mansion House, as the Mount Vernon property was called to distinguish it from the adjacent farms.

The personal supervision of an estate of

over four thousand acres of land, upon whose various farms, named Muddy Hill, River, Dogue Run, and Union, more than two hundred negroes were employed, would in itself seem sufficient to engage the energies of the most active landlord. In the care and training of the negroes, especially those employed about the Mansion House, Mrs. Washington assisted her husband. The welfare of these slaves, of whom one hundred and fifty had been a part of her dower; their clothing, much of which was woven and made upon the estate; their comfort, especially when ill; and their instruction in sewing, knitting, and other housewifely arts, engaged much of Mrs. Washington's time and thought.

We cannot wonder that these busy people never found the days too long. Our only cause for wonder is that they had time and strength left for the large amount of sociability and pleasure that entered into their lives. Although Washington, in addition to all his duties at home and abroad, planted and grafted several hundred trees in one season, and entered in his diary, with great satisfaction, the fact that he had set a plough of his own invention to work in the lower pasture, he seems always to have had leisure to go about with his wife to dinners, chris

tenings, and other neighborhood festivities. One day he records that he "set off with Mrs. Washington and Patcy, Mr. W[arner] Washington and wife, Mrs. Bushrod and Miss Washington and Mr. Magowen for 'Towelston,' in order to stand for Mr. B. Fairfax's third son, which I did with my wife, Mr. Warner Washington and his lady." Another day he returns from attending to the purchase of Western lands to find that Colonel Bassett, his wife and children, have arrived during his absence, "Billy and Nancy and Mr. Warner Washington being here also." The next day the gentlemen go a-hunting together, Mr. Bryan Fairfax having joined them for the hunt and the dinner that followed.

So the days went by, the serious business of life being interspersed with many pleasures, especially in the hunting season, when Washington spent days together in pursuit of the fox, which he sometimes joyfully records that he "catched." At other times, he joined his neighbors in fishing or in shooting the canvasback, in which the shores of the Potomac abounded at certain seasons.

Mr. Irving speaks of water parties upon the Potomac in these palmy days, when Mr. Digges would receive his guests in a barge rowed by six negroes arrayed in a uniform whose dis

UNIVERSITY

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tinguishing features were check shirts and black velvet caps. At one time, he says, "the whole neighborhood was thrown into a paroxysm of festivity by the anchoring of the British frigate [the Boston] in the river, just in front of the hospitable mansion of the Fairfaxes. A succession of dinners and breakfasts takes place at Mount Vernon and Belvoir, with occasional tea parties on board of the frigate."

During the hunting season, the Virginia planter kept open house for weeks at a time. In the exercise of such hospitality the Washingtons did their full share. Some authorities state that Mrs. Washington and the ladies visiting her at times rode with the hounds. This may be true; but from what we know of Mrs. Washington, it would seem much more to her taste to stay at home and superintend the preparation of delectable dishes to set before the hungry hunters, than to career over the fields after them in a scarlet habit.

If Washington recorded in his diary that he and Mrs. Washington and Mr. and Miss Custis dined one day at Belvoir with the Fairfaxes, there were many other days when the Fairfaxes, Masons, Diggeses, Lewises and other neighbors dined at Mount Vernon. We can imagine Mrs. Washington's housewifely pride,

when she welcomed these guests to her sumptuously spread table, especially when Mr. Mason of Gunston Hall, or his Lordship from Greenway Court commended her good cheer. Those were days when the highest lady in the land prided herself upon her culinary skill; and while the gentlemen lingered over their wine, as they were too prone to linger, the fair dames would gather around their hostess in the drawing-room, or upon the lovely terraces overlooking the river, to indulge in neighborly gossip over their fragrant Bohea, and to exchange recipes. Those of Mrs. Washington were, we may be sure, in great request, having about them, in addition to their own excellence, a fine flavor of the Williamsburg aristocracy.

Warm-hearted, open-handed hospitality was constantly exercised at Mount Vernon, and if the master humbly recorded that, although he owned a hundred cows, he had sometimes to buy butter for his family, the entry seems to have been made in no spirit of fault-finding.

A pleasant little story is told of later days, when the Washingtons were often away from home, and Lund Washington was superintendent at the Mansion House. The General seems to have taken Lund to task for the amount of bacon which the smoke-house con