ink so," Lawrence answered, "and I hope the way will be opened for
his noblest development."

"He must visit us at Belvoir; I should delight to have him spend much
time in my family," Mr. Fairfax added.

"And I should be pleased to have him," responded Lawrence. "He would
derive great benefit from it."

"My sons and daughters would find him a very genial companion,"
continued Mr. Fairfax. "I think the benefit from the society of each
other would be mutual."

In this way George was introduced to the Fairfax family, with whom he
spent many of his happiest days and weeks. It was one of the most
favorable incidents of his young life when he was welcomed to that
family, for there he enjoyed society of culture, where character, and
neither wealth nor honors, ranked highest. Just at that age he needed
the influence of education and cultivated manners, and here he found
both with the sons and daughters of Mr. Fairfax. Alternately, between
this family at Belvoir and his brother's family at Mount Vernon, he
enjoyed a discipline of social intercourse, better for him, in some
respects, than even Mr. Williams's school.

At Belvoir George met Lord Fairfax, a relative of William Fairfax,
recently from England. "He was the owner of immense domains in
Virginia," says Mr. Everett. "He had inherited through his mother, the
daughter of Lord Culpepper, the original grantee, a vast tract of land,
originally including the entire territory between the Potomac and
Rappahannock Rivers."

Mr. Everett says of him further: "Lord Fairfax was a man of cultivated
mind, educated at Oxford, the associate of the wits of London, the
author of one or two papers in the _Spectator_, and an _habitue_ of the
polite circles of the metropolis. A disappointment in love is said to
have cast a shadow over his after life, and to have led him to pass his
time in voluntary exile on his Virginia estates, watching and promoting
the rapid development of the resources of the country, following the
hounds through the primeval forests, and cheering his solitary hours by
reading and a limited society of chosen friends."

The "love affair" to which Mr. Everett refers is explained by Mr. Irving
as follows:

"In the height of his fashionable career he became strongly attached to
a young lady of rank, paid his addresses, and was accepted. The wedding
day was fixed; the wedding dresses were provided, together with
servants and equipages for the matrimonial establishment