Class 
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MOUNT VERNON 
 
MOUNT VERNON 
 
 WASHINGTON'S HOME and 
 THE NATION'S SHRINE 
 
 BY 
 
 
 PAUL WILSTACH 
 
 Author of "Richard Mansfield, the Man and the Actor" etc. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 GARDEN CITY NEW YORK 
 
 DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 
 1916 
 
F 3 
 
 
 Copyright, 1916, by 
 Doubleday, Page & Company 
 
 All rights reserved, including that of 
 
 translation into foreign languages, 
 
 including the Scandinavian 
 
 SEP 30 1916 
 
 : 
 
To 
 HARRISON HOWELL DODGE 
 
\ 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 Mount Vernon's Beginnings — The Doeg Indians — John Smith's 
 Account of the Upper Tidewater Potomac — Leonard Calvert at 
 Piscataway — Early Royal Grants of the Northern Neck — The 
 English Washingtons — First Washingtons in Virginia — Wash- 
 ington and Fairfaxes Move Up the Potomac — Title to Hunting 
 Creek Tract — The First Dwelling — The Fire — Lawrence Wash- 
 ington .......... 3 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 What Lawrence Found on His Tract — Pioneer Buildings — 
 Abandons His Estate for Military Service in the West Indies Under 
 Admiral Vernon — Returns and Marries Anne Fairfax — Career of 
 Lawrence Washington— Arrival of George to Make His Home at 
 Mount Vernon — Parson Weems — Influences on George's Young 
 Character at Mount Vernon and at Belvoir — The Original House 
 —Who Built It?— The Cornerstone. .... 15 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Lawrence Plans George's Career — Letter of Uncle Joseph Ball 
 — Fox Hunting with Lord Fairfax — Absent Surveying in the Valley 
 — Sentimental Manifestations — Military Tutors at Mount Ver- 
 non — Lawrence 111 — Lawrence and George Sail for Barbadoes — 
 Return and Death and Will of Lawrence — George Master of Mount 
 Vernon .......... 26 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 Absences from Home — Military Expeditions to the Ohio — Mary 
 Washington's Last Visit to Mount Vernon — Organizing the House- 
 hold — Political Aspirations — John Augustine Washington the First 
 Manager — Off to the West with Braddock — Military Career Un- 
 remunerative — Home with Extended Fame, General Braddock's 
 Battle Charger and Bishop — Women Who Might Have Been Mis- 
 
x TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 tress of Mount Vernon Washington Made Commander of All 
 Virginia Troops A Winter's Dlness at Mount Vernon, Not 
 Without Compensation ....... 37 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 A. Chapter Wholly Aw a\ fro in Mount Vernon Most Significant 
 to [ts History Bishop's Vigil I 'inner at Mr. Chamberlayne's 
 
 Martha Dandridge Custis 1 1 « • r- Family Marly Life — George 
 Washington and Martha Custis Betrothed — Off to the Wesl 
 Letters Restoring Mount Vernon in Its Master's Absence 
 The Wedding Honeymoon at the Six-chimney House in Wil 
 liamsburg Washington in the House of Burgesses Bringing 
 
 the Bride to Mount Vernon Curiosity of the Neighbors and 
 Retainers The Arrival — Martha Washington Mistress of Mount 
 Vernon ... .... . . . .50 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 Settling in Mount Vernon — Development of the Domestic 
 Life on the Plantation— Martha Washington as a Housekeeper — 
 Mount Vernon Crows into a Village — The Spinning House -The 
 Laundry The Dairy The Smoke House- The Kitchen Shop- 
 ping in London by Way of the Tobacco Ships — Washington's 
 Taste Daily Routine — The Beginnings <)f Sixteen Years of Home 
 Life and the Upbuilding of the Estate . . . . G5 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 Washington as a Planter — Extending the Boundaries of the 
 
 Estate The Five Farms Farm Organization Virginia Methods 
 
 ricultural Experiments Horses and Cattle The Old Mill — 
 
 The Distillery The Ovens Fish and Fishing Charity Making 
 
 Ends Meet . . . .76 
 
 CHAPTER VI II 
 
 Social Life Processions of Guests Dinner Parties English 
 Naval Officers Neighborhood Life The Mansions on Both 
 Sides of the Potomac To Annapolis for the Races Captain 
 John Posey's Letter Alexandria Associations The Bread and 
 Butler Ball Fox Hunting -Nearby Race Track- Lotteries 
 Duelling Mrs. Washington's Children, John and Martha ( ustis 
 
 I > . 1 1 1< 1 1 . ( ....... 89 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS xi 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 Washington in Colonial Public Life — Vestryman of Truro 
 Parish — Drawing the Parish Lines to Capture Mount Vernon — 
 Attendance at Pohick Church — As a Churchman — As Burgess in 
 the Assembly at Williamsburg — Trips Between Mount Vernon 
 and the Capital — Late Summers at Bath Springs — A Trip to New 
 York— Charles Willson Peale— The First Portrait . .104 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 Last Years Before the Revolution— Changes in the Family and 
 in the Neighborhood — Death of Martha Custis — The Fairfaxes 
 Leave for England — Sale at Belvoir — Jack Custis Marries Eleanor 
 Calvert — Courtly Letters — Mount Vernon Adapts Itself to the 
 Stamp Act — The Fairfax Resolves — Notable Conferences at 
 Mount Vernon — Preparing to Enlarge the Llouse — Eccentric 
 Charles Lee — Preparations for the Impending Struggle — The 
 Eyes of the Colonies on Mount Vernon — The Richmond Conven- 
 tion — To the Congress in Philadelphia — Commander-in-Chief of 
 the Army 116 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 Mount Vernon During the Revolution — Mrs. Washington's 
 Absences in Camp — Lund Washington in Charge of the Estate — 
 The Door of Hospitality Kept Open by the Absent Master — Postal 
 Facilities — British on the Potomac — Designs on Mount Vernon — 
 Mrs. Washington Flees for a Night — Tarlton's Raiders — Lund 
 Propitiates the British — The General's Rebuke — Building Oper- 
 ations — The Northeast and Southwest Additions Completed — 
 Outbuildings Built and Rebuilt — The Portico — Belvoir Burned 
 — The General's Brief Visit After Six Years' Absence — Death of 
 John Parke Custis — Washington Adopts Two of His Children — 
 Two Years Later Resigns Commission and Returns Home and to 
 Private Life 132 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 Washington's Delight to Be at Mount Vernon Again — Letters 
 — To Fredericksburg, Philadelphia, and the Ohio Country — Putting 
 a Finish on Grounds and Buildings — The Bowling Green and the 
 Serpentine Drive — Trees — The Deer Park — Gardens — Walls — 
 Barns — Fences — A Toper's Contract — The General's Warhorse- 
 
xii TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 Nelson — Mrs. Washington's Grandchildren- His Nephews and 
 Nieces- First Wedding in the Mansion Dreaming a Deed from 
 the General—- Shiftless Harriott ..... 145 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Burdens of Greatness -Secretaries in the Home — David Hum- 
 phries and William Smith — Anecdote of Old Bishop and His 
 Daughter— Gideon Snow-William Shaw — Tobias Lear New 
 Associations with Alexandria — Visitors' Descriptions of Life at 
 Mount Vernon Sitting l'<>r the Portrait 1'ainters — Arrival of 
 Houdon — He Models the Bust — LaFayette's Visit — Gifts from 
 Abroad -French Hounds -The Vaughan Mantel — Mules from 
 Malta — Asses from the King of Spain .... 100 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Mount Vernon the Cradle of Constitutional Agitation — Union 
 of States First Effected at Mount Vernon Conference — Off 
 to the Constitutional Convention — Washington's Passion for 
 the Constitution — Virginia in a Turmoil — -Ratification — Dreading 
 the Interruption of His Home Life — Elected First President of 
 the lnited States The Formal Notification at Mount Vernon — 
 Breaking Home Ties — End of His Furlough — Departure for the 
 Inauguration ........ 177 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 Mount Vernon During the Presidency — Visits Home — Arrival 
 of the Key of the Bastille — Mode of Travel The Hard Riding 
 Aide and the General's Anger — Directions for Hospitality at 
 
