descent as the eldest male heir (the law of primogeniture then being
the law of Virginia) the whole of a landed estate and a portion of the
personal property. The principal part of this large inheritance was
devised to Winfield Scott, but, the devisee having married again and
had issue, the will was abrogated. The wife of Winfield Mason was the
daughter of Dr. James Greenway, a near neighbor. He was born in
England, near the borders of Scotland, and inherited his father's
trade, that of a weaver. He was ambitious and studious, and giving all
of his spare time to study, he became familiar with the Greek, Latin,
French, and Italian languages. After his immigration to Virginia he
prepared himself for the practice of medicine, and soon acquired a
large and lucrative practice. He devoted much of his time to botany,
and left a _hortus siccus_ of forty folio volumes, in which he
described the more interesting plants of Virginia and North Carolina.
He was honored by memberships in several of the learned European
societies, and was a correspondent of the celebrated Swedish
naturalist Linnæus. He acquired such a knowledge of music as enabled
him to become teacher to his own children.

James Hargrave, a Quaker, was one of young Scott's earliest teachers.
He found his pupil to be a lad of easy excitement and greatly inclined
to be belligerent. He tried very hard to tone him down and teach him
to govern his temper. On one occasion young Scott, being in Petersburg
and passing on a crowded street, found his Quaker teacher, who was a
non-combatant, engaged in a dispute with a noted bully. Hargrave was
the county surveyor, and this fellow charged him with running a false
dividing line. When Scott heard the charge he felled the bully to the
ground with one blow of his fist. He recovered and advanced on Scott,
when Hargrave placed himself between them and received the blow
intended for Scott; but the bully was again knocked to the ground by