which has been, much ground has been _scratched_ over and none
cultivated or improved as it ought to have been: whereas a farmer in
England, where land is dear, and labour cheap, finds it his interest to
improve and cultivate highly, that he may reap large crops from a small
quantity of ground."

Washington to Arthur Young, December 5, 1791.




PREFACE


The story of George Washington's public career has been many times told
in books of varying worth, but there is one important aspect of his
private life that has never received the attention it deserves. The
present book is an attempt to supply this deficiency.

I desire to acknowledge gratefully the assistance I have received from
Messrs. Gaillard Hunt and John C. Fitzpatrick of the Library of
Congress, Mr. Hubert B. Fuller lately of Washington and now of
Cleveland, Colonel Harrison H. Dodge and other officials of the Mount
Vernon Association, and from the work of Paul Leicester Ford,
Worthington C. Ford and John M. Toner.

Above all, in common with my countrymen, I am indebted to heroic Ann
Pamelia Cunningham, to whose devoted labor, despite ill health and
manifold discouragements, the preservation of Mount Vernon is due. To
her we should be grateful for a shrine that has not its counterpart in