But the idea sometimes put forward that Washington cared nothing for reading or for books is an idle one.

He read at Greenway Court and everywhere else when he had an opportunity.

He read well, too, and to some purpose, studying men and events in books as he did in the world, for though he never talked of his reading, preserving silence on that as on other things concerning himself, no one ever was able to record an instance in which he showed himself ignorant of history or of literature.

He was never a learned man, but so far as his own language could carry him he was an educated one.

Thus while he developed the sterner qualities by hard work and a rough life, he did not bring back the coarse habits of the backwoods and the camp-fire, but was able to refine his manners and improve his mind in the excellent society and under the hospitable roof of Lord Fairfax.
Three years slipped by, and then a domestic change came which much affected Washington's whole life.