g the first rudiments at an "old field school" in
the neighborhood, at ten years of age commenced his studies under his
father, with whom he acquired an English education, and at the age of
fifteen had advanced in Latin so far as to read Virgil and Livy; had
learned to read the Greek characters, and attained some proficiency in
the mathematics. At this age his scholastic education appears to have
ended, and, as he mentioned to John Adams in 1774, he never read a Latin
book after that. His attainments, however, evince that he could not have
been so deficient in application to study as has been commonly supposed.
With a taste so prevalent, and for which his kinsmen, the Winstons, were
peculiarly distinguished, he was fond of hunting and angling. He would,
it is said, recline under the shade of a tree overhanging the
sequestered stream, watching in indolent repose the motionless cork of
his fishing-line.

He loved solitude, and in hunting chose not to accompany the noisy set
that drove the deer, but preferred to occupy the silent "stand," where
for hours he might muse alone and indulge "the pleasing solitariness of
thought." The glowing fancy of Wirt has, perhaps, thrown over these
particulars some prismatic coloring. Young Henry, probably, after all,
fished and hunted pretty much like other lads in his neighborhood. It
would, perhaps, not be easy to prove that he was fonder of fishing and
hunting than George Mason, George Washington, and many other of his
cotemporaries. From his eleventh to his twenty-second year he lived in
the neighborhood where Davies preached, and occasionally accompanied his
mother to hear him. His eloquence made a deep impression on young Henry,
and he always spoke of Davies and Waddel as the greatest orators that he
had ever heard. Whether he ever heard Whitefield does not appear.

Isaac Winston was one of the persons informed against in 1748 for
allowing the Rev. John Roan to preach in his house. Two of the sisters
of Patrick Henry--Lucy, who married Valentine Wood, and Jane, who
married Colonel Samuel Meredith--were members of Davies' congregations.

At the age of fifteen Patrick Henry was placed, about the year 1751, in
a store, to learn the mercantile business, and after a year so passed
the father set up William, an elder brother, and Patrick together in
trade. There is reason to believe that his alleged aversion to books and
his indolence, have been exaggerated by Wirt's artistic romancing.