idly in wealth and population, was also drifting deeper and deeper into debt to England, and the relations were growing as cordial as those of Antonio and Shylock.

During the Seven Years' War, the Americans were enjoying a war-time boom, with little thought of a day of reckoning. Washington was trying to live up to the standard expected of the consort of Martha, the richest woman in Virginia. He strove to make a stately mansion out of Mount Vernon, and, immediately on his marriage, had ordered numberless things from London including busts of his heroes, Alexander the Great, Julius Cæsar, Charles XII of Sweden and the King of Prussia, two wild beasts, and sundry small ornaments for the chimneypiece.

The London art dealer, William Cheere,1 answered: "There is no Busts of Alexander ye Great, (none at all of Charles 12th of Sweden,) Julius Cæsar, King of Prussia, Prince Eugene, nor Duke of Marlborough."

He sent instead, groups of Æneas carrying his father out of Troy, Bacchus and Flora, festoons of grapes and vine leaves, and "Two Lyons after the antique Lyons in Italy, finished neat and bronzed with copper.

"These is the best ornaments I could possibly make for the chimney piece. And of all the wild beasts as coud be made, there is none better than the Lyons. The manner of placing them on ye chimney piece should be thus:

While Washington was meeting disappointments as a patron of foreign art, he was having his ups and downs with the tobacco he raised to export in payment for his artistic and other importations.

His London agent, Cary, actually complained of short weight in Washington's shipments, and Washington an

swered in self-defence with language showing what a scholar and experimentalist he was in tobacco-culture:

"I perceive you bring the shortness of some of the bundles of tobacco shipped in the Bland to account for the lowness of the price. That some of the tobacco was small, I shall not undertake to dispute; but at the same time I must observe, that it was clean and neatly handled, which I apprehended would have rendered the other objection of very little weight. As to stemming my tobacco, in the manner you recommend, I would readily do it, if the returns would be equivalent to the trouble, and loss of the stem; and of this I shall be a tolerable judge, as I am at no small pains this year to try the quality with the advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of tobaccos, and shall at the same time find out the difference between a hogshead of leaf and a hogshead of stemmed tobacco. By comparing then the loss of the one with the extra price of the other, I shall be able to determine which is the best to pursue, and follow that method which promises the most certain advantages....

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Tobacco was a difficult and a fickle mistress and threatened constant ruin to her devotees:

"We have had one of the most severe droughts in these parts that ever was known, and without a speedy interposition of Providence (in sending us moderate and refreshing Rains to modify and soften the Earth,) we shall not make one ounce of tobacco this year. Our plants in spite of all our efforts to the contrary, are just destroyed, and our grain is absolutely perishing. How it may be in other parts of the country I can not positively say, yet I have heard much complaining.'

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News from London was slow and frequently bad. He tried various agents, each worse than the other. When his neighbor and friend, Colonel George William Fairfax, sailed for England with his wife Sally, who had been Washington's best beloved of women, Washington sent along with them a letter to Richard Washington, complaining:

"I must confess that my disappointment in the sales of my tobacco per Cozzens was a very sensible one . . . mine being all sweet scented and neatly managed, left me no room to suspect coming in at the tail of the market." 17

Wounds came even from friends. The Fairfaxes had been so close to him as lifelong neighbors that he was deeply hurt when Colonel George forgot to write home, though Sally evidently was not so remiss. Washington protested to Richard Washington:

"Colo. Fairfax very much surprizes his friends in Virginia by not writing to any of them. Just upon his arrival at London he favored a few with a short letter advertising them of that agreeable circumstance and I have heard of no other letter that has come from him since, altho' I have seen some from the ladies, the superscription of which has been in his handwriting.'

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The purpose of that Fairfax voyage was peculiar. Colonel Fairfax had gone abroad to convince his relations that he was not a negro! This must have interested Sally also, as she could not have enjoyed the accusation of marrying one and incidentally spoiling her chances to become Lady Fairfax.

Her husband's English cousins wanted to be sure that they were not admitting black blood into their blue. He had been born in the Bahamas, and the story had spread to England that his mother was a dusky beauty.

The story was ridiculous, but in view of the great estates involved it seemed advisable to deny it in person. We learn this from Sally Fairfax herself," and though she does not mention the year, it is highly probable that the present voyage was the one undertaken to quench the gossip.

While abroad the Fairfaxes left the management of their possessions to their closest neighbor, George Washington, whose wide shoulders were a convenient shelf for everybody's troubles. When they returned from England and

arrived in lower Virginia, Washington greeted them with this:

"I am sorry to be the messenger of the news, but it is incumbent upon me to inform you of the death of the mare, you committed to my care. How she died, I am able to give you but a very unsatisfactory account. For on the 3rd inst., I set out for Frederick and left her to all appearance as well as a creature could be, Mr. Green and I observing a day or two before, how fat and frolicksome she seemed. And on my return in 8 days time, I got the news of her death. She discovered no visible signs of ailment, as I am told, in the morning of the 7th, when let out of the stable; but before night was swelled to a monstrous size and died in a few hours.

"Bishop (my old servant) opened her, but could perceive no hurt bruise or other apparent cause of so sudden a death which inclines me to think it was occasioned by eating blasted corn, a piece of which I had in ground I wanted to clean and never could fence my chariot Horses of it. The rest consequently followed, and this I am persuaded puffed her up in the manner related."

The domestic affairs of his animals always seemed to amuse him and he grows wittier on such subjects than on any other:

"She had no foal in her, which assures me that she never would breed, as I am convinced, she had a competent share of Ariel's performances; not content with which, she was often catched in amorous mood with a young horse of mine, notwithstanding my utmost endeavors to keep them under. You will feel the loss of

this accident more sensibly but can not be more concerned at the account than I was, for I had pleased myself with the thoughts of delivering her to you in fine order, when you returned to below.

"We received the news of your return with a great deal of pleasure and if there is any thing previous to it in which I can be serviceable, I hope you will command me. You did me singular services in a like case, and why won't you give me an oppertunity of making a grateful return. Mrs. Washington writes to Mrs. Fairfax under this cover, to whom and Miss Fairfax please to offer my best wishes." 20