d negroes for the
culture of tobacco, Indian corn, and other crops, and for other
out-of-door labor. Their quarter formed a kind of hamlet apart,
composed of various huts, with little gardens and poultry yards, all
well stocked, and swarms of little negroes gambolling in the sunshine.
Then there were large wooden edifices for curing tobacco, the staple
and most profitable production, and mills for grinding wheat and
Indian corn, of which large fields were cultivated for the supply of
the family and the maintenance of the negroes.

Washington carried into his rural affairs the same method, activity
and circumspection that had distinguished him in military life. He
kept his own accounts, posted up his books and balanced them with
mercantile exactness. The products of his estate became so noted for
the faithfulness, as to quality and quantity, with which they were put
up, that it is said any barrel of flour that bore the brand of George
Washington, Mount Vernon, was exempted from the customary inspection
in the West India ports.

He was an early riser, often before daybreak in the winter when the
nights were long. He breakfasted at seven in summer, at eight in
winter. Two small cups of tea and three or four cakes of Indian meal
(called hoe cakes), formed his frugal repast. Immediately after
breakfast he mounted his horse and visited those parts of the estate
where any work was going on, seeing to every thing with his own eyes,
and often aiding with his own hand. Dinner was served at two o'clock.
He ate heartily, but was no epicure, nor critical about his food. His
beverage was small beer or cider, and two glasses of old Madeira. He
took tea, of which he was very fond, early in the evening, and retired
for the night about nine o'clock.

{Illustration: MOUNT VERNON. Vol. I}

Washington delighted in the chase. In the hunting season, when he rode
out early in the morning to visit distant parts of the estate where
work was going on, he often took some of the dogs with him for the
chance of starting a fox, which he occasionally did, though he was not
always successful in killing him. He was a bold rider and an admirable
horseman, though he never claimed the merit of being an accomplished
fox-hunter. In the height of the season, however, he would be out with
the fox-hounds two or three times a week, accompanied by his guests at
Mount Vernon and the gentlemen of the neighborhood, especially the
Fairfaxes of Belvoir, of which