George Washington, Sportsman: From His Own Journals (1928)

Most U.S. presidents engaged in some sort of outdoor sport, prior to, during, and after their term of office. Without question, George Washington’s main outdoor sporting interest was to be astride his favorite mount riding to the hounds in pursuit of Reynard the Fox. This sort of riding came easily to him after spending countless days on horseback surveying, participating in the French and Indian War in western Pennsylvania, the Revolutionary War, and at Mt. Vernon overseeing his plantation, visiting neighbors, and traveling. By all accounts he was a superb horseman. However relatively few sportsman-historians today appear to know that George Washington also hunted and fished below Mt. Vernon on the Potomac River and its tributaries. A fascinating account of George Washington’s sporting life from his own journals! –Henry M. Reeves.