th being loyal to the colonial cause
(certainly he never failed in loyalty to his colonial friends) it is
more than possible that the friction between the two countries swayed
him somewhat in his determination to quit Virginia for the more settled
state of the Old Country.

On a June afternoon in 1773, George William and Sally set out from
Belvoir to Mount Vernon for the last time to take leave of George and
Martha Washington. Dr. Craik arrived in time to meet them and say
goodbye. The next day, June 9, in the afternoon, Martha and George went
to Belvoir to see these old and devoted friends "take shipping."[88] As
the breeze lifted the sails and the sturdy little ship faded out of
sight down the Potomac, it carried the Fairfaxes away from Belvoir
forever.

Until his own affairs became too involved, Washington supervised George
Fairfax's Virginia interests. In August 1774, a year after the master's
departure from Virginia, the contents of Belvoir house were sold.
Washington himself bought many things--the sideboard, card tables, and
other things. Other Fairfax furnishings came to Alexandria; Dr. Craik
became the possessor of a Wilton carpet which Washington bought for him.

George and Sally Fairfax settled in Bath in a red-brown sandstone house
at 11 Lansdown Crescent, where they became a part of the gay parties
taking the waters at the Pump Room and attending assembly balls in the
fashion of Jane Austen's most aristocratic characters. Friendly letters
went back and forth between Bath and Mount Vernon. After the Revolution,
Fairfax wrote to Washington: "I glory in being called an American,"
regretted his inability to contribute to the "glorious cause of Liberty"
and offered his "best thanks for all your exertions ... to ... the End
of the Great work ..."[89]

Washington replied from New York on July 10, 1783: "Your house at
Belvoir I am sorry to add is no more, but mine (which is enlarged since
you saw it) is most sincerely and heartily at your Service till you
could rebuild it" and expressed his pleasure at George William's
approbation of his Revolutionary actions.[90]

Fairfax, after becoming involved in lawsuit after lawsuit and dissension
with his relatives, died in 1787 before inheriting his title. Sally
lived on at Bath for twenty-five years after her husband's death. The
damp English climate crippled her joints with rheumatism, but did not
distort her slender, erect figure, and she maintained her beauty to th