 Mount Vernon in His Absence — Managers of the Estate: George 
 Augustine Washington, Anthony Whiting, Howell Lewis, William 
 Pearce and James Anderson Keeping in 'Touch with His Estate 
 when Absent — New Barns Mrs. Washington Homesick in Phil- 
 adelphia — The General's Love for His Home — Retires from Public 
 Life — Returns to Mount Vernon ..... iso 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Planter Once More Repairing the Neglect of Years of Absence 
 
 — Refurnishing the Mansion Joking About Death Renewed 
 Social Gayety A Letter to Mrs. Fairfax George Washington 
 
 Lafayette Distinguished Visitors Bushrod Washington and 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS xiii 
 
 John Marshall Bring a Peddler's Pack — General Henry Lee and 
 His Liberties— The Polish Gentleman's Visit — Washington's Own 
 Account of How He Spent His Time. .... 201 
 
 CHAPTER XVn 
 
 The Year 1799 — Washington's Fortieth Wedding Anniversary 
 — Two Birthday Celebrations — Wedding of Nellie Custis and 
 Lawrence Lewis — A Gay Summer — First Dinner Alone with Mrs. 
 Washington in Twenty Years — Bankruptcy by Hospitality — 
 Mount Vernon Washington's Consuming Interest — A Luxury — 
 The Rickety Stairway at the Polls — A Birth in the Mansion — 
 Washington Survives His Sister and All His Brothers — Last Dinner 
 Parties at Mount Eagle and Mount Vernon — Caught in a Storm 
 — Last Illness — Death — Funeral . . . . .216 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 Death Chamber Sealed — Washington's Will — Mount Vernon 
 Bequeathed to Bushrod Washington — Other Bequests — The 
 Inventory — The Slave Problem — Martha Washington's Last 
 Days — Death — Family Matters — Pictures, Plate, Furnishings, 
 and Souvenirs Dispersed — Sale of 1802 — Bushrod Washington 
 Takes Possession of Mount Vernon .... 22.5 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Career of Bushrod Washington — Justice of the Supreme Court 
 of the United States — Estimates by Contemporaries — Mount 
 Vernon and the English Fleet in 1814 — Battle off Bel voir — Rev- 
 erend Charles O'Neill — Return of LaFayette — Death of Justice 
 Washington — The Two John Augustine Washingtons — New 
 Tomb — Reentombment of the General and Mrs. Washington — 
 Other Burials — The Key Thrown into the Potomac . . 240 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 Mount Vernon Lands Diminish — Burden of a National Shrine 
 — Neglect and Decay — Speculators — Vain Appeal for Govern- 
 ment Purchase — Ann Pamela Cunningham Organizes the Mount 
 Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union — Contract for Purchase 
 — Campaign for Funds — Edward Everett's Work — Possession 
 Given — Restoration Begun — During the War — Regents, Super- 
 intendents, and Other Officials ..... 254 
 
xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTEB XXI 
 
 Remaking the Home of George Washington — The Summer 
 House— The Old Tomb -Deer Park— Gifts of Protective Lands 
 
 North Lodge Gates Sea Wall Garden, Screen, and Ha-Ha 
 Walls A Colonial Ruin Bought to Get Colonial Brick Tunnelling 
 to Prevent Mount Vernon from Slipping Earliest Shingles Still 
 Shelter the Mansion Flagging from St. Bees - Precautions Extraor- 
 dinary— If Mount Vernon Were Destroyed Historic Belies— 
 When Naval Vessels Pass the Tomb of the Father of His Country 
 
 A. Symbol — The End . . . . . 264 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 A 
 
 The Title to Mount Vernon l 28l 
 
 B 
 
 Table of General Washington's Visits to Mount Vernon While 
 President 283 
 
 C 
 
 Tables of Those Born, Married, and Buried at Mount Vernon k 284 
 
 D 
 
 Regents and Vice-Regents of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Asso- 
 ciation of the Union, Since Its Organization . . . . 287 
 
 INDEX . . . . 293 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Mount Vernon Mansion Frontispiece 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 Lawrence Washington 16 
 
 Admiral Vernon 20 
 
 The Old Brick Barn 22 
 
 The Corner Stone of Mount Vernon 26 
 
 Survey of Mount Vernon 28 
 
 The Ruins of the Old Tomb 32 
 
 The Old Tomb 32 
 
 George Washington in the Uniform of a Virginia Colonel . 52 
 
 Mrs. George Washington 60 
 
 The South Lane 66 
 
 The Kitchen Fireplace 68 
 
 The North Lane 76 
 
 A Map of General Washington's Farm 78 
 
 A Lane Below the Old Brick Barn 84 
 
 The West Lodge Gates 92 
 
 The River Shore 92 
 
 The West Parlor 96 
 
 The Family Dining Room 96 
 
 The Music Room 98 
 
 The Sitting Room 98 
 
 Pohick Church 110 
 
 North and South Lanes 112 
 
 The Floor Plans of Mount Vernon 128 
 
 The Great Window in the Banquet Hall 132 
 
 The North Colonnade 140 
 
 The Central Hall or Passage 144 
 
 A Vista Through the Portico 148 
 
 XV 
 
xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 "Samuel Vaughan's Plan of Mount Vernon 150 
 
 Box Maze and Greenhouses 152 
 
 The Walled Vegetable Garden 154 
 
 The Family at Mount Vernon 156 
 
 West Front of Mount Vernon Mansion 162 
 
 The School Bouse \c>i 
 
 Houdon's Bust of George Washington 172 
 
 The Banquet Room 174 
 
 The Library 180 
 
 Facsimile of a Letter from George Washington .... 188 
 
 Mount Vernon Mansion 10-2 
 
 The Mansion and Some of the Small Buildings .... 208 
 
 Eleanor ("Nellie") Parke Custis 212 
 
 George Washington's Bedroom 220 
 
 Martha Washington's Bedroom 228 
 
 John Augustine Washington 236 
 
 Bushrod Washington 2:>() 
 
