[34] Vacant—this term, as used by surveyors, indicates that the tract of land so designated is neither claimed by an actual occupant or occupied by virtue of any official record. Many of the settlers on the lands of Lord Fairfax selected their farms and made improvements without any legal survey, warrant or title, other than a "tomahawk blaze" for a boundary mark, trusting that the actual owner of the land would recognize the improvement and occupant's claim and deal justly by them. These "tomahawk claims" were respected by the actual settlers, had a market value among land speculators and were admitted, to a certain extent, as evidence of rights in the courts.

[35] Dutch.—As early as 1730 there was a considerable settlement in the Shenandoah valley, of German immigrants and their descendants, who had first settled in Pennsylvania and then removed to, and taken up lands in, the valley of Virginia. They selected, chiefly, the good limestone lands with their centers of population near the head-waters of the Opequon creek, in Shenandoah, and the south-western part of Frederick county. They were all Protestants in religion. The town of Woodstock was originally and exclusively settled by Germans. The bill for its incorporation was reported to the House of Burgesses of Va., by Col. George Washington in 1761. For many years the German language was exclusively spoken in their settlement, and German customs and religious observances were retained with tenacity, their remoteness and seclusion securing to them almost perfect freedom from innovations. The Revolution found them patriotic supporters of the colony as against the pretensions of Great Britain. It was in the town of Woodstock, Shenandoah county, that Maj.-Gen. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, minister of the Lutheran church, dressed in his uniform and with his sword buckled on, preached a farewell sermon in 1776, to a sympathizing and patriotic congregation, and the next day marched as colonel at the head of his German regiment, known subsequently as the 8th Virginia, to join the Continental army. Such names of places as Strasburg, Hamburg, Mecklenburg, the latter now known as Shepherdstown, etc., perpetuate the fact that many of the earliest settlers in that section were German.—See Kercheval, p. 158.

[36] The Red Bud or Judas tree.—A common tree that grows wild in the United States. In botany it is known as the "Cercis Canadensis," and often grows to the height of 30 feet or more. It flowers in April, clothing its limbs in a reddish-purple bloom for a week or ten days before its leaves appear, and from this circumstance it is popularly called red bud.

[37] Blazed trees.—These are surveyors' marks made on trees to proclaim and identify certain routes or lines. The "blaze" is made by removing with an axe a strip of the outer bark of a tree or sapling, for about a foot in length and well into the inner bark. In the future growth of the tree a lighter color marks the cicatrix which rarely ever wholly disappears. Surveyors, to distinguish corner trees in a survey, not only blaze the sides of the tree in the direction their lines run but cut three small notches through the bark which will remain distinct during the life of the tree.

[38] Widow Wolf.—There was a Fort Wolf on Stony creek a few miles south-west of Woodstock, erected by the Germans at an early period in the settlement of the valley; there is also a marsh or creek named Wolf's marsh, which empties into the Shenandoah about twelve miles above Ashby's Ferry. Possibly these were so called from the name of this widow's husband.

[39] Old Fields and Wild Meadow.—There were many small, timberless tracts of land on the mountains and in the great valleys of Virginia and Pennsylvania, in regions which were generally, prior to the occupation and the clearing up of the country by the white man, densely covered with trees. Large tracts of such timberless land existed in the region now embraced within the counties of Berkeley, Jefferson and Frederick. Strange as it may appear some of this kind of land within the history of the settlement of the valley became covered with young forest timber. In some respects these openings resembled the treeless prairies of the west. No satisfactory explanation of this frequently observed condition has ever been given. Many of these meadows were the favorite pasturing grounds of the large game and were, therefore, of special interest to the hunter. Clearfield county, Pa., it is believed, got its name from the fact that there were within its territory extensive natural clear fields and meadows.

[40] From the expression, "set the surveyor to work," as well as the language used in the record on the 12th of March, that "Mr. James Genn the surveyor came to us and traveled over the Blue Ridge, etc.," with other expressions at a later date of similar import in the journal and in other documents, it is rendered almost certain that George Washington was, from the first, employed by Lord Fairfax, not as a surveyor, merely, but rather in the capacity of a skilled director of other surveyors, and as the confidential adviser in the division and sale of his lordship's lands.

[41] Williams' Gap, in the Blue Ridge, is on a line nearly due east from Winchester. It derived its name from a Mr. Williams, who kept a ferry over the Shenandoah river on one of the roads from Winchester into Loudoun and Fairfax counties. This name still attaches to the gap and appears on the early maps of Virginia. It is a notable fact that all or most of the important gaps through mountain passes in the United States were well worn buffalo paths and Indian trails when first visited by white men.

