Travels Through North America 



Lord Fairfax had been brought up in revolution prin- 

 ciples, and had early imbibed high notions of liberty, and of 

 the excellence of the British constitution. He devoted a 

 considerable part of his time to the public service. He was 

 Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the county of 

 Frederic, presided at the county courts held at Winchester, 

 where during the sessions he always kept open table; and 

 acted as surveyor and overseer of the highways and public 

 roads. His chief if not sole amusement was hunting; and 

 in pursuit of this exercise he frequently carried his hounds to 

 distant parts of the country; and entertained every gentle- 

 man of good character and decent appearance, who at- 

 tended him in the field, at the inn or ordinary, where he 

 took up his residence for the hunting season. So unex- 

 ceptionable and disinterested was his behaviour, both 

 public and private, and so generally was he beloved and re- 

 spected, that during the late contest between Great Britain 

 and America, he never met with the least insult or molesta- 

 tion from either party, but was suffered to go on in his im- 

 provement and cultivation of the Northern Neck; a pursuit 

 equally calculated for the comfort and happiness of in- 

 dividuals, and for the general g^ood of mankind. 



In the year 1751, Thomas Martin, Esq., second son of 

 his sister Frances, came over to Virginia to live with his 

 lordship; and a circumstance happened, a few years after 

 his arrival, too characteristic of Lord Fairfax not to be re- 

 corded. After General Braddock's defeat in the year 1755, 

 the Indians in the interest of the French, committed the 

 most dreadful massacres upon all our back settlements. 

 Their incursions were everywhere stained with blood; and 

 slaughter and devastation marked the inroads of these cruel 



[ 202 ] 