 Jane Washington and Members of Her Family .... 246 
 
 George Washington's Tomb 250 
 
 Ann Pamela Cunningham 256 
 
 Mount Vernon Mansion a> It Appeared Just Before the Civil 
 
 War 262 
 
 The South Ha-Ha Wall 266 
 
 A Section of the Lichen Covered Garden Wall .... 272 
 
 Skeleton Model of Mount Vernon Mansion 276 
 
 ««m 
 
 •Washington in a letter to Samuel Vaughan, dated \i\h November, 17R7, said: 
 'The letter without date, with which you wen- pleased to honor mc, accompanied 
 by a plan of this Beat, came to my bands by the last post. . . . The plan 
 describes with accuracy the houses, walks, and shrubs, except in the front of the 
 lawn, west of the courtyard. There the plan differs from the original. In the 
 former you have closed the prosped with trees along the walk to the gate; whereas 
 in the latter tin- trees terminate with two mounds of earth, one on each side, on 
 which grow weeping willows, leaving an open and full view of the distant woods. 
 Tin- mounds are sixty yards apart. I mention this, because it is the only de- 
 parture from the original." 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 To Dr. Johnson has been attributed the epigram, 
 *'The most difficult thing in the world, sir, is to 
 get possession of a fact"; and to few perhaps does 
 this come home with more force than to those who un- 
 dertake to extract the truth from the traditions and 
 glamour of romance that have grown around so much of 
 the life and customs of Colonial America. The gratifi- 
 cation, perhaps the pride, engendered by the accounts 
 that have come down to us of the imposing dignity of 
 the lives of our Colonial ancestors and the elegance of 
 their homes has sometimes received a rude shock as we 
 have gazed for the first time on the "Mansions" in 
 which they lived; and while, on the one hand, this is 
 true; on the other, it is equally true that some of those 
 old worthies whose names are scarce remembered, and 
 who may perhaps " have sealed their letters with their 
 thumbs," are shown by careful research to have pos- 
 sessed homes as stately as any, and to have contributed 
 as prodigally to Virginia's reputation for hospitality 
 and heroism as did those whose names have gone sound- 
 ing down the ages ; and as it is the task of the faithful 
 historian to make " history as written accord with his- 
 tory as performed," so in the field he has chosen to 
 occupy, this is what Mr. Wilstach has endeavored to 
 accomplish, and I believe he has achieved it. 
 
 Much of what, in the past, has been said and written 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 aboul Mount Vernon has been based on tradition, and 
 while Mr. Wilstach's careful investigation has confirmed 
 many of these traditions, some of what has been believed 
 has been round not entirely accurate, and his patient 
 research has brought to light much thai was not known. 
 It was not an easy task, and those who feel an abiding 
 interesl in the home of the Father of lus Country, and 
 who appreciate faithful endeavor, will reeognize the 
 debt due the author for his patient labor of love. 
 
MOUNT VERNON 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 Mount Vernon's Beginnings — The Doeg Indians — John Smith's 
 Account of the Upper Tidewater Potomac — Leonard Cal- 
 vert at Piscataway — Early Royal Grants of the Northern 
 Neck — The English Washingtons — First Washingtons in 
 Virginia — Washingtons and Fairfaxes Move Up the Potomac 
 —Title to Hunting Creek Tract— The First Dwelling— The 
 Fire — Lawrence Washington. 
 
 MOUNT VERNON, the home and last resting 
 place of George Washington, is situated on 
 the Virginia shore of the Potomac River, in 
 Fairfax County, fourteen miles south of the Capital of 
 the United States. 
 
 Its wide fame, the deep affection in which it is held, 
 and the familiarity given it by written and painted 
 history, make it difficult for the mind to erase the 
 picture of Washington's home and think of its parked 
 heights as virgin forest overlooking a sailless, undis- 
 covered river. Yet less than one hundred and fifty 
 years before it came into his hands, so far as is positively 
 known, white man had never seen it. 
 
 In Mount Vernon's early history events punctuated 
 long series of years. The first title holders to these hills 
 and meadows were the Doeg Indians, a tribe of the 
 Algonquin race. Their remains have been unearthed 
 on the rising ground near the river in very recent years. 
 Their possession was secure and undisputed, when one 
 day, around the broad bend to the west, there appeared 
 a strange sail on an open barge. As it drew nearer it re- 
 
 3 
 
4 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 vealed a company of fifteen men with curiously un- 
 familiar faces, n<»t the copper red of the native, but pale 
 like none they had ever seen. It was John Smith and 
 his hardy adventurers from Jamestown sailing by on 
 their quest of "the head of this water you conceive to be 
 endless." They pass again, out with the current and 
 the tide, and history is silent about the upper waters of 
 the Potomac for oxer a quarter of a century. 
 
 Then in 1634 the white sails of the white man ap- 
 peared again, up with the tide and fair wind from the 
 faraway Chesapeake. This time there were two ships, 
 the Port and a pinnace, belonging to Leonard Calvert. 
 This first Governor of Maryland came with his two 
 hundred pioneers to establish a colony on the eastern 
 shore of the Potomac under the royal charter granted 
 by King Charles II to Leonard's brother ('ceil. Lord 
 Baltimore. They anchored only a mile above the 
 future site of Mount Vernon, where the Piscataway 
 meets the Potomac under the heights which are to be 
 firsl the Warburton Manor lands of Neighbor Diggs an d 
 later are to be crowned with the gray bastions of Fort 
 Washington. 
 
 Calvert found little encouragement from the Indians, 
 and the beauty of the spot did not weigh against its 
 isolation, over one hundred miles from the "centre of 
 civilization" in the lower waters of the James. He, too, 
 sailed down river to a permanent haven for his followers 
 near the month of the Potomac, almost opposite the 
 point on the Virginia shore where, a century later, was 
 to be born the boy who would become the liberator of 
 his country. 
 
 The record of Calvert's cruise to the upper Potomac 
 
MOUNT VERNON 5 
 
 is followed by another silence, this time for nearly forty 
 years, for all that is told of explorations or settlements 
 on the scene of this story. 
 
 In the meantime there are fugitive glimpses of nearby 
 activities of the white men, hunters and trappers, some- 
 times outposts who guard the advancing frontier from 
 the receding Indian. It seems always to have been a 
 paradise for lovers of the rod and gun. Smith found the 
 river country "much frequented with wolves, bears, 
 deer, and other wild beasts .... in the course 
 of our journeyings we also met with a few beavers, 
 otters, bears, martens, and minks; and in divers places 
 there was such an abundance of fish, lying quite thick, 
 with their heads above the water, as our barge drove 
 through them, that for want of a net we attempted to 
 catch them with a frying-pan, but we found it a bad in- 
 strument to catch fish with." While the brave captain 
 was exploring above some shoals, "It chanced by reason 
 of the ebb-tide, that our barge grounded on one of them, 
 and there we must abide until the next tide came to 
 float us. As I was looking in the waters, I espied many 
 fishes lurking in the reeds, and for sport and pastime, to 
 while away an hour, I amused myself by nailing them 
 to the ground with my sword. This set all my crew 
 following my example, and by this means we caught 
 more fish in an hour than we could eat in a day." 
 
 But civilization is on the way. Farther down river 
 the clearings extend, advancing with the advancing 
 century. The forests translate themselves into cabins, 
 the young trees into snake fences, and soon the in- 
 exhaustible clay gets itself baked into bricks for the 
 planters' mansions, which are held together with the 
 
6 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 finest of all mortar made of the burnt oyster shells taken 
 from the beds of the tidal "creeks," which give endless 
 diversity to the shores of the lower Potomac. Later, 
 when time has aged these mansions and the restorer 
 comes to repair their century-old walls, he will find that 
 it is more frequently the bricks which yield and crack 
 under the pick and hammer than the oyster-shell mortar. 
 
 Until the early seventies the tracts along the west 
 bank of the Potomac from Dogue's Creek to Little 
 Hunting Creek were without recorded proprietors. 
 Larger tracts of which this was a part were then granted, 
 some say by the Crown and others say by the Royal 
 Governor in Virginia. The recorders and later chron- 
 iclers seem to contribute much confusion. Perhaps 
 they are right, and the seventeenth century state of 
 Northern Neck titles was confusing. 
 
