, and resolved to spend in retirement the years that should
remain to him on earth. Removing from Prince Edward County, he lived
for a short time at Long Island, in Campbell County; but in 1795 he
finally established himself in the county of Charlotte, on an estate
called Red Hill,--an estate which continued to be his home during the
rest of his life, which gave to him his burial place, and which still
remains in the possession of his descendants.

The rapidity with which he had thus risen out of pecuniary
embarrassments was not due alone to the earnings of his profession
during those few years; for while his eminence as an advocate
commanded the highest fees, probably, that were then paid in Virginia,
it is apparent from his account-books that those fees were not at all
exorbitant, and for a lawyer of his standing would not now be regarded
as even considerable. The truth is that, subsequently to his youthful
and futile attempts at business, he had so profited by the experiences
of his life as to have become a sagacious and an expert man of
business. "He could buy or sell a horse, or a negro, as well as
anybody, and was peculiarly a judge of the value and quality of
lands."[434] It seems to have been chiefly from his investments in
lands, made by him with foresight and judgment, and from which, for a
long time, he had reaped only burdens and anxieties, that he derived
the wealth that secured for him the repose of his last years. The
charge long afterward made by Jefferson, that Patrick Henry's fortune
came either from a mean use of his right to pay his land debts in a
depreciated currency "not worth oak-leaves," or from any connection on
his part with the profligate and infamous Yazoo speculation, has been
shown, by ample evidence, to be untrue.[435]

The descriptions which have come down to us of the life led by the old
statesman in those last five years of retirement make a picture
pleasant to look upon. The house at Red Hill, which then became his
home, "is beautifully situated on an elevated ridge, the dividing line
of Campbell and Charlotte, within a quarter of a mile of the junction
of Falling River with the Staunton. From it the valley of the Staunton
stretches southward about three miles, varying from a quarter to
nearly a mile in width, and of an oval-like form. Through most fertile
meadows waving in their golden luxuriance, slowly winds the river,
overhung by mossy foliage, while on all sides gently sloping h