From Farm House to the White House - 912 Freedom Library

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Farm House to the White House, by William M. Thayer 124 "8. Went hunting with Mr. Alexander, J. Custis, and Lund Washington. Killed a fox after three hours' chase. Mr. Thurston came in the afternoon. "9. Went a ducking, but got nothing, the creek and rivers being frozen. Robert Adam dined here. "10. Went hunting on the Neck, and visited the plantation there, and killed a fox after treeing it three times and chasing it three hours. "13. Dined at Belvoir with Mrs. Washington and Mr. and Miss Custis. "15. Went up to Alexandria, expecting court, but there was none. [He was county judge.] "20. Went hunting with Jackay Custis, and killed a fox after a three hours' chase. "23. Went hunting after breakfast, and found a fox at Muddy Hole and killed her. Mr. Temple and Mr. Robert Adam dined here. "27. Went hunting; and after tracking a fox a good while, the dogs raised a deer and ran out of the Neck with it, and did not come home till the next day. "28. Mr. Temple came here. "29. Dined at Belvoir with J. P. Custis. "30. Went hunting, and having found a deer, it ran to the head of the Neck before we could stop the dogs. Mr. Peake dined here." In the following month, February, fox-hunting occupied nine days, and five days were given to surveying. The laws of Virginia were very strict against interlopers on the Potomac. They were a great nuisance to the wealthy planters on its banks. Fishing and duck-hunting lured them thither. One day Mrs. Washington remarked to her husband, "I think that strangers are at the landing." "Are you sure they are strangers?" "Yes, I think so," Mrs. Washington answered. "Look and see." "They are strangers, surely," responded Washington, after a critical look towards the landing. "An oysterman's craft, I think." "What should an oysterman come to our landing for?" "We shall find out before long, no doubt," Washington replied. It was at the landing where the family barge was tied up. The affluent planters kept beautiful barges, imported from England, for the use of their families. Washington had one, rowed by six negroes, wearing a kind of uniform of check shirts and black velvet caps. They did find out very soon who the strangers were--an oysterman and his crew. They were a drunken, noisy rabble, who disturbed the neighborhood with their yells and revelry. "They must be sent away," remarked Washington, as he hurried toward the landing. But they were not in a
Farm House to the White House, by William M. Thayer 125 condition to listen to his counsels. They were in the defiant state of intoxication, and refused to evacuate. They declared themselves able and determined "to hold the fort." The hero of Monongahela was not to be defied in that way. He adopted immediate measures to drive the mob away, but was not successful. Finally, summoning his negroes, and organizing a campaign against them, he forced them to leave, though, Irving says, "It took a campaign of three days to expel these invaders from the premises." At another time Washington was riding over his estate, when the report of a gun on the banks of the river, not far away, startled him. Turning his horse in the direction of the report, he soon discovered an interloper in a canoe, making havoc among the canvas-back ducks which were numerous on the river. "Stranger," he called. The hunter looked up. "By what authority are you trespassing upon these grounds?" The only reply that Washington received was, the hunter aimed his gun at him as if to fire. But the owner of Mount Vernon had seen guns pointed at him before; and, nothing daunted, he dashed into the river, shouting, "Fire if you dare!" Seizing the painter of the canoe, he drew it to the shore; then, springing from his horse, he wrested the gun from the hands of the astonished hunter. "I am the proprietor of this estate," he shouted, seizing the fellow by the nape of his neck and pulling him out of his canoe, "and we will see whose rights are to be regarded." The hunter begged for mercy, promising to quit the grounds and never more trespass upon them. Washington restored his gun to him, and allowed him to depart without further punishment. Mr. and Mrs. Washington were active and influential members of the Episcopal Church. Irving says: "The Episcopal Church predominated throughout the 'Ancient Dominion,' as it was termed. Each county was divided into parishes, as in England, each with its parochial church, its parsonage, and glebe. Washington was vestryman of two parishes,--Fairfax and Truro. The parochial church of the former was at Alexandria, ten miles from Mount Vernon; of the latter, at Pohick, about seven miles. The church at Pohick was rebuilt on a plan of his own, and in a great measure at his expense. At one or other of these churches he attended every Sunday, when the weather and the roads permitted. His demeanor was reverential and devout. Mrs. Washington knelt during the prayers; he always stood, as was the custom at that time." One of Mrs. Washington's biographers says of her: "It is recorded of this devout Christian that never, during her life, whether in prosperity or adversity, did she omit that daily self-communion and self-examination, and those private devotional exercises, which would best prepare her for the self-control and self denial by which she was, for more than half a century, so eminently distinguished. It was her habit to retire to her own apartment every morning after breakfast, there to devote an hour to solitary prayer and meditation." Mount Vernon was a home of prayer, of course. The presence of guests, however distinguished, never modified the family devotions. These were among the essentials of good family government. In one of Washington's orders sent to England is the following:
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