 Certain it is that Charles II in exile, without throne or 
 crown, did grant to two tricky favorites, the Earl of 
 Arlington and Lord Culpepper, "to be held by them for 
 thirty-one years at a yearly rental of forty shillings," all 
 the lands between the Rappahannock and the Potomac 
 and known as the Northern Neck. Later this grant 
 was withdrawn to be extended again on a larger scale to 
 include "all that tract and territory, region and do- 
 minion of land and water commonly called Virginia." 
 
 Here was strong meat indeed for the stomach of 
 freedmen. It would not digest and was one of the 
 causes which begat Bacon's Rebellion. In spite of re- 
 sentmenl their title seems to have been sustained, for 
 Arlington conveyed his share of the proprietorship of 
 Virginia to Culpepper, and the title deeds to Mount 
 Vernon begin with a grant from Lord Culpepper "in the 
 
MOUNT VERNON 7 
 
 twenty seventh year of the reign of our Sovereigne Lord, 
 King Charles ye Second, Anno Domini 1674," to Lieu- 
 tenant Colonel John Washington and Colonel Nicholas 
 Spencer, of five thousand acres "scituate, lying and 
 being in the County of Stafford" — which county had 
 been cut off from Westmoreland and from a part of which 
 Prince William and Fairfax counties were later created — 
 "in the ffreshes of the Pottomeek River and neare oppo- 
 site to Piscataway, Indian towne of Mariland." This 
 Washington, known as John the Emigrant, was the 
 great-grandfather of George of Mount Vernon, and was 
 the first of George Washington's forebears to cross from 
 England to America. 
 
 The greatness of George Washington inflamed the 
 imagination of his early biographers. If we cannot 
 abide by their accuracy it is possible to be amused by 
 their invention. One of them traces his line back 
 through generations and centuries of noble and valiant 
 ancestors, until he brings up at the throne of the hearty 
 Scandinavian deity, Odin, "the god who gives victory." 
 The name Washington is traced from de Wessynton, to 
 Wessynton without the de, to Wasshington and Wash- 
 ington. As last written it early appeared as the name 
 of a parish in the County of Durham in England. The 
 forebears of our Washington trace in a direct line 
 through their namesakes of Sulgrave Manor, North- 
 amptonshire, to John Washington of Warton, Lanca- 
 shire. Beyond him is conjecture. After him the line is 
 authentic. His son, the grantee of Sulgrave, was 
 named Lawrence, and his name, like his father's, re- 
 appears frequently in future generations. In the coat- 
 of-arms engraved on this Lawrence's tomb in the church 
 
8 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 at Sulgrave is found the three spur rowels above the red 
 bars on a white field, which appeared as early as I860 in 
 the seal of William de Wessyngton, and which are 
 popularly regarded as having suggested the stars and 
 stripes of the Bag of the United States. 
 
 Lawrence of Sulgrave fell upon hard times and he was 
 obliged to give up his manor house, whereupon his good 
 friend and neighbor, Lord Spencer, in ICOb' built him the 
 house in the village of Little Brington where he lived 
 during the remaining years of his life. As already in- 
 dicated, the names of Washington and Spencer are to be 
 joined again, in another transaction involving a home, 
 but in Virginia next time, in title deeds on which is 
 founded the proprietorship of Mount Vernon itself. 
 
 Washington House, as it lias been known and pointed 
 out to pilgrims these hundred years, was afterward 
 occupied by Lawrence's brother Robert and his family. 
 After Robert's death Lawrence's widow came again, and 
 lived there until 1636, when she went into Essex to 
 make her home with her son, another Lawrence, who 
 was rector of Purleigh. This son, the Reverend 
 Lawrence Washington, M.A., married Amphillis Rhodes 
 and their issue was six sons and daughters, among whom 
 was John the Emigrant, and his brother, third of the 
 name of Lawrence, and a sister, who both followed him 
 to America. 
 
 At this time England was in civil convulsion. ( Charles 
 II was in banishment, and the Puritans of the eleven 
 years' commonwealth were carrying government with a 
 high hand. The Washington family were committed 
 to the royalist cause, not merely by their holding of the 
 
 Rectory of Purleigh, but by the traditional sympathies 
 
MOUNT VERNON 9 
 
 inbred by generations of devotion to the crown. Poli- 
 tics deprived the father of his parish in 1643, and, cast- 
 ing about for opportunity and ease from petty perse- 
 cution, his son John, and later his son Lawrence and the 
 young men's sister, crossed the seas to the colony of 
 Virginia as recited above. 
 
 John reached Virginia about 1658. He did not come 
 at once to the upper end of tidewater Potomac. His 
 first plantation was in Westmoreland County between 
 the Rappahannock and the Potomac, and it gave his 
 name to the parish. Soon he married for his second 
 wife Miss Ann Pope, and, where Bridges Creek meets 
 the Potomac seventy miles down river from the present 
 capital, he built a modest dwelling, later named Wake- 
 field. Here were born their eldest son, Lawrence, and 
 this Lawrence's eldest son, Augustine. 
 
 The name of Washington appeared continually in 
 colonial chronicles both of Burgesses and vestry. John 
 Washington, the Emigrant, was a member of the House 
 of Burgesses, and the recurrence of his name in con- 
 nection with the business of the Assembly indicates that 
 he took no unimportant part in its work. This was at 
 Williamsburg. On Wakefield plantation, however, so 
 far away from the gay little capital and so near the 
 frontier, life during the last half of the seventeenth 
 century was even and uneventful, save for brushes with 
 the Indians and the struggle to force the forest back and 
 make the good red clay yield its harvest. 
 
 The family evidently rose to some estate, for, after a 
 little more than fifty years in Virginia, it is able to send 
 Augustine, John's grandson, to England to be educated. 
 On his return he married Jane, daughter of Caleb But- 
 
10 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 lor, of Westmoreland, who bravely wrote "Esquire" 
 after his name. They had four children, but of them 
 only Lawrence and Augustine lived beyond childhood. 
 Jane Washington died in 1728. In less than two years 
 Augustine married again, this time Mary, youngest 
 daughter of < lolonel Joseph Ball. He brought her to liis 
 Bridges Creek plantation overlooking the lower Poto- 
 mac and soon the first blessing of this union was re- 
 corded in the old quaint quarto Bible, now among the 
 treasures at Mount Vernon, in these terms: 
 
 It was a fruitful union. George's younger brothers 
 were Samuel, John Augustine, and Charles, and his 
 sisters were Elisabeth, who appears later as Betty, and 
 Mildred, who died in childhood. 
 
 Other lands than Wakefield had come into the hands 
 of the great-grandfather of Lawrence and his half- 
 brother George, as already noted in the grant from Lord 
 Culpepper, the crown grantee. This five-thousand-acre 
 holding of John Washington and Nicholas Spencer was 
 nol divided until 1(190. Meantime John died and in his 
 will bequeathed his half of this trad l<>hi> son Lawrence. 
 The division thirteen years later gave him the eastern 
 half, facing Little Hunting ('reck, and the Spencer 
 family took the western half, facing Dogue Kim. 
 
 This Laurence in his will bequeathed "all my land in 
 
 *Waabington was born February 1 1 oldst] le, February 28 new style. See pageS17. 
 
