"Greenway contains five hundred acres, well improved. On it is a genteel, well-furnished dwelling-house, containing six rooms, all wainscoted, chair-board high, with fine dry cellars the full length of the house, which is 56 feet; also every other building which a reasonable person could wish or desire, to wit: a handsome study, storehouse, kitchen, laundry, dairy, meat-house, spring-house, and an ice-house within the curtelage; a barn 40 by 34 feet, two granaries, two carriage houses, 20 stalls for horses, a quarter for house servants; a handsome pigeon-house, well stocked; and several other houses for slaves; a well of water (so excellent that I can drink with delight after returning from a mountain circuit), a large, fertile garden, abounding with a great variety of shrubs, herbs, and beautiful flowers, well enclosed. The buildings new and well covered with shingles." On this attractive estate John Tyler was born on March 29, 1790. He was a slender, delicate-looking lad, but he was not afraid to stand up for himself when he felt he was being abused. His first schoolmaster, a Mr. McMurdo, who taught across the road from Greenway, thought that it was impossible to teach well unless the rod was in daily use. "It was a wonder that he did not whip all the sense out of his scholars," John said once, years later. But one day the boys rebelled. "John and some of the larger boys tripped him up, and began to tie his hands and feet," the Tyler family biographer tells the story. "McMurdo scuffled bravely, but upon little William Tyler, the smallest boy in school, throwing himself upon him, he exclaimed, in imitation of the great Roman, '_Et tu, Brute!_' and ceased to resist. The boys firmly secured him, locked him up in the schoolhouse, and left with cheers of triumph and derision." Hours later the schoolmaster was released by a passing traveller, who heard his cries. At once the enraged man hastened to Judge Tyler and told his story. "But the Judge, born and bred in the Revolutionary school, hated tyranny in any shape, and as he drew himself up to his full stature, he ... replied, in the language of Virginia's motto, _'Sic Semper Tyrannis_.'" At the age of twelve John entered the grammar school of William and Mary College at Williamsburg. There he had a good time, and he made a creditable showing in his classes. Yet that he did not advance in at least one study is evident from a letter written by his father in 1807. He said: "I can't help telling you how much I am mortified to find no improvement in your handwriting; neither do you construct your lines straight, which makes your letters look too abominable. It is an easy thing to correct this fault, and unless you do so, how can you be fit for law business?"