George Washington | Page 4

to be had. Since you
received my letter in October last, I have not sleep'd above three or four
nights in a bed, but, after walking a good deal all the day, I lay down
before the fire upon a little hay, straw, fodder, or bearskin, which ever
is to be had, with man, wife, and children, like a parcel of dogs and cats,
and happy is he who gets the berth nearest the fire. There's nothing
would make it pass off tolerably but a good reward. A doubloon is my
constant gain every day that the weather will permit my going out, and
sometimes six pistoles. The coldness of the weather will not allow of
my making a long stay, as the lodging is rather too cold for this time of
year. I have never had my clothes off but lay and sleep in them, except
the few nights I have lay'n in Frederic Town.[1]
[Footnote 1: Hapgood, p, 11.]
Later, when Washington became master of Mount Vernon, his servants
were properly liveried. He himself rode to hounds in the approved
apparel of a fox-hunting British gentleman, and we find in the lists of
articles for which he sends to London the names of clothes and other
articles for Mrs. Washington and the children carefully specified with
the word "fashionable" or "very best quality" added. Still later, when he
was President he attended to this matter of dress with even greater
punctilio.
One incident of this early period should not be passed by unmentioned.
Admiral Vernon offered him an appointment as midshipman in the
navy, but Washington's mother objected so strongly that Washington
gave up the opportunity. We may well wonder whether, if he had
accepted it, his career might not have been permanently turned aside.
Had he served ten or a dozen years in the navy, he might have grown to
be so loyal to the King, that, when the Revolution came, he would have

been found in command of one of the King's men-of-war, ordered to
put down the Rebels in Boston, or in New York. Thus Fate suggests
amazing alternatives to us in the retrospect, but in the actual living,
Fate makes it clear that the only course which could have happened
was that which did happen.
In 1751 the health of Washington's brother, Lawrence, became so bad
from consumption that he decided to pass the winter in a warm climate.
He chose the Island of Barbados, and his brother George accompanied
him. Shortly before sailing, George was commissioned one of the
Adjutants-General of Virginia, with the rank of Major, and the pay of
£150 a year. They sailed on the Potomac River, perhaps near Mount
Vernon, on September 28, 1751, and landed at Bridgetown on
November 3d. The next day they were entertained at breakfast and
dinner by Major Clark, the British officer who commanded some of the
fortifications of the island. "We went," says George Washington, in a
journal he kept, "myself with some reluctance, as the smallpox was in
his family." Thirteen days later, George fell ill of a very strong case of
smallpox which kept him housed for six weeks and left his face much
disfigured for life with pock marks, a fact which, so far as I have
observed his portraits, the painters have carefully forgotten to indicate.
The brothers passed a fairly pleasant month and a half at the Barbados.
Major Clark, and other gentlemen and officials of the island, showed
them much attention. They enjoyed the hospitality of the Beefsteak and
Tripe Club, which seems to have been the fashionable club. On one
occasion, Washington was taken to the play to see the "Tragedy of
George Barnwell." This may have been the first time that he went to the
theatre. He refers to it in his journal with his habitual caution:
Was treated with a play ticket by Mr. Carter to see the Tragedy of
George Barnwell acted: the character of Barnwell and several others
was said to be well perform'd there was Musick a Dapted and regularly
conducted by Mr.
But Lawrence Washington's consumption did not improve: he grew
homesick and pined for his wife and for Mount Vernon. The physicians
had recommended him to spend a full year at Barbados, in order to give

the climate and the regimen there a fair trial, but he could not endure it
so long, and he sailed from there to Bermuda, whence he shortly
returned to Virginia and Mount Vernon. George, meanwhile, had also
gone back to Virginia, sailing December 22, 1751, and arriving
February 1, 1752. Even from his much-mutilated journal, we can see
that he travelled with his eyes open, and that his interests were many.
As he mentioned in his journal thirty persons with whom he became
acquainted at