about the time that Charles I was losing
both his crown and his head. While Charles II was still in exile, this
same Thomas Lee offered the king a haven in Virginia, which was not
accepted.

The original brick structure was destroyed by fire, but the house was
rebuilt on the same site during the time of Queen Anne, and it is said
that she aided in its reconstruction. This was the ancestral home of
the Lees for several generations.

Robert E. Lee, though naturally proud of his lineage, never showed
great interest in the family tree. He never had the time or the
inclination to study genealogy, and always said that he knew nothing of
it beyond the fact that Colonel Richard Lee had come to America during
the reign of Charles I. Upon having a family seal and crest made, he
apologized for the seeming parade by saying, "I have thought, perhaps
foolishly enough, that it might as well be right as wrong." Later,
however, when approached on the subject of publishing a family history,
he wrote: "I am very much obliged to Mr. ---- for the trouble he has
taken in relation to the Lee genealogy. I have no desire to have it
published, and do not think it would afford sufficient interest beyond
the immediate family to pay for the expense. I think the money had
better be appropriated to relieve the poor."

Harry Lee, Robert's father, was not only a soldier, but also a man of
letters. He loved the classics, and has left memoirs written in
spirited vein. He had reached middle life, however, before Robert was
born, and passed away when the boy was eleven. It was the mother's
influence--and here again we have a parallel with Washington--which was
paramount in the early days. She was a Carter, of an equally old and
distinguished family, and is spoken of as an amiable and gracious lady.

When Robert was still a child, his family moved to Alexandria, and very
shortly his father went away on a trip for his health, from which he
never returned. Between the boy and his mother the ties became very
close. He was devoted to her, and on her part she said, after he went
away to school, "You have been both son and daughter to me."

Long afterward, Lee alludes to this period in a letter to his own son,
by way of counsel: "A young gentleman who has read Virgil must surely
be competent to take care of two ladies; for before I had advanced that
far I was my mother's outdoor agent and confidential messenger."

Robert Lee obtained his first