---- for the trouble he has
taken in relation to the Lee genealogy. I have no desire to have it
published, and do not think it would afford sufficient interest beyond
the immediate family to pay for the expense. I think the money had
better be appropriated to relieve the poor."
Harry Lee, Robert's father, was not only a soldier, but also a man of
letters. He loved the classics, and has left memoirs written in
spirited vein. He had reached middle life, however, before Robert was
born, and passed away when the boy was eleven. It was the mother's
influence--and here again we have a parallel with Washington--which was
paramount in the early days. She was a Carter, of an equally old and
distinguished family, and is spoken of as an amiable and gracious lady.
When Robert was still a child, his family moved to Alexandria, and very
shortly his father went away on a trip for his health, from which he
never returned. Between the boy and his mother the ties became very
close. He was devoted to her, and on her part she said, after he went
away to school, "You have been both son and daughter to me."
Long afterward, Lee alludes to this period in a letter to his own son,
by way of counsel: "A young gentleman who has read Virgil must surely
be competent to take care of two ladies; for before I had advanced that
far I was my mother's outdoor agent and confidential messenger.
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