During the Revolution, when opportunity offered, he rode to the hounds, for Hiltzheimer wrote in 1781, “My son Robert [having] been on a Hunt at Frankfort says that His Excel’y Gen. Washington was there.”

This liking made dogs an interest to him, and he took much pains to improve the breed of his hounds.  On one occasion he “anointed all my Hounds (as well old Dogs as Puppies) which have the mange, with Hogs Lard & Brimstone.”  Mopsey, Pilot, Tartar, Jupiter, Trueman, Tipler, Truelove, Juno, Dutchess, Ragman, Countess, Lady, Searcher, Rover, Sweetlips, Vulcan, Singer, Music, Tiyal, and Forrester are some of the names he gave them.  In 1794, in the fall of his horse, as already mentioned, he wrenched his back, and in consequence, when he returned to Mount Vernon, this pastime was never resumed, and his pack was given up.

Kindred to this taste for riding to the hounds was one for gunning.  A few entries in his diary tell the nature of his sport.  “Went a ducking between breakfast and dinner and kill’d 2 Mallards & 5 bald faces.”  “I went to the Creek but not across it.  Kill’d 2 ducks, viz. a sprig tail and a Teal.”  “Rid out with my gun but kill’d nothing.”  In 1787 a man asked for permission to shoot over Mount Vernon, and Washington refused it because

“my fixed determination is, that no person whatever shall hunt upon my grounds or waters—­To grant leave to one and refuse another would not only be drawing a line of discrimination which would be offensive, but would subject one to great inconvenience—­for my strict and positive orders to all my people are if they hear a gun fired upon my Land to go immediately in pursuit of it....  Besides, as I have not lost my relish for this sport when I find time to indulge myself in it, and Gentlemen who come to the House are pleased with it, it is my wish not to have game within my jurisdiction disturbed.”

Fishing was another pastime.  He “went a dragging for Sturgeon” frequently, and sometimes “catch’d one” and sometimes “catch’d none.”  While in Philadelphia in 1787 he went up to the old camp at Valley Forge and spent a day fishing, and in 1789 at Portsmouth, “having lines, we proceeded to the Fishing Banks a little without the Harbour and fished for Cod; but it not being a proper time of tide, we only caught two.”  After his serious sickness in 1790 a newspaper reports that “yesterday afternoon the President of the United States returned from Sandy Hook and the fishing banks, where he had been for the benefit of the sea air, and to amuse himself in the delightful recreation of fishing.  We are told he has had excellent sport, having himself caught a great number of sea-bass and black fish—­the weather proved remarkably fine, which, together with the salubrity of the air and wholesome exercise, rendered this little voyage extremely agreeable, and cannot fail, we hope, of being serviceable to a speedy and complete restoration of his health.”