e trustees of the said Seminary
are best entitled to the benefit of this donation."

[Illustration: A Mantel in the home of the late Miss Saidee M. Field,
316 Duke Street, in the Adam-McIntyre manner. The house was built prior
to 1795, at which time a trust to secure William Stoggett of
Carnelsford, County Cornwall, England for L253.16.9 is cited. Note the
large brick in the worn hearth and bit of original pine flooring. The
fireback has been rebuilt.]

By 1791 the school established by his bounty was caring for thirteen boy
and seven girl pupils. One graduate, John Weylie, wrote to thank the
General for his benevolence. This same young man later became tutor for
the children of Dr. David Stuart. In January 1800, following
Washington's death the month previous, the Alexandria council voted to
provide a suit of mourning for each of the poor scholars educated at his
expense that they might join in the memorial exercises scheduled for
February 22.

George Steptoe Washington and Lawrence Augustine, sons of the General's
deceased brother, Samuel, were both sent to the academy. They were
boarded by Washington with one of the trustees, Samuel Hansen, who
frequently reported to their uncle on their interests and behavior. In
1789, Hansen wrote to the General recommending for George one Cleon
Moore as teacher of the violin at L12 per year.

These gentlemen were not as circumspect when students as was Lorenzo
Lewis, who was cited in 1819 for "general deportment and propriety of
conduct." Young Lewis was the son of Nelly Custis and Lawrence Lewis,
the former Mrs. Washington's granddaughter and the General's ward, the
latter the General's nephew. Robert E. Lee perchance might be included
in this Washington family circle, by virtue of his subsequent marriage
to the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, brother of Nelly. Lee
attended the academy from about 1820 until 1824, and was remembered by
his teachers as an exemplary scholar.

Education for the opposite sex was not overlooked. Through the interest
and encouragement of Washington, Mrs. Eliza Harriot O'Conner opened an
academy for young ladies as early as 1788. Quaintly worded announcements
appearing in local gazettes early in the nineteenth century reveal an
ever-increasing number of girls' schools.

Female scholars clad in blue worsted dresses, black aprons, muslin
handkerchiefs, leather shoes and colored hose, capes, blue lined straw
bonnets, sporting crimson ribb