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366 GEOEGIA AND GEORGIANS
at a house about 20 miles from Augusta and lodged at one Oden about
20 miles further."
To the foregoing extracts from Washington's diary, it need only be
added that, according to traditional accounts, he was greeted upon his
arrival in Savannah by a vast gathering of people assembled from all
parts of Georgia, but chiefly from the settlements along the coast. On
the journey from Savannah to Augusta, an escort of horse accompanied
him; and to meet the distinguished visitor, on the outskirts of the latter
town—then the capital of the state—Governor Telfair headed a com
mittee of citizens, which included a signer of the Declaration of Inde
pendence, Judge Walton, besides a number of prominent state officials.
While at Augusta, he visited the famous Richmond Academy, where
he was entertained by the students in a contest of declamation. Sev
eral prizes were awarded by Washington as a result of this visit.
He was so delighted with the exhibition that, obtaining the names
of the young orators, he sent them each a handsomely bound book on
his return to Philadelphia. One of these trophies, a copy of Sallust,
inscribed with the President's autograph, was presented to Augustin
Smith Clayton, afterwards a judge of the Superior court and a member
of Congress. Washington's visit to Georgia lasted only a week; but
after a lapse of more than a century we still find it a well-spring of
perennial interest, one of those rare forget-me-nots of subtle aroma which
tradition delights to preserve, a blooming immortelle of Georgia's his
toric past.