MOUNT VERNON 11 
 
 Stafford County, lying upon Hunting Creek . . . 
 by estimation 2,500 acres," to his daughter Mildred. 
 It has been stated that "Mildred died in infancy, and 
 the Hunting Creek estate became the joint possession of 
 the widow and two sons, until it fell to the survivor of 
 them all, Augustine, about the year 1730." Another 
 historian dismisses this transfer with the comfortable 
 though indefinite remark that "we find. Augustine 
 Washington ... in possession of one half of the 
 above 5,000 acres in 1740." 
 
 The transfer from Mildred to Augustine is definitely 
 accounted for by a deed of May 26, 1726, from Mildred 
 and her husband, Roger Gregory, to Augustine Wash- 
 ington, "her brother," for "a moietie or half of five 
 thousand acres formerly Lay'd Out for Collo Nicholas 
 Spencer and the father of Capt Lawrence Washington 
 Bounded as follows Begining by the River Side at the 
 Mouth of Little Hunting Creek and Extending up the 
 said Creek according to the several courses and Meand- 
 ers thereof nine hundred Eighty and Six Poles to a 
 mark'd A Corner Tree standing on the West side of the 
 South Branch being the main branch of said Hunting 
 Creek From there by a lyne of Mark'd trees west 
 eighteen Degrees South across a W T oods to the Dividing 
 Lyne as formerly made Between Madam Francis 
 Spencer and Captain Lawrence Washington and from 
 hence W by the said Lyne to ye River and with the 
 River and all the Courses and Meanders of the said 
 River to the Mouth of the Creek afor'sd." 
 
 Augustine Washington moved up river and estab- 
 lished his family on his Hunting Creek lands within a 
 short time after George's birth, for Augustine's name 
 
1* MOUNT VERNON 
 
 appears as vestryman of Truro Parish in 1735. Accom- 
 panying tht- Washingtons came their friend William 
 Fairfax, colonial agent of his eousin Lord Fairfax in Eng- 
 land, on whose lands he settled, nearby his friends. 
 
 The Fairfax estate was a long peninsula of nearly 
 three thousand acres on the west side of Dogue Creek, 
 and it was one of the finest set estates on the river. Its 
 waterfront measured, by all its "corses and meanders," 
 nearly ten miles. The high front jutted out into the 
 deepest point of the river channel, and the creeks, which 
 flanked it east and west, made it possible to enclose 
 the entire acreage with little more than one mile of fence 
 on its western side. On the glorious promontory over- 
 looking the river William Fairfax built Belvoir, a great 
 house destined to be the scene of much that was signifi- 
 cant in the lives of both Lawrence Washington and his 
 young brother George. 
 
 Augustine's Hunting Creek plantation, derived orig- 
 inally from Lord Culpepper, is described in his father's 
 bequest of 1697 as "the land where Mrs. Eliza Mintou 
 and Mrs. Williams now live." These are the earliesl 
 recorded dwellers on the lands later to become so 
 famous. It is a strange prank of the chronicles to call 
 attention to two women dwelling in the wilderness, 
 pioneers by nearly half a century of the next known 
 resident. Where were their cabins— at the head of the 
 creek secluded from the curiosity of river rovers, or 
 standing boldly forth on the mount by the river, with a 
 free sweep for miles above and below? 
 
 From 1735, when Augustine Washington and Mary 
 his wife came to this estate, it was continually owned 
 and occupied by a Washington for one hundred and 
 
MOUNT VERNON 13 
 
 twenty-three years, when the fame of the spot and the 
 overwhelming rush of pilgrims grew beyond the en- 
 durance of private ownership and it passed into the 
 hands of the association of patriotic women who care for 
 it now. 
 
 With Augustine and Mary were their children George, 
 Elisabeth, and Samuel, and possibly John Augustine, 
 though he may have been born here. If Lawrence and 
 Augustine, the elder half-brothers of these children, 
 came to the new home it was for only a short time, for 
 they soon went to England and entered the school at 
 Appleby, up near the Scottish border, in the County of 
 Westmoreland, for which their own native county in 
 Virginia had been named. While living on the upper 
 Potomac the family had been increased by the birth of a 
 daughter, christened Mildred, who died in infancy. 
 
 There seems to be no conclusive evidence to determine 
 where Augustine built the first house on this tract. 
 Some historians have accepted the conjecture that he 
 cleared a homestead site and built a house alongside the 
 mill which so long survived him, where the trickling 
 branch met the tidal Dogue Creek. This use of the 
 word creek for bay or inlet is common on all shores of the 
 Chesapeake and its tributary rivers. The running 
 feeder of the creek is more often called the run or branch. 
 It was so in colonial days and it is the same to-day. 
 
 Other chroniclers incline to the theory that Augustine 
 reared his house on or near the site of the present man- 
 sion. A third theory places it on the site of the green- 
 house. Wherever it stood, the first home of the Washing- 
 tons on this site was short-lived. It burned to the ground 
 in 1739. There is no record that it was rebuilt. If 
 
14 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 wc could see the letters that had been passing between 
 Virginia and the Virginian schoolboys in English West- 
 moreland it would perhaps be easier to understand 
 why the father now gathered his young family about 
 him again and moved to yet another Washington prop- 
 erty, "Cedar Grove," the Ferry Farm, on the Rappa- 
 hannock, opposite Fredericksburg. 
 
 This thriving little city was no mean centre at this 
 time. It was second in importance only to the capital 
 at Williamsburg. It had no gold-laced governor, no 
 busy burgesses, and no university, but it was a flourish- 
 ing focus of trade and travel, at the junction of all the 
 roads from the South with the Kingshighway which 
 led to the northern colonies; not a bad place to keep in 
 touch with the world. 
 
 Augustine did not return to Westmoreland, because 
 his second son and namesake was then home from Eng- 
 land, or on his way, to marry rich Miss Aylett, and 
 that property was intended for him. The Hunting 
 Creek tract and the mill nearby he had in mind for his 
 eldest boy, Lawrence, and to him he deeded it in 1740, 
 .it the same time confirming the gift in his will. 
 
 This Lawrence, the third of the name in America, 
 becomes of particular interest to this narrative, for his 
 is the first name definitely identified, as owner and 
 occupant, with the historic mansion which overlooks 
 the Potomac to-day. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 What Lawrence Found on His Tract — Pioneer Buildings — Aban- 
 dons His Estate for Military Service in the West Indies 
 Under Admiral Vernon — Returns and Marries Anne Fairfax — 
 Career of Lawrence Washington — Arrival of George to Make 
 His Home at Mount Vernon — Parson Weems — Influences 
 on George's Young Character at Mount Vernon and at 
 Bel voir— The Original House— Who Built It?— The Corner- 
 stone. 
 
 WHEN Lawrence took possession of his estate 
 "in the ffreshes of the Pottomeek river and 
 neare opposite to Piscataway, Indian town of 
 Mariland," there is no assurance that he found more than 
 two important buildings. Of cabins for the slaves and 
 shelter for the animals there was probably a plenty of 
 some kind, but the enduring "improvements" were the 
 mill back at the head of Dogue Creek and probably the 
 old brick barn on the mount overlooking the river. 
 
 The mill ground flour for over a century, and the 
 ancients of the neighborhood can still remember it 
 standing before the Civil War. Eventually it suc- 
 cumbed to abandonment, though even to-day one 
 traces its dimensions in the rounded banks left on the 
 site of its foundations, which were pilfered piecemeal to 
 help support many a younger house in the neighborhood. 
 The mill is worth bearing in mind, for it will have its 
 part to play in this story, and will be the last place on 
 the estate visited by its chief personage before he died. 
 The barn has fared better than the mill. It stands to- 
 
 15 
 
16 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 day stout and strong, the proud veteran of the village 
 of buildings on either side of the howling green. 
 
