which he had used and found deficient Nun-Appleton goes. If General Tom in metal, and so thrown aside, as no had lived longer, he would probably longer worthy of attention. The gen- have sold the old ball of Denton ; but eral retired to his estate of Denton, and be dies at length, and the prophecy is heard, as we have seen, his grand- only half fulfilled. father's prediction, “ without words of But the old man's foreboding, as to impertinency or any distaste," though the fate of his house, was in due timo he had already cut off the entail of justified. Denton, the only property “Nun-Appleton," one of the family now remaining to the family, descendestates, to make provision for his ed duly to the fifth Lord Fairfax. This daughter.

gentleman married Catharine, daughter The old grandfather bad read Gen- of Lord Culpepper—by which alliance eral Tom's character with perfect be obtained the fine estate of Leeds truth. He would not be " content with Castle, and some lands extending from our rank"-he would sacrifice the fa- the mouth of a river called the Rappamily estate to his ambition. Too true, hannock, to the source of another river good Sir Thomas! His daughter mar. called the Potomac, in that part of the ries the Duke of Buckingham, and American colonies known as Virginia

-doubtless a little strip of wilderness- of the family. The prophecy was fulwhich Lord Culpepper had received filled. from the Crown. *This fifth lord never We have thus briefly explored the interested himself about the strip of dusty records of the old family, of wilderness, and died, leaving a son which many worthy scions now resido called Thomas-him of the present in Maryland and Virginia—and our resketch. The guardians of the young searches have at last brought us to the man judged it best to cut off the entail Lord Fairfax of “Greenway Court" of Denton, to relieve the Leeds Castle here-the son of the fifth lord and Caproperty of encumbrance. The young tharine, daughter of Lord Culpepper, man afterwards willed the property his wife. away—and so the forebodings of the old The young man received his educaearl were completely realized. The tion at the University of Oxford, and Fairfaxes were obliterated-not a foot afterwards obtained a commission in the of English soil romained in possession royal regiment of the “ Blues.” From the barracks, however, he passed, after the lips. When a real nobleman left a brief period, to the saloons of the me- bis splendid revels to hobnob with such tropolis—surrendering his warlike as. people as authors, his condescension pirations without a struggle, for the was adequately acknowledgedand if more congenial ambition of becoming a the sprig of aristocracy had really gentleman of fashion in the splendid some wit, the whole fraternity clapped society of London, to whose brilliant their hands, and cried Ecce homo! The circles his birth provided him an easy cry was caught up in the fashionable cirentrance. Here he was soon caught in cles, and Belinda or Jocrissa advanced the whirl, and borne onward by the quick upon her high red heels to welcome current, in the ceaseless round of dissi- the noble author when he came the pation and frivolity.

other fine gentlemen disappeared baThe "man about town" of this peri- neath a cloud—and the fortune of the od has been painted for us at full length, illustrious gentleman-writer was made. by Addison and Steele. The keen and Young Fairfax secured this vogue by polished witticisms of these men and writing a paper or two for the "Spectheir brother satirists flashed, like sci. tator"-thus putting the finishing touch mitars of Damascus, in the perfumed to his popularity as a pretty fellow and atmosphere of the Court and the aris- a wit. "Envious history has not, indeed, tocracy-no detail of character or man- handed down the number of his producDers escaped them, and we have in their tion; and not even an intimation of the serials a perfect picture of the times. subject remains. But Thomas Lord Fairfax was about twenty-five at the Fairfax is still known in literary histotime, and entered into the strange occu- ry, and will continue to be known, as pations of this strange society with the the co-laborer of Addison. Alas! times fullest zest. He went the round of dis- have changed since that period_authors sipation with the beartiest enjoyment, are becoming respectable. Then it was and was considered one of the prettiest the young nobleman who bestowed the fellows" of his day. He was well re

