s before, when Governor Spotswood and his gay troop
looked down on it from the green mountain summit. There were now some
scattered settlers in it, and Lord Fairfax had built himself a lodge in
the wilderness, which he named "Greenway Court," and where now and then
he went for a hunting excursion.

Crossing the Blue Ridge at Ashby's Gap and fording the bright
Shenandoah, the young surveyors made their way towards this wildwood
lodge. It was a house with broad stone gables, its sloping roof coming
down over a long porch in front. The locality was not altogether a safe
one. There were still some Indians in that country, and something might
stir them up against the whites. In two belfries on the roof hung
alarm-bells, to be rung to collect the neighboring settlers if report of
an Indian rising should be brought.

[Illustration: HOME OF MARY WASHINGTON, FREDERICKSBURG, VA.

Purchased by George Washington for his mother.]

On the forest road leading to Greenway Court a white post was planted,
with an arm pointing towards the house, as a direction to visitors. As
the post decayed or was thrown down by any cause another was erected,
and on this spot to-day such a post stands, with the village of White
Post built around it. But when young Washington and Fairfax passed the
spot only forest trees stood round the post, and they rode on to the
Court, where they rested awhile under the hospitable care of Lord
Fairfax's manager.

It was a charming region in which the young surveyors found themselves
after their brief term of rest, a land of lofty forests and broad grassy
openings, with the silvery river sparkling through their midst. The buds
were just bursting on the trees, the earliest spring flowers were
opening, and to right and left extended long blue mountain-ranges, the
giant guardians of the charming valley of the Shenandoah. In those days
there were none of the yellow grain-fields, the old mansions surrounded
by groves, the bustling villages and towns which now mark the scene,
but nature had done her best to make it picturesque and beautiful, and
the youthful visitors enjoyed it as only those of young blood can.

Up the banks of the Shenandoah went the surveyors, measuring and marking
the land and mapping down its leading features. It was no easy work, but
they enjoyed it to the full. At night they would stop at the rude house
of some settler, if one was to be found; if not, they would build a fire
in the woods, cook t