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A Young Surveyor

When Washington was a boy, there lived in Virginia an old English nobleman, by the name of Lord Fairfax. He had come into possession of a large tract of land, but was by no means sure of its extent and boundaries.

The grandfather of Lord Fairfax, the famous Lord Culpepper, had, at one time, been Governor of Virginia. When he went back to England, he asked the King, Charles II, to give him all the land between the Potomac and Rappahannock Rivers, which the King, in his easy-going way, readily consented to do. It was a large and valuable estate, with but few settlers on it. Lord Culpepper, however, did not trouble himself much about it, and never came back to Virginia to see it. When the old Governor died, this land descended to his daughter, and from her to Lord Fairfax.