favor of his society upon the poor ceived by all classes-young noblemen, writer—the threadbare coat thrilled dissipating rapidly their patrimonial with delight, when the aristocratic silk acres, found in him a congenial com- and lace and velvet of the youthful earl panion for their intrigues and rovels, rubbed gently up against it, as he leancountesses permitted him to kiss their ed op Mr. Addison's shoulder. My hands, all covered with jewels, and Lord Fairfax came into the obscure when he made his bow in their drawing lodging like a sunbeam, and his presrooms, his cocked hat gently pressed once lit up with a sort of glory the poor upon bis heart, received him with their baunt of the literary man. A century most brilliant smiles at the play-house, or so bas modified the relative positions ho might invariably be seen on the first of the two men-one of the few incinight of the new decent comedy, or the dents which preserve the name of the hundredth night of the old and very in splendid youth from oblivion, is this decent piece-and at the clubs and cof- connection, by accident, with the shabfoe-houses he exchanged witty speeches by author-the honor of having written with the wits, and gallants, and literary a number of the “Spectator." men of the time. At that period it was Young Fairfax found himself finally something to be a writer, however stu- arrested in his brilliant round of pleasure, pid—and if a young nobleman chanced in the haunts of silk-stockings and hoopto write a paper for the “Tattler” ed petticoats. He had revolved like a or "Spectator," really possessing wit, gaily-colored moth about many beantibis reputation was achieved forever, ful luminaries, without singeing his wings and his importance in the dilletante —but at last came the hour of fate. circles of the aristocracy immensely One of the beauties of the day transfixed enhanced. The authors of the time re- him-he circled in closer and closer sided chiefly in the salubrious district gyrations—his pinions were caught in familiarly known as “Grub street”- the blaze, and as they said at the period, and oven Mr. Joseph Addison occupied Stepban was a hopeless captive to the a garret, where, with his pipe and his charms of Sacharissa. My Lord Fairthreadbare coat, he set his teeth hard fax no longer engaged in rovels, or if he against obscurity and want, greeting did, it was to get drunk in honor of his the world, however, with a smile from mistress, biccoughing her name as be

sorrows.

fell beneath the table-he ceased to talk of Leeds Castle was thus preserved to politics with my Lord Bolingbroke, him—the alienation of the old family taking no interest in foreign or domestic house of Denton and the manor was affairs—be sighed, and wrote sonnets,

the obliteration of the Fairfar name and looked sentimental, and became dull and influence from the soil upon which -in a word, Lord Fairfax was in love. it had so long flourished and the young One day, all his sighs and sad looks man could not regard the affair in a difdisappeared—his friends“ beheld him

ferent light. radiant"—the beauty had yielded to his Thus struck doubly in his pride and siege, and declared herself the captive his love, Fairfax looked around him in of love.

despair for some retreat to which he Fairfax saw thus a long future of might fly, and forget in a measure his happiness open before him, and the real

London was hateful to himsweetness and depth of his nature re- the country no less distasteful-he vealed themselves from beneath the could not again plunge into the mad miserable wrappings of frivolity and revelry of the one, nor rust away, in the vice. He gave up everything which dull routine of the other. His griefs had pleased bim, for this woman-and demanded action to dissipate themall that be now asked was permission adventure, new scenes, another land were to take his bride away from the danger needed. This process of reflection ous atmosphere of the Court, and live turned the young man's thoughts to with her, peacefully, as a good noble- the lands in far-away Virginia, which man of the provinces. He loved her he held in right of his mother, the passionately, and wished to discard all daughter of Lord Culpepper, to whom that threatened to interfere with the ex- they had originally been granted; and clusive enjoyment of her society. All finally Lord Fairfax bade adieu to bis resources were taxed to supply the England and came to Virginia. Such most splendid marriage gifts—and, ab- were the events in the early life of this sorbed in this delightful dream of love, gentleman which brought him to Virthe young mau scarcely walked upon ginia, where he lived and died. solid earth-his bappiness raised him The house of “Belvoir,” to which to the empyrean. He was destined to Lord Fairfax came, was the residence have a sudden waking from his dream- of Sir William Fairfax, his cousin-to a terrible, almost mortal, fall from his whom he had intrusted the management cloudland. He had expended the of his Virginia lands. It stood upon wealth of his deep and earnest nature the Potomac, a few miles below Mount upon a mere coquetto_bis goddess was Vernon. Lawrence Washington, the a woman simply, and a very shallow elder brother of George, had married one-she threw Fairfax carelessly over- a daughter of Sir William : and here board, and married a nobleman who commences the connection of the already won her by the superior attractions of agod nobleman, and the boy of sixteen bis ducal coronet.

who was to lead the armies of the RevoFrom the events which followed this lution. Washington became an inmate shameless breach of faith, it is plain of the house, to which his brother's that Fairfax never recovered from the connection and the friendship of Sir blow. From that moment he lost his William attracted him; and the boy illusions-shrunk from the very pres. was the chosen companion of the old ence of women-and determined to ex- Lord in his for-hunting expeditions, of ile himself forever from that society, a which he was passionately fond. Fairmember of which had treated him with fax had retained this passion, and in such terrible cruelty, To his despair, the reckless sports of the field he seemed another deepening shadow was oom- to find the chief solace for his griefs. municated by the action of his guardi. Time slowly dissipated his despairing ans some time before. They had cut recollections, however; and now, as he off the entail of the manor of Denton, approached the middle of that contury, in order to relieve from encumbrance the dawn of which had witnessed so the estate of Leeds Castle, which the much of his misery, the softer traits young man inherited from his mother. of his character returned, and he was, To one of his pride of ancestry and to those whom he felt regard for, a most position, this was a heavy blow. It delightful and instructive companion. was no consolation that the fine estate Almost every trace of personal attraction