[42] Ashby's Bent is supposed to have reference to the great bend and extensive bottom lands of the Shenandoah, just above which was located Captain Ashby's ferry across that river. Washington uses this term in 1770 to describe a large tract of bottom land on the Ohio which he acquired.

[43] Fairfax county, in which Mount Vernon is located, was created out of Prince William county by the Assembly of Virginia in 1742.

[44] Major Lawrence Washington, proprietor of Mount Vernon, was the second child and oldest surviving son of Augustine and his first wife Jane (Butler) Washington, born at Pope's Creek, Westmoreland county, Va., in 1718, and died at his residence, Mount Vernon, 26th July, 1752. He was the half-brother of the illustrious George Washington and great-grandson of the emigrant, Col. John Washington, who came to Virginia about 1657. It is a matter of tradition that Lawrence was at about the age of 15 sent to England to be educated, and leaving college he received a captain's commission to serve in a regiment raised in Virginia to take part in the expedition against Carthegenia, 1740-42, under the command of Admiral Vernon.

The expedition failed of its purpose, and Major Lawrence Washington returned to Virginia in the fall of 1742. He shortly after became engaged to Anne Fairfax, which induced him to resign from the army. His father died April 12, 1743, leaving a considerable estate and named him, his oldest son, one of his executors. He inherited from his father "the Hunting creek" plantation, consisting of 2,500 acres, on the Potomac but a few miles from and in sight of "Belvoir." On the 19th of July Lawrence Washington was united in marriage to Anne, eldest daughter of the Hon. William Fairfax of "Belvoir." He made many improvements on his plantation and gave it the name of "Mount Vernon," in compliment to his old commander, Admiral Vernon. Lawrence Washington had received a good education, had mixed with prominent personages, had seen much of the world, and was a man of good habits and business qualifications.

His father at the time of his death, was largely engaged in business which Lawrence was obliged to look after and close up. This gradually led him into various business enterprises; such as the manufacturing of iron, buying and selling land, etc. He and his brother Augustin were among the organizers of "The Ohio Company," to explore the western country, encourage settlements, and conduct a trade with the Indians. He was elected to the House of Burgesses of Virginia from Fairfax county in 1748. It was largely through his influence that a charter was granted to the towns of Alexandria and Colchester, both in Fairfax county. He together with Lord Fairfax, George Mason, Hon. William Fairfax, William Ramsay, John Carlyle and others was named as trustee to lay out and govern the town. He was a popular legislator, but declined to serve longer in the Assembly, as it interfered with his present business. He was greatly attached to his brother George, and made it a point to have him with him at Mount Vernon whenever it was practicable without interrupting his studies. Lawrence was always of a delicate constitution, but by his prudent habits and systematic attention to business he accomplished a great deal and enhanced the value of his possessions. He was tall in stature and a man of fine personal appearance, as is shown by an oil painting of him which still hangs upon the wall of the Virginia room in Mount Vernon mansion. He was rapidly becoming one of the leading business men of Virginia, when his health broke down. As a last resort his physicians recommended that he should spend a winter in the West Indies. In the fall of 1751, he resigned his commission as one of the adjutant-generals of Virginia, and taking his brother George with him, he went to the Island of Barbadoes. His pulmonary trouble had progressed too far to be arrested, and after spending some five months on the Island, and finding himself declining he returned home and died in July, 1752. His marriage had been blessed by four children, three of whom had died, his surviving child, Sarah, was still an infant at the time of her father's death. After providing in his will for his wife he left Mount Vernon to his daughter, but in the event of her death without heirs it was to go to his "beloved brother George," who was also named as one of his executors. This daughter Sarah died within a year, and George inherited Mount Vernon before he was 21 years of age. A few years after Lawrence Washington's death, his widow married George Lee, brother to the father of Arthur and Richard Henry Lee, patriots in the Revolution.

[45] The note book which contains this journal of Washington's includes also other memoranda, such as notes of surveys, drafts of juvenile letters, verses, etc., all of which are of interest for the glimpses they give of the character and early life of their author, and are copied with literal exactness and given with the journal and surveys.

[46] Frederick county, Virginia, was formed by Act of Assembly in 1738, out of Orange county at the same time that Augusta county was created. The boundaries of Frederick county were measurably well defined; to Augusta, however, was left all the western territory belonging to Virginia, much of it at that time an unexplored wilderness. This immense area has since been divided and now forms four great and independent states of the Union, namely, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. Frederick county, by a return of the effective militia made to the governor of Virginia in 1777, had but 923 men. The total population of the town of Winchester at that time was 800 and a fraction.—Kercheval.

