pay the charges of his education, and bring him forward into life. Fortunately the circumstances, in which General Greene left his family, rendered this act of munificence and paternal care unnecessary. Other examples might be cited; and, from his cautious habit of concealing from the world his deeds of charity, it may be presumed many others are unknown, in which his heart and his hand were open to the relief of indigent merit.

The Countess of Huntington, celebrated for her religious enthusiasm and liberal charities, formed a scheme for civilizing and Christianizing the North American Indians. Being a daughter of the Earl of Ferrers, who was descended through the female line from a remote branch of the Washington family, she claimed a relationship to General Washington, and wrote to him several letters respecting her project of benevolence and piety in America. It was her design to form, at her own charge, in the neighbourhood of some of the Indian tribes, a settlement of industrious emigrants, who, by their example and habits, should gradually introduce among them the arts of civilization; and missionaries were to teach them the principles of Christianity. Lady Huntington proposed, that the government of the United States should grant a tract of wild lands, upon which her emigrants and missionaries should establish themselves. A scheme, prompted by motives so pure, and founded on so rational a basis, gained at once the approbation and countenance of Washington. He wrote to the President of Congress, and to the governors of some of the States, expressing favorable sentiments of Lady Huntington's application. Political and local reasons interfered to defeat the plan. In the first place, it was thought doubtful whether a colony of foreigners settled on the western 53

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frontier, near the English on one side and the Spaniards on the other, would in the end prove conducive to the public tranquillity. And, in the next place, the States individually had ceded all their wild lands to the Union, and Congress were not certain that they possessed power to grant any portion of the new territory for such an object. Hence the project was laid aside, although Washington offered to facilitate it as far as he could on a smaller scale, by allowing settlers to occupy his own lands, and be employed according to Lady Huntington's views.

In the spring of 1785, he was engaged for several weeks in planting his grounds at Mount Vernon with trees and shrubs. To this interesting branch of husbandry he had devoted considerable attention before the war, and during that period he had endeavoured to carry out his plans of improvement. In some of his letters from camp, he gave minute directions to his manager for removing and planting trees; but want of skill and other causes prevented these directions from being complied with, except in a very imperfect manner. The first year after the war, he applied himself mainly to farming operations, with the view of restoring his neglected fields and commencing a regular system of practical agriculture. He gradually abandoned the cultivation of tobacco, which exhausted his lands, and substituted wheat and grass, as better suited to the soil, and in the aggregate more profitable. He began a new method of rotation of crops, in which he studied the particular qualities of the soil in the different parts of his farms, causing wheat, maize, potatoes, oats, grass, and other crops to succeed each other in the same field at stated times. So exact was he in this method, that he drew out a scheme in which all his fields were numbered, and the crops

assigned to them for several years in advance. It proved so successful, that he pursued it to the end of his life, with occasional slight deviations by way of experiment.

Having thus arranged and systematized his agricultural operations, he now set himself at work in earnest to execute his purpose of planting and adorning the grounds around the mansion-house. In the direction of the left wing, and at a considerable distance, was a vegetable garden; and on the right, at an equal distance, was another garden for ornamental shrubs, plants, and flowers. Between these gardens, in front of the house, was a spacious lawn, surrounded by serpentine walks. Beyond the gardens and lawn were the orchards. Very early in the spring he began with the lawn, selecting the choicest trees from the woods on his estates, and transferring them to the borders of the serpentine walks, arranging them in such a manner as to produce symmetry and beauty in the general effect, intermingling in just proportions forest trees, evergreens, and flowering shrubs. He attended personally to the selection, removal, and planting of every tree; and his Diary, which is very particular from day to day through the whole process, proves that he engaged in it with intense interest, and anxiously watched each tree and shoot till it showed signs of renewed growth. Such trees as were not found on his own lands, he obtained from other parts of the country, and at length his design was completed according to his wishes.

The orchards, gardens, and green-houses were next replenished with all the varieties of rare fruit-trees, vegetables, shrubs, and flowering plants, which he could procure. This was less easily accomplished; but, horticulture being with him a favorite pursuit, he con

tinued during his life to make new accessions of fruits and plants, both native and exotic. Pruning trees was one of his amusements; and in the proper season he might be seen almost daily in his grounds and gardens with a pruning-hook or other horticultural implements in his hands. Skilful gardeners were sought by him from Europe, whose knowledge and experience enabled him to execute his plans. Although relieved from public cares, he soon discovered, that the prospect, which he had so fondly cherished, of enjoying the repose of retirement, was much brighter than the reality. Writing to General Knox, he said, "It is not the letters from my friends, which give me trouble, or add aught to my perplexity. It is references to old matters, with which I have nothing to do; applications which oftentimes cannot be complied with; inquiries which would require the pen of an historian to satisfy; letters of compliment, as unmeaning perhaps as they are troublesome, but which must be attended to; and the commonplace business, which employs my pen and my time, often disagreeably. Indeed these, with company, deprive me of exercise, and, unless I can obtain relief, must be productive of disagreeable consequences." The applications, of which he complains, were chiefly from officers or other persons, who had been connected with the army, and who wished to obtain from him certificates of character, or of services rendered during the war, or some other statement from his pen, for the purpose of substantiating claims upon the government. His real attachment to all who had served faithfully in the army, as well as his humanity, prompted him to comply with these requests; but in many cases they were unreasonable, and in all troublesome, as they required an examination of his voluminous papers, and a recur

rence to facts which often could not be easily ascertained. And then his correspondence on topics of public interest, friendship, and civility, with persons in Europe and America, was very extensive. Add to this, his private affairs, the keeping of accounts, and his letters of business. For more than two years after the close of the war he had no clerk or secretary, and he was therefore incessantly employed in writing. At length this labor was in some degree lessened by the aid of Mr. Lear, who became his secretary, and resided in his family many years on terms of intimate friendship.

The multitude of visiters at Mount Vernon increased. They came from the Old World and the New. Among them were foreigners of distinction, particularly from France and other countries on the continent of Europe, bringing letters of introduction from the Marquis de Lafayette, Count de Rochambeau, Count d'Estaing, and some of the other general officers, who had served in America. The celebrated authoress and champion of liberty, Catharine Macaulay Graham, professed to have crossed the Atlantic for the sole purpose of testifying in person her admiration of the character and deeds of Washington. His own countrymen, in every part of the Union, as may well be supposed, were not less earnest in their good will, or less ready to prove their respect and attachment. Some came to keep alive friendship, some to ask counsel on public affairs, and many to gratify a natural and ardent curiosity. This throng of visiters necessarily demanded much of his time; but in other respects the task of receiving them was made easy by the admirable economy of the household under the management of Mrs. Washington.

His habits were uniform, and nearly the same as they had been previously to the war. He rose before the sun,

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