, and shall in a very few days be returned in as
good Dun Fish as ever you see. Excuse this freedom, and it will add to the
favor. Could you not prevail upon somebody to catch some Trout for me
early to-morrow morning?" When procurable, salt codfish was Washington's
regular Sunday dinner.

A second liking was honey. His ledger several times mentions purchases of
this, and in 1789 his sister wrote him, "when I last had the Pleasure of
seeing you I observ'd your fondness for Honey; I have got a large Pot of
very fine in the comb, which I shall send by the first opportunity." Among
his purchases "sugar candy" is several times mentioned, but this may have
been for children, and not for himself. He was a frequent buyer of fruit
of all kinds and of melons.

He was very fond of nuts, buying hazelnuts and shellbarks by the barrel,
and he wrote his overseer in 1792 to "tell house Frank I expect he will
lay up a more plenteous store of the black common walnuts than he usually
does." The Prince de Broglie states that "at dessert he eats an enormous
quantity of nuts, and when the conversation is entertaining he keeps
eating through a couple of hours, from time to time giving sundry healths,
according to the English and American custom. It is what they call
'toasting.'"

Washington was from boyhood passionately fond of horsemanship, and when
but seventeen owned a horse. Humphreys states that "all those who have
seen General Washington on horseback, at the head of his army, will
doubtless bear testimony with the author that they never saw a more
graceful or dignified person," and Jefferson said of him that he was "the
best horseman of his age, and the most graceful figure that could be seen
on horseback." His diary shows that he rode on various occasions as much
as sixty miles in a day, and Lawrence reports that he "usually rode from
Rockingham to Princeton, which is five miles, in forty minutes." John
Hunter, in a visit to Mount Vernon in 1785, writes that he went

"to see his famous race-horse Magnolia--a most beautiful creature. A whole
length of his was taken a while ago, (mounted on Magnolia) by a famous man
from Europe on copper.... I afterwards went to his stables, where among an
amazing number of horses, I saw old Nelson, now 22 years of age, that
carried the General almost always during the war; Blueskin, another fine
old horse next to him, now and then had that honor. Shaw also shewed me
his old servant, that was repor