silly enough. I did not see the
whole article, or learn by what arguments the writer endeavored
to substantiate his doubts, if he really had any, as to the true
birthplace of the _Pater Patriae_, but, feeling some interest in the
matter, I cut out the slip containing the quotation just given,
and enclosed it in a letter to a prominent gentleman living in
Westmoreland not far from Wakefield, the estate on which the
birthplace--or rather the site of it--is situated, with a request that
he would reply to it. He did so promptly and almost indignantly.

"I am amazed," says he, "at the contents of the printed slip you send
me. That any man of ordinary intelligence, living within the bounds
of civilization, could be ignorant of or doubt the fact that General
Washington was born in America, I did not for a moment suppose." He
goes on to say that if Washington's biography, written by so many
competent hands, and founded upon sources the most authentic, and
particularly the Lives of Marshall, Sparks and Irving, were not
sufficient to convince incredulity itself, he is at a loss to know
what would. Certainly, he would not attempt the task himself. In
addition to the well-known biographies, traditions and memoranda
attest the fact beyond the possibility of enlightened doubt.
Other credible and corroborative records are not wanting. "Had the
question," he concludes, "been asked of Dr. Livingstone by some
savage in the depths of the African jungles, it would not have been
surprising; but to come from a writer in _London_, it is inexpressibly
marvelous, and looks like a relapse into barbarism."

Among the memoranda alluded to is a fac-simile of the entry of the
birth of Washington in the Bible of his mother, which is given in
Howe's _Historical Collections of Virginia_, as follows:

"_George Washington son to Augustine and Mary his Wife was Born 11'th
Day of February_ 173-1/2 _about_ 10 _in the Morning and was Baptized
the_ 3'th (sic) _of April following M'r Beverley Whiting and Cap'n
Christopher Brooks godfathers and M'rs Mildred Gregory God-mother."_

There are no marks of punctuation, and Howe states that the original
entry is supposed to have been made by Washington's mother. If so, the
handwriting, not very unlike Washington's own, is unusually masculine,
compact, even and clear for a woman's. Howe's book was published in
1836. At that time the old family Bible, a much dilapidated quarto
with the title-page missing, and cove