Then came "Boscobel," the residence of Thomas Fitzhugh, the father of a family of interesting young people. Susannah Fitzhugh still smiles to us from these pages in her rich robe over a pearl embroidered skirt and bodice of white satin, with a necklace of pearls festooned over her fair bodice.
She was just three years younger than her beautiful cousin Elizabeth, who lived at "Belle-Air" (her mother was Alice Thornton), and whose portrait, painted by Hesselius, presents the fashionable dress of her day. The gown is of fawn color, square corsage, elbow sleeves with lace ruffles (like Susannah's), the hair carried smoothly back from her brows, piled high over a cushion, and dressed with strings of pearls.
The Fitzhughs did not quite "own the earth" in their region,—Lord Fairfax did that,—but they owned a goodly portion of it: "Eagle's Nest" in Stafford County, "Somerset" in King George, "Boscobel," "Belle-Air," and "Chatham" in Stafford, "Ravensworth" in Fairfax. At the latter General Custis Lee, an honored descendant of this honored race, sits to-day under the trees his fathers planted. In the Fitzhugh pedigree the Thorntons crop up again and again. One may sink a mine in any Virginia genealogy and he will encounter the names of all these neighbors of Mary Washington.
At "Salvington" lived the Seldens, to whom Mary Washington was bound by ties of close kindred. Mary Ball, daughter of Major James Ball of "Bewdley," in whose arms Mary Washington had hastened to place her son George when one month old, had married John Selden. For his second wife he chose her first cousin, Sarah Ball, whose tombstone may be seen to-day in the woods a mile from Lancaster court-house.
Later, a Samuel Selden married Mary Thompson Mason (she of the wooden-heeled shoes and hoop petticoat), famous for her beauty, as was her mother before her. The second wife of Samuel Selden was Ann Mercer. Many of the descendants of these women inherited great beauty. Even a little drop of their blood suffices to endow many a Virginia woman of to-day.
At "Cleve," on the Rappahannock, lived Charles Carter, and thither "Light-horse Harry" Lee went for his sweet wife Anne. Charles Carter's father, Robert, the mighty man of Lancaster,—"King" Carter,—died in the year George Washington was born. He had built Christ Church, where Mary Washington was possibly baptized, for her father lived near the church. King Carter owned 300,000 acres of land, 1000 slaves, £10,000 in money. The cattle on a thousand hills were his. He left many children, all of whom he was able to enrich, and many of whom distinguished themselves in things better than riches.
"Light-horse Harry" Lee.
"Cleve," with its octagon front, is still in good preservation, and is a fine example of the early Georgian manor-house, having been built early in the eighteenth century. An excellent portrait of its builder, Charles Carter, looks down to-day upon his descendants who still own and live in the mansion.