Old Virginia and her neighbours

398 OLD VIRGINIA AND HER NEIGHBOURS.mander to the great General Fairfax, commanderof the Parliament army ": It is acknowledged byyour books, and by report of your own quarter,that the king is in some of your armies. Thatgranted, it may be easy for you to procure his Majesty'scommands for the disposal of this garrison.Till then I shall make good the trust reposed in me.As for conditions, if I shall be necessitated I shallmake the best I can. The worst I know and fearnot ; if I had, the profession of a soldier had notbeen begun nor solong continued by your Excellency'shumble servant, — Henry Washington." ^There is a ring to this letter which sounds notunlike the utterance of that scion of the writer'sEffect of thefamily who was destined to win independ-TdvancJupencefor the United States. It is pleatrrj^'sltui"'sant to know that General Fairfax ob-*'°°'tained the order from King Charles andgranted most honourable terms to the brave ColonelWashington. In the following century a memberof the house of Fairfax, in engaging the youngerWashington to survey his frontier estates, put himinto a position which led up to his wonderfulpublic career. For this advance of the Virginiansfrom tidewater to the mountains served to bringon the final struggle with France. The wholesaleScotch-Irish immigration was fast carrying Virginia'sfrontier toward the Ohio River, and makingfeasible the schemes of Spotswood in a waythat no man would have thought of. Hitherto thestruggle with the house of Bourbon had been confinedto Canada at one end of the line and Caro-^ Greene's Antiquities of Worcester, p. 273.