en with Braddock and the five
colonial governors plans were made for concerted action against the
French and Indians. Here that famous letter, still in existence, was
written, urging upon the British government the necessity of taxing the
colonies. This letter set into movement a chain of events disastrous to
the mother country. It resulted in the loathed Stamp Act and led
ultimately to the Revolution of 1775.

[Illustration: Mantel in the music room. Probably a later "improvement"]

Carlyle was appointed collector of His Majesty's customs on the South
Potomac in 1758, succeeding his father-in-law, William Fairfax. In 1762
he was importing race horses into the colony. These were imported, "just
as they imported Madeira wine and other luxuries." One of the early
Maryland gazettes of July 29, 1762 carries the following advertisement:

Imported by Carlyle & Dalton in the ship _Christian_, Captain Stanly,
and for sale, three horses [Thorne's Starling: Smith's Hero, and
Leary's Old England] and three mares [the other two being the
Rock-mares Nos. 1 and 2] of full blood, viz: A _ch. m._ with a star
and two white heels behind, eight years old: Got by Wilson's Chestnut
Arabian: her dam by Slipby, brother to Snap's dam; and out of Menil
[sic] the dam of Trunnion. Menil was got by Partner: out of
Sampson's-Sister, which was got by Greyhound: her grandam by Curwen's
Bay Barb: her g. grandam by Ld. D'Arcy's Arabian: her dam by
Whiteshirt: out of a famous mare of Ld. Montagu's.

JOHN CARLYLE[77]

Alexandria, Va., July 1762.

In 1772 Carlyle took over the incompleted work on Christ Church and
carried it to completion. In 1773 he bought pew No. 19. In 1774 he built
the Presbyterian meetinghouse. In between times he was hunting at
Belvoir and Mount Vernon, dancing at Alexandria assemblies, sitting as
town trustee and gentleman justice, journeying to England and back,
laying out and planting his garden, taking part in long, hot arguments
with his family and neighbors in the ever-widening breach between the
colonies and the mother country, breeding race horses, and joining in
the frolics of the Jockey Club. Heir to a title old and honorable as it
was, he ardently espoused the cause of the colonies. Too ill for active
military service, he nevertheless served as a member of the Committee of
Safety until his death in 1780, at the age of sixty.

John Carlyle divided his lands, named after