command. He had seen all the great At this time the boy of sixteen was characters of the period of his youth, laboring under profound melancholy, had watched the unfolding of events, produced by a hopeless attachmentand seen their causes—all the social the object of his love is supposed, with history, the scandalous chronicles, the good reason, to have been the lady who private details of celebrated personages afterwards became Mrs. Lee, the mother had been familiar to him; and his con- of “Light Horse Harry,” the Revolu. versation thus presented a brilliant tionary General, and favorite of Waslpicture of the past. Something of ington—it may be from the Chief's old cynical wit still clung to him, and the tenderness for bis mother. Certain it fireside of Belvoir was the scene of is, however, that the boy was melancholy much satiric comment between the old from the cause indicated—dissatisfied, nobleman and his cousin. But Fairfax restless, and desirous of engaging in preserved great fondness for youth, and some active employment. We call bim took especial pleasure in the society of "boy”—but in reality he was no longer George from Mount Vernon. He not such, or so regarded. He was tall, with only took him as a companion in his a fully developed person, great physical fox-hunts, but liked to have the boy with vigor, and a manner of striking gravity, him when be walked out; and it may seriousness and decorum, the result of easily be understood that the conversa- the singularly rigid code of “Rules tions of the exile had a deep effect upon of Conduct," which, as all know, he young Washington.

early framed for his guidance. Thus

he was scarcely a boy in anything but session of the richest spots along the years—and his love-melancholy tended water-courses, and opposing the grants still more to give him an aged and of his lordship: it was the earnest Berious appearance. He felt that he desire of Lord Fairfax to have these was a man; and, indeed, those around lands surveyed, marked, laid out, and him shared the same impression of his put on record, that he might deal sumcharacter. He was fitted for the occu- marily with the intruders who occupied patious of manhood, and craved some them. For this task he selected his employment more important than fol- young friend George Washington, who lowing the bounds with the hard-riding bad assiduously applied bimself to surold nobleman; in a word, the young veying, and possessed overy qualificaman thirsted for the conflict of life-the tion, boy in years as he was, for the real struggle on the arena.

responsible task. The import of Lord Fairfax's con. It was the turning point in the young nection with Washington lies in the man's life-and the results of this ex. commission which he now intrusted to pedition, in its influence on his cbaracthe youth. Providence here, as every- ter, the information it gave him, and where, seems to have directed the the hardships it taught him to endure, movements of man, to work out its own are now the property of bistory. Ho especial ends. The nobleman might set out with George William Fairfax, have opened a variety of avenues for son of Sir William, in the month of young Washington, any one of which March, 1748, passed the Blue Ridge at would, in all probability, have exiled him Ashby's Gap, and crossing the beautipermanently from the shores of America, ful Shenandoah, “The Daughter of the and thus, inducing bim to cast his lot in Stars," entered upon the arduous task a distunt country, have deprived the which he had undertaken. His first Revolution of its leader. The influence stopping-place was what he calls “ His of Lord Fairfax, with his noble connec- Lordship's quarter," and what is set tions in England, would have easily pro- down on the inaps of the period as cured employment for the young man, « Lord Fairfax's"-in a word, at Greenin some office of goverument, or as the way Court. “In a diary kept with his holder of a commission in the army. usual minuteness,” says Bir. Irving, In the one case he would early have "Washington speaks with delight of the become a “red tapist" in Downing street, beauty of the trees, and the richness of to which occupation bis conscientious the land in the neighborhood, and of his mind would have permanently bound riding through a noble grove of sugarhim; in the other case, his bones might maples on the banks of the Shenandoah, have lain upon the shores of South and at the present day the magnificence America, or Asia, bleaching on far-away of the forests, which still exist in this strands or mouldering in an unknown favored region, justifies bis eulogium.” and remote grave. These “ might have It is not a part of our design to folbeens” are the gist of some critics; low the young surveyor in his expedi. but nothing is more striking than the tion, which led him from Greenway narrow escape of Washington from Court to the Potomao, thence to the embracing careers calculated to have point where Cumberland stands now. removed him forever from the field he and thence into the wilderness of the occupied at last The tears of his

great • South Branch," a country as mother diverted him from entering the wholly unknown as it was fertile and navy, at the eleventh bour-and now, magnificent. He returned a new being, Lord Fairfax, with unlimited influence and the broad foundation of his characin many

directions, was to be the instru- ter was laid. He remained three years inent in the uds of Providence to at this occupation, receiving, as he says, place the young man in that particular a doubloon, and sometimes six pistoles career, where the muscles and sinews a day, and then returned to Mount Ver. of his mind should be developed for the The first act of his life had been supreme contest of the Revolution.

played—the early lessons of training The immense possessions of Fairfax and endurance thoroughly learned beyond the Blue Ridge had never been the scene of his subsequent exertions surveyed-squatters were taking pos- was fixed and the prudence, courage.

DOD.

* About twenty dollars