Mrs. Custis kept the absent ones informed as to what was going on at Arlington. “Your Grandfather is seized with a spirit of improvement lately,” she wrote to the lad at West Point in 1851. “He is making new steps to the Portico (the old ones having so decayed as to be unsafe) and intends paving it with octagon brick tiles which are now being burned in the vast brick kilns in Washington.” Later, she reported that the steps were finished and the portico floor about to be laid. Though 70 and often unwell, Mr. Custis’ activity seldom flagged. A polished and effective speaker, with a gift for being able to enter into the spirit of an occasion, he was well-liked for his personal charm and unassuming manner. He was fond of children, and a great favorite with the young Lees. Conscious of his advancing years, Custis increased the output of his _Recollections of Washington_, that his personal knowledge of the General might not be lost. In this he was encouraged by the Lees, who also approved his renewed interest in scientific agriculture. While strongly advocating the establishment of a department of agriculture in the National Government, Custis applied the latest methods of fertilizing and cultivation to his own farms so that the land inherited by his grandchildren would be fertile, rather than worn-out like that of so much of his native State. [Illustration: _A view of “Arlington House” made in 1853 by the historian-artist Benson J. Lossing._ From the original water color in the Lee Mansion.] Christmas in 1851 was typical of the many happy ones celebrated at Arlington, and, telling his son at West Point about it, Lee wrote: “[We] found your grandfather at the Washington depot, Daniel and the old carriage and horses, and young Daniel on the colt Mildred. Your mother, grandfather, Mary Eliza, the little people, and the baggage, I thought load enough for the carriage, so Rooney and I took our feet in our hands and walked over.... The snow impeded the carriage as well as us, and we reached here shortly after it. The children were delighted at getting back, and passed the evening in devising pleasure for the morrow. They were in upon us before day on Christmas morning, to overhaul their stockings.... I need not describe to you our amusements, you have witnessed them so often; nor the turkey, cold ham, plum-pudding, mince pies, etc., at dinner.” “Rooney” was the Lee’s second boy, William Henry Fitzhugh. [Illustration: _George Washington Parke Custis in his old age._ From the photograph by Mathew Brady in the collection of Frederick H. Meserve, New York.]