 There are various scraps of tradition about other 
 pioneer buildings. Lossing speaks of "the original 
 cottage" where hung "the dingy iron lantern" which 
 during George's occupancy of the mansion lighted the 
 hall. The lantern was taken to Arlington after Mrs. 
 Washington's death, and after a long interval at the 
 National Museum in the Capital City is again in the 
 hall at Mount Vernon. There is a tradition in the 
 Washington family that the lantern was given to Law- 
 rence by Admiral Vernon. Where "the original cot- 
 tage" stood or what became of it Lossing did not say. 
 Moncure D. Conway says "an old house stood where 
 Washington built his greenhouses in which probably 
 the four years of his childhood there were passed," 
 and asserts with certainty that Lawrence built Mount 
 Vernon house. 
 
 Whatever Lawrence found on his ("state when he 
 came into possession, he seems to have had other ideas 
 than settling down to the life of a planter. At twenty- 
 two the heel is spry. Besides, the call had gone forth 
 from the mother country for a quota of troops from her 
 American colonies to reinforce General Went worth and 
 Admiral Vernon, who were disciplining the West Indian 
 Spanish. 
 
 Lawrence received a captain's commission, departed 
 
 with the colonial troops, fought at Carlhagena, sur- 
 vived the fever scourge which swept away many times 
 more than Spanish marksmanship, and returned to his 
 Potomac estate in the autumn of 1742. 
 
 What of his land in the interval? Did it await its 
 
Lawrence Washington 
 
 Half-brother of George and reputed builder of Mount Vernon. From a painting 
 in the possession of Lawrence Washington 
 
MOUNT VERNON 17 
 
 master's coming untenanted and abandoned, or are 
 we privileged to think of it still humanized by the pres- 
 ence of the aged but undaunted Amazons of the frontier, 
 Mrs. Minton and Mrs. Williams? 
 
 His sympathy with a military career and his affection 
 for his commanders, Vernon and Wentworth, were so 
 strong that he displayed some restlessness on his return 
 to Virginia and considered going to England and joining 
 his regiment. But another and stronger affection had 
 taken root in his heart, one that bound him to Virginia 
 and his own neighborhood with tender but unyielding 
 bonds. 
 
 At the neighboring mansion of Belvoir there was more 
 than a neighbor's welcome for him. William Fairfax 
 had two daughters, and Lawrence spent the winter 
 after his return in the most absorbing of all adventures, 
 that of winning a wife. In the spring of 1743 he and 
 Anne Fairfax, the elder of the two sisters, were prepared 
 to be married, when he was summoned down to Cedar 
 Grove, opposite Fredericksburg, by the illness and 
 death of his father, and he became the head of the 
 family in America. He was an executor of his father's 
 will and devoted himself to his father's bequests. In 
 July he went over to Belvoir, claimed his bride, and 
 brought her to their home on the heights which, in 
 remembrance of his admired commander, he named 
 Mount Vernon. 
 
 Nature is constant, and to-day the same outlook 
 charms the eye from the Mount Vernon doorway that 
 greeted Lawrence and Anne. Before them the river 
 extended nearly a mile from the Virginia to the Mary- 
 land shore. To the left it seemed to sweep toward 
 
18 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 them through a break in a high ridge. Already the 
 Digges family had reared Warburton Manor on tin- 
 opposite point, where now rises Fort Washington, and 
 at its foot broad Piscataway Creek, joining the Poto- 
 mac, lay revealed along its more than two miles of 
 length. The low Maryland shore opposite accented 
 the height of Mount Vernon. To the right the river 
 swept majestically to the southwest, passed the high 
 green point of Belvoir, and was abruptly bended toward 
 the south by the distant shore of Mason's Neck, where, 
 hack on the highland, was soon to rise George Mason's 
 Gunslon Hall. The panorama embraced nearly twelve 
 miles of water. 
 
 Mount Vernon stands on what is literally a mount, 
 though to the casual observer the house appears to 
 stand merely on a high hank, a part of a continuous 
 shore-line elevation. The land in fact slopes away in all 
 directions. On I he west it descends to the first river 
 bottom elevation, which extends the mile and a quarter 
 to Dogue's Creek. On the east it falls away to the 
 water at its boundary, Little Hunting (reck, and on 
 this side of the estate the west hank of the Potomac 
 does not rise again to the same level until it reaches 
 the highlands ;il Georgetown. On the north and west 
 the elevation drops away to the broad valley through 
 which runs the historic Kingshighway. 
 
 Lawrence was twenty-five years old at the time of his 
 marriage, and during the next ten years he developed 
 into one of the important men of the colony. His 
 marriage had united him to one of the great families 
 of Virginia, for Anne was a cousin of Thomas Lord 
 Fairfax, and her half-brother, Bryan, succeeded to the 
 
MOUNT VERNON 19 
 
 title though he did not assume it. His landed posses- 
 sions exceeded twenty-five hundred acres, for to his 
 hereditary tract he added at least two hundred acres 
 near the mill. The royal governor appointed him adju- 
 tant of his military district, with the rank of major, 
 though with a salary of only one hundred and fifty 
 pounds a year, and he repeatedly represented his county 
 in the House of Burgesses at Williamsburg. In 1750 he 
 was made president of the Ohio Company, formed the 
 year before to colonize the great wilderness of the Ohio 
 Valley, under a royal grant of five hundred thousand 
 acres. 
 
 In his effort to carry out the work of the company 
 of which he found himself the president he proposed 
 introducing- German immigrants from the colony of 
 Pennsylvania. Being dissenters, they ran into a net 
 of double taxation by moving into the jurisdiction of 
 Virginia, which was the occasion for Lawrence Wash- 
 ington, in the face of the state establishment, to deliver 
 what is one of the first, if not the first, appeals for relig- 
 ious tolerance in the history of the colony of Virginia. 
 
 "It has ever been my opinion and I hope it ever will 
 be," he said, "that restraints on conscience are cruel 
 in regard to those on whom they are imposed, and in- 
 jurious to the country imposing them." 
 
 Lawrence left no journals and few letters. There is 
 little on which to found a picture of life at Mount 
 Vernon while he was master. It could scarcely have 
 been gay. Anne bore him four children, but not one 
 lived beyond babyhood. 
 
 To break their loneliness Lawrence's young brother 
 George often came to visit them, sometimes sailing up 
 
20 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 river from Westmoreland, oftcner on horseback over 
 the road from his mother's place at Fredericksburg. 
 These visits meant much to both brothers, for the 
 affection which existed between them is often attested. 
 
 Though George was merely in his mid-teens, he was 
 Lawrence's eldest unmarried brother and the prospec- 
 tive head of the family. A real intimacy existed between 
 Lawrence of twenty-nine and George of fifteen, and it 
 disclosed I he boy's promise to the elder's shrewd ob- 
 servation. 
 
 Such accounts of George's youth as have come down 
 to us languish under the doubts of the historians. How- 
 ever, that which cannot be proven need not be de- 
 spised. Conway calls it "Washington Mythology, a 
 folklore such as must always invest the founders of 
 nations or the man of the people. Washington is en- 
 titled to his Washington-lore, by which, indeed, he is 
 rather draped than disguised." 
 
