His habits were uniform, and nearly the same as they had been previous to the war.  He rose before the sun and employed himself in his study, writing letters or reading, till the hour of breakfast.  When breakfast was over, his horse was ready at the door, and he rode to his farms and gave directions for the day to the managers and laborers.  Horses were likewise prepared for his guests, whenever they chose to accompany him, or to amuse themselves by excursions into the country.  Returning from his fields, and despatching such business as happened to be on hand, he went again to his study, and continued there till three o’clock, when he was summoned to dinner.  The remainder of the day and the evening were devoted to company, or to recreation in the family circle.  At ten he retired to rest.  From these habits he seldom deviated, unless compelled to do so by particular circumstances.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Sparks, 389, 390.]

This list does not include the item which Washington soon found the greatest of his burdens—­letter-writing.  His correspondence increased rapidly and to an enormous extent.

Many mistakenly think [he writes to Richard Henry Lee] that I am retired to ease, and to that kind of tranquility which would grow tiresome for want of employment; but at no period of my life, not in the eight years I served the public, have I been obliged to write so much myself, as I have done since my retirement....  It is not the letters from my friends which give me trouble, or add aught to my perplexity.  It is references to old matters, with which I have nothing to do; applications which often cannot be complied with; inquiries which would require the pen of a historian to satisfy; letters of compliment as unmeaning perhaps as they are troublesome, but which must be attended to; and the commonplace business which employs my pen and my time often disagreeably.  These, with company, deprive me of exercise, and unless I can obtain relief, must be productive of disagreeable consequences.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Irving, IV, 466.]

When we remember that Washington used to write most of his letters himself, and that from boyhood his handwriting was beautifully neat, almost like copper-plate, in its precision and elegance, we shall understand what a task it must have been for him to keep up his correspondence.  A little later he employed a young New Hampshire graduate of Harvard, Tobias Lear, who graduated in 1783, who served him as secretary until his death, and undoubtedly lightened the epistolary cares of the General.  But Washington continued to carry on much of the letter-writing, especially the intimate, himself; and, like the Adamses and other statesmen of that period, he kept letter-books which contained the first drafts or copies of the letters sent.