Until his own affairs became too involved, Washington supervised George
Fairfax's Virginia interests. In August 1774, a year after the master's
departure from Virginia, the contents of Belvoir house were sold.
Washington himself bought many things--the sideboard, card tables, and
other things. Other Fairfax furnishings came to Alexandria; Dr. Craik
became the possessor of a Wilton carpet which Washington bought for him.
George and Sally Fairfax settled in Bath in a red-brown sandstone house
at 11 Lansdown Crescent, where they became a part of the gay parties
taking the waters at the Pump Room and attending assembly balls in the
fashion of Jane Austen's most aristocratic characters. Friendly letters
went back and forth between Bath and Mount Vernon. After the Revolution,
Fairfax wrote to Washington: "I glory in being called an American,"
regretted his inability to contribute to the "glorious cause of Liberty"
and offered his "best thanks for all your exertions ... to ... the End
of the Great work ..."[89]
Washington replied from New York on July 10, 1783: "Your house at
Belvoir I am sorry to add is no more, but mine (which is enlarged since
you saw it) is most sincerely and heartily at your Service till you
could rebuild it" and expressed his pleasure at George William's
approbation of his Revolutionary actions.[90]
Fairfax, after becoming involved in lawsuit after lawsuit and dissension
with his relatives, died in 1787 before inheriting his title. Sally
lived on at Bath for twenty-five years after her husband's death. The
damp English climate crippled her joints with rheumatism, but did not
distort her slender, erect figure, and she maintained her beauty to the
end. A year before his death, Washington penned his last letter to
Sally, his affection for her undiminished, and his pride in Alexandria
growing:
Mount Vernon, 16 May, 1798
My dear Madam,
Five and twenty years have nearly passed away, since I have
considered myself as the permanent resident at this place, or have
been in a situation to indulge myself in a familiar intercourse with
my friends by letter or otherwise.
During this period, so many important events have occurred, and such
changes in men and things have taken place, as the compass of a
letter would give you but an inadequate idea of. None of which
events, however, nor all of them together, have been able to
eradicate from my mind the recollection of those happy moments, the
happiest of my life, which I have enjoyed in your company.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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