 Lawrence saw him through no such illumination, lb- 
 was doubtless not less amused than edified by the boy's 
 first literary product, the astonishing Rules of Civility 
 and Conduct, written when he was fourteen. If he left 
 his brief schooling "a bad speller and a still worse 
 grammarian," Lawrence knew him for a good cipherer, 
 a skilful horseman, and a young man of firm grasp and 
 sound judgment, of normal appetites, willingness, ap- 
 plication, endurance, and thoroughness in work and 
 play. 
 
 There came a day in the autumn of 1747 when 
 George arrived, not to visit merely, lie came to make 
 Mount Vernon his home. It had in reality been familiar 
 to him from his earliest recollection. His father had 
 
wd IfcLbij. 
 
 Admiral Vernon 
 
 For whom Lawrence Washington named his home on the Potomac. From ;m 
 
 engraving ;it Mount Vernon 
 
MOUNT VERNON 21 
 
 moved up river from Westmoreland when George was 
 only three years old, too young to have left behind any 
 permanent impressions, but old enough to enjoy his 
 environment. It was the waters of Hunting Creek and 
 Dogue Creek and the fields and woods between which 
 were the background of his first boyhood experiences. 
 
 Here "in his sixth year," according to Parson Weems, 
 he acted the immortal scene of the cherry-tree and the 
 hatchet, a piece of boyish h roism it is pleasant to see 
 growing again into some standing as history after the 
 long reaction against its acceptance. Parson Weems 
 was a victim of his own florid, extravagant style. The 
 incidents he related very probably did not happen as he 
 related them, but stripped of the halo of romantic 
 morality he gave them, in merely following a literary 
 fashion of his time, there is little reason to discredit 
 them. The writer had excellent opportunity to gather 
 the facts of George's boyhood at first, or, at most, 
 second hand. He knew him, man and boy, well. For a 
 time he officiated at Pohick Church, which the Mount 
 Vernon family attended and which he erroneously, but 
 with an eye to the main chance, called "Mount Vernon 
 Parish " on his title page. Moreover, he was an intimate 
 of Washington's intimates and married Fanny Ewell, of 
 Belle Aire, whose mother was a near relative of Wash- 
 ington's. Perhaps she was the anonymous lady from 
 whom he acknowledges having received the cherry-tree 
 story. 
 
 Until he returned to Mount Vernon to live George had 
 four homes among which he divided his time. The 
 schooldays were spent at his mother's house on the 
 Rappahannock. The earlier vacation days he spent at 
 
22 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 his birthplace, Wakefield, down on the Westmoreland 
 shore of the Potomac, visiting his half-brother, Augus- 
 tine, whom lu v called Austin. His mother's home was 
 somewhat austere. There was another kind of life at 
 Wakefield, kept up by his rich sister-in-law's money. 
 
 It was at Belvoir and Mount Vernon, however, that 
 lie found the stimulating and refining influences which 
 reacted on his character. Lawrence was a far-travelled 
 man. lie had been to school in England and had fought 
 in the West Indies. In the adventures he recounted 
 there was fuel indeed for a hungry boyish curiosity. 
 Vessels of His Majesty's navy came up the river and 
 anchored off Mount Vernon, and the officers, among 
 whom were some with whom Lawrence had fought at 
 ( Jarthagena, came ashore. Over the punch and toddy, 
 through the haze of smoke rolling from the long church- 
 wardens, while the candles burned bright, there was 
 brave talk enough, of campaigns and strategy, to fire 
 the imagination of the listening lad of fifteen. 
 
 At Belvoir he came under another influence, that of a 
 polished English household, no negligible substitute for 
 that trip abroad which lie was never privileged to take. 
 At his mother's there was the discipline and the sound, 
 simple morality which strengthened the root and branch 
 of his character, but at Mount Vernon and Belvoir he 
 found an outlook on a broader world of experience and 
 culture which produced the bloom I hereon. 
 
 The Mount Vernon that young George came to was 
 far from being tlic extensive mansion which he left fifty 
 years later and which the pilgrim finds to-day. There 
 was no spreading village of outbuildings. The big 
 brick barn and only a few frail sheds and cabins for the 
 
2 
 
MOUNT VERNON 23 
 
 slaves stood detached from the house. There were 
 no colonnades flung from the ends, no lofty portico 
 on the river front, and the house itself was only a 
 portion of the mansion into which it later expanded. 
 
 The history of the house is easily read in the evidence 
 in the building itself, and George Washington's letters 
 confirm the conjectures of the architectural archeologist. 
 Detach the present banquet hall on the north and the 
 library on the south, together with the second story 
 thereof, and the developments of the third story, and 
 the original house remains. Then, as to-day, there was 
 the central hall extending from western front to river 
 front, but divided at that time by a partition midway 
 between the two doors on each of the sides. On each 
 side of the hall were two rooms. The same stairway 
 wound gracefully to the second floor, where the small 
 upper hall opened into the four large bedrooms over the 
 four large rooms below, and a small room matched the 
 space at the east end of the hall. It was not accounted 
 a large house for a colonial country gentleman of 
 family. 
 
 The foundations were of sandstone. The cellar ex- 
 tended the full length and breadth of the house, with 
 partition walls of brick held by oyster-shell mortar. 
 This stone is showing age in a way that might be 
 translated into an argument for the theory that they 
 held up Augustine Washington's house which burned 
 in 1739. Years and whitewash have destroyed all 
 charred traces, if there were any. But the damp, 
 which creeps into the cool cellar in the hot summer and 
 is evaporated by the artificial heat introduced over the 
 past twenty winters, is having a curious pulverizing 
 
24 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 effect which the severe baking in an early fire might 
 explain. 
 
 Midway of the central north and south alley there 
 was found in the west wall, years ago, a carefully en- 
 graved stone called "the corner stone." It may be 
 seen to-day under -lass in one of the upper rooms of the 
 mansion, whither it has been removed out of danger of 
 the disintegrating effects <»i" the damp and heat. A 
 copy, cut to scale, has been inserted in the place of the 
 original in the cellar wall. The stone is twenty-three 
 inches long, by seventeen and one-half inches high, by 
 six inches thick. In the centre of the carved face are 
 two crossed battle-axes in whose angle is engraved a 
 heart. On either side of the axes are the initials of 
 Lawrence Washington, "L. W." It adds to the enigma 
 of the original builder, for apparently only he himself 
 would have put his initials on the cornerstone. Those 
 who advance his father, Augustine, as the builder of 
 Mount Vernon say that he intended the house for this 
 son and they claim the initialled stone as evidence of their 
 theory. 
 
 In one corner of the original cellars, the one to the 
 southwest, there is a well opening filled up but clearly 
 defined. A curious place to put a well, it would seem, 
 but conditions at the time explain. It is said to have 
 been the custom in the colonies, at least for houses in the 
 new country on the frontier not far from the receding 
 [ndians, to dig a well under the house, so that in case of 
 barricade againsl attack or in case the women of the 
 family wanted water in the absence of the menfolk, there 
 would be a protected supply in reach without risk. 
 
 The original hand-hewn oak beams are apparently as 
 
MOUNT VERNON 25 
 
 strong to-day as when laid in. There, too, are the stout 
 oak pins with which they were put together. Nails 
 were not admitted to the larger timbers of the colonial 
 house. It is only in the lighter pieces of the trim and in 
 the broad planked floors that nails appear. They were 
 handwrought, in a forge on the place as a rule, and their 
 heads were long and exceeding thin. 
 