[47] At this place in the journal three leaves, six pages, have been torn out. The edges left show that they had been written upon by Washington. The next record of a survey in the hand-writing of Washington is signed by him with the name of James Genn, as is also the incomplete plot of a survey here reproduced from the original by tracing; whether it is a study from field notes by James Genn or an actual survey by Washington himself does not appear. The paper upon which it is drawn and the style of the hand-writing, place it as of a date current with the added records of 1747-8.

[48] Alexandria, Virginia.—This seems to be a brief record of the course and distances of a survey by Washington of the shore-line of the town of Alexandria before the river bank was improved or altered by the building of wharves and the grading of streets. It is probable that these lines were run in the winter when the river was closed with ice.

[49] This appears to have been a study for a letter to some youthful companion. Even to the close of his life it was the habit of Washington, in writing important letters and papers, to make rough drafts of them as a study. However, in copying them off, he frequently changed expressions and amplified their contents as his judgment approved. The original drafts of many of his letters are preserved in the Department of State at Washington and illustrate this fact. Hence the transcripts in his letter-book are not always true copies of either his drafts or his original autograph letters. These drafts were kept by him as memoranda, rather than as exact copies. It is also probable that there are many drafts preserved of letters which were never actually sent. In some cases he endorses this fact upon drafts of letters.

[50] Dear Sir, Dear Friend John, and Dear Friend Robin.—These all seem to be studies or drafts of letters, which may have been impersonal or possibly to his youthful school-fellows and companions in Westmoreland and Stafford counties. It would be idle to speculate as to whom they were intended, in the absence of more definite information. They are in no wise remarkable, except as evidences of Washington's life-long habit of making memoranda, drafts and studies of his letters.

[51] The young lady indicated was Miss Mary Cary, the daughter of Colonel Wilson Cary, of Ceeleys Hampton, Elisabeth City county, Va. For 34 years Mr. Cary was collector of customs for the lower James river district, and a man of large wealth and aristocratic notions. He had four daughters: Sarah, who married George W. Fairfax, of "Belvoir"; Mary, who married in 1754, Edward Ambler of Jamestown; Anna, who married Robert Carter Nicholas; and Elizabeth, who married Rev. Bryan, 8th Lord Fairfax. Col. Cary had also one son Wilson Miles Cary, who was a member of the Convention of Virginia in 1776. Some writers have confounded him with his father. Bishop Meade in his Old Churches and Families of Virginia, accepts traditions which other writers claim are authenticated by documents, preserved by the Ambler family, and accordingly his account credits the story that Washington, in his youth, was an ardent admirer of Miss Mary Cary, and solicited leave of Col. Cary to address his daughter, but was refused. (See Meade, vol. i, 108.) This draft of the letter addressed to "Dear Friend Robin," was probably made in the spring of 1748, when Washington was in his seventeenth year. In it, he playfully avows an admiration for the "lowland beauty" and, at the same time, admits the agreeableness of the "young lady in the house" with him at "Belvoir." Mr. Edward Ambler, educated at Cambridge, England, was collector for York river and a burgess for Jamestown. He died in 1768 in his thirty-fifth year and was buried at Jamestown; his widow survived him until 1781. Mrs. Ambler with her children and her sister, Mrs. Fairfax, were occasionally guests at Mount Vernon, as Washington's diaries show. I am inclined to believe that while it is true that Washington entertained a high regard for the Cary family and particularly the ladies, there is nothing but the lightest gossip to create an inference that there ever was even an incipient affair of the heart between either of the Misses Cary and Washington.

[52] Lowland beauty.—Who this object of Washington's early admiration was, if she had a veritable existence, is not positively known. Irving, followed by Everett and others, accepts the tradition, or rather surmises, that this sobriquet referred to Miss Lucy Grymes of Westmoreland county, who in 1753 married Henry Lee, Esq. Their son was the gallant General Henry Lee, "Lighthorse Harry," of the Revolution. Some recent writers, affect to believe that this draft of a letter is conclusive that there was a real love affair but that Betsy Fauntleroy, of Fredericksburg, Va., was the person referred to, and have published a letter purporting to have been addressed by Washington to William Fauntleroy, Sr., Esq., in Richmond, enclosing one to Miss Betsy, who, it is made to appear, had also refused Washington's addresses. Letters and traditions of this character should be received with caution, for while vague reports and surmises of an affair of the heart may be dilated upon in a bantering way among friends of the parties where there is little or no foundation for the allegation, yet they should be subjected to scrutiny and some positive evidence adduced before they are accepted as historical facts.

[53] The minuteness of detail is very characteristic of the writer. While Washington was observant of the proprieties of life and of good taste in dress, there was not the least leaning to foppishness. But it was a principle with him to have whatever he bought, consonant with good taste and of the best quality.

[54] At this point in the book there are 18 blank pages.