ington
received the appointment of public surveyor. This conferred authority
on his surveys, and entitled them to be recorded in the county
offices, and so invariably correct have these surveys been found that
to this day, wherever any of them stand on record, they receive
implicit credit. For three years he continued in this occupation,
which proved extremely profitable, from the vast extent of country to
be surveyed and the very limited number of public surveyors. It made
him acquainted, also, with the country, the nature of the soil in
various parts, and the value of localities; all which proved
advantageous to him in his purchases in after years.

While thus employed for months at a time surveying the lands beyond
the Blue Ridge, he was often an inmate of Greenway Court. The
projected manor house was never even commenced. On a green knoll
overshadowed by trees was a long stone building one story in height,
with dormer-windows, two wooden belfries, chimneys studded with
swallow and martin coops, and a roof sloping down in the old Virginia
fashion, into low projecting eaves that formed a verandah the whole
length of the house. It was probably the house originally occupied by
his steward or land agent, but was now devoted to hospitable purposes
and the reception of guests.

Here Washington had full opportunity, in the proper seasons, of
indulging his fondness for field sports, and once more accompanying
his lordship in the chase. The conversation of Lord Fairfax, too, was
full of interest and instruction to an inexperienced youth, from his
cultivated talents, his literary taste, and his past intercourse with
the best society of Europe, and its most distinguished authors. He had
brought books, too, with him into the wilderness, and from
Washington's diary we find that during his sojourn here he was
diligently reading the history of England, and the essays of the
"Spectator." Three or four years were thus passed by Washington, the
greater part of the time beyond the Blue Ridge, but occasionally with
his brother Lawrence at Mount Vernon.

CHAPTER III.
RIVAL CLAIMS OF THE ENGLISH AND THE FRENCH.--PREPARATIONS FOR
HOSTILITIES.

During the time of Washington's surveying campaigns among the
mountains, a grand colonizing scheme had been set on foot, destined to
enlist him in hardy enterprises, and in some degree to shape the
course of his future fortunes. The treaty of peace concluded at
Aix-la-Chapelle, which h