 There is nothing to gainsay the belief that George 
 saw these cellars dug and walled; the huge oaks felled 
 and hewn and pinned in place; the walls reared and 
 roofed and the whole put under the protection of the 
 coats of white lead and oil, for the house was a part of all 
 his life. 
 
CHAPTER TIT 
 
 Lawreneo Plans George's Career — Letter of Uncle Josepb Ball — 
 Fox limiting willi Lord Fairfax — -Absent Surveying in The 
 Valley— Sentimental Manifestations Military Tutors at 
 Mount Vernon -Lawrence 111 Lawrence and George Sail 
 for Barbadoes — Return and Death and Will of Laurence — 
 George Master of Mount Vernon. 
 
 A PROPER career for George was one of the topics 
 much discussed at Mount Vernon at this time. 
 ^ His two advisers were Lawrence and Lord Fair- 
 fax, who had come to Virginia and made his home with 
 his cousin William nearby at Belvoir. 
 
 Lawrence had fancied a career at sea, hoping that, 
 after some experience before I lie mast, some influence 
 might be controlled to secure a commission in the 
 Royal Navy. George yielded to the romance of this 
 idea. His father is said to have followed the sea in 
 earlier days. His trunk was packed, and there is said 
 to have been a vessel anchored below the house on 
 which he was to have shipped. I lis mother, however, 
 was (.1' another mind. When the project was firsl 
 broached she wrote to her brother, a London lawyer, 
 and from all accounts she arrived at Mount Vernon 
 with his reply at the last moment before her boy's 
 departure. 
 
 The letter. Carefully Considered, dissipates the myth 
 
 that Lawrence had actually secured a midshipman's 
 commission in the navy. Moreover, it gives some 
 
 to 
 

 The Corneb Stone <>i Mount Vernon 
 
 The original stone was found in the walls of the cellar in a crumbling condition. 
 
 To prevent further disintegration if was removed, a duplicate was inserted 
 
 in its plaee, and the original stone is preserved under cover in an upper 
 
 chamber of the Mansion. It is here reproduced for thefirsl time 
 
MOUNT VERNON 27 
 
 gauge of the Washington family's sphere and influence; 
 and of George's expectations; and is sound, direct, vig- 
 orous, and refreshing: 
 
 "I understand that you are advised and have some 
 thoughts of putting your son George to sea. I think 
 he had better be apprenticed to a tinker, for a common 
 sailor before the mast has by no means the common 
 liberty of the 'subject; for they will press him from a 
 ship where he has fifty shillings a month and make him 
 take twenty-three, and cut, and slash, and use him like 
 a negro, or rather like a dog. And, as to any consider- 
 able preferment in the navy, it is not to be expected, 
 as there are always so many gaping for it here who have 
 interest, and he has none. And if he should get to be 
 master of a Virginia ship (which it is very difficult 
 to do), a planter that has three or four hundred acres 
 of land and three or four slaves, if he be industrious, 
 may live more comfortably, and leave his family in 
 better bread, than such a master of a ship can. . . . 
 He must not be too hasty to be rich, but go on gently 
 and with patience, as things will naturally go. This 
 method, without aiming at being a fine gentleman be- 
 fore his time, will carry a man more comfortably and 
 surely through the world than going to sea, unless it 
 be a great chance indeed. I pray God keep you and 
 yours. 
 
 "Your loving brother, 
 
 "Joseph Ball." 
 
 This cleared the air. George remained at home and 
 devoted himself to his studies, among which mathe- 
 matics was the most congenial; to sports; somewhat 
 
28 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 to sentimental matters; and a great deal to the com- 
 panionship of his elders at home and at the mansion 
 across Dogue Creek. 
 
 The fox, like the Indian, and certain other aborigines 
 mentioned by John Smith, has been pushed westward. 
 He still furnishes sport in the hills and in certain parts 
 of The Valley, but he is no longer enough in evidence in 
 Fairfax to maintain fox-hunting in its place in the 
 country gentleman's life that it held in Washington's 
 youth. It w r as in fact the boy's favorite sport. Lord 
 Fairfax was equally fond of the chase, and together 
 they hunted Reynard over the hills and meadows, 
 through fields and woods, for days at a time. The 
 climate of Virginia and the country life of the period 
 invited to the open air. 
 
 It was in the saddles that these two boon compan- 
 ions became best acquainted, Washington silent and 
 attentive, his lordship sharing with him the treasures 
 of a rare mind well stocked with rare experience. Lord 
 Fairfax was a graduate of Oxford, his family gave him 
 easy access to the best society of London, and he had 
 been a contributor to Mr. Addison's Spectator. It is 
 said that he was jilted on his wedding day for a higher 
 title. His disappointment and chagrin seemed to 
 change his whole outlook on society. Journeying to 
 Virginia to see his vast land holdings, administered 
 by William of Bel voir, lie was so delighted witli what 
 Im- saw that he later took up his home on his estate 
 in the lower Shenandoah Valley, where lie lived into his 
 ninetieth year. 
 
 The companionship and interest of such a patron 
 was the most fortunate substitute for the university 
 
///ru/i/- Vern 
 
 | ** /ft'';/ - 
 
 1 <** A A .1 
 
 Survey of Mount Vernon 
 
 Made by George Washington when a boy, about 174(5. The original is in the 
 Library of Congress. Note the house in the left upper corner, without the addi- 
 tions made during the Revolution. The plantation at that time comprised the 
 east half of the original grant of 5,000 acres to Nicholas Spencer and John Wash- 
 ington extending along the Potomac River from kittle Hunting Creek to Dogue 
 Creek. George Washington later purchased the west half and other adjoining 
 lands so that eventually his Mount Vernon estate comprised more than eight 
 I housand acres 
 
MOUNT VERNON 29 
 
 education and sojourn abroad, so much affected by 
 other young colonial gentlemen, that could have come 
 to an open and serious mind of Washington's years. 
 
 It was at Lord Fairfax's suggestion that he took up 
 surveying as a career. After charting Mount Vernon 
 and Belvoir, he set out to survey his lordship's thou- 
 sands of acres in The Valley. 
 
 He left Mount Vernon early in March, 1748, and was 
 absent a month and two days. The journal of this 
 trip is not without its amusing passages. Of the 15th 
 and 16th of March he writes: 
 
 "We got our suppers & was Lighted into a Room & 
 I not being so good a woodsman as ye rest of my com- 
 pany, striped myself very orderly and went into ye 
 Bed, as they calld it, when to my surprize, I found it 
 to be nothing but a little straw matted together without 
 sheets or anything else, but only one thread bear blan- 
 ket with double its weight of vermin, such as Lice, 
 Fleas, &c. I was glad to get up (as soon as ye Light 
 was carried from us.) I put on my cloths & lay as my 
 companions. Had we not been very tired, I am sure 
 we would not have slep'd much that night. I made a 
 Promise not to sleep so from that time forward, chusing 
 rather to sleep in ye open air before a fire, as will appear 
 hereafter. 
 
 "Wednesday 16th. We got out early & finish'd 
 about one o'clock & then travelled up to Frederick 
 Town, where our Baggage came to us. We cleaned 
 ourselves (to get Rid of ye Game we had catched ye 
 night before) . I took a Review of ye Town & then re- 
 turn'd to our Lodgings where we had a good Dinner 
 
30 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 prepared for us. Wine & Rum Punch in plenty, & a 
 good Feather Bed with clean sheets, which was a very 
 agreeable regale." 
 
 One day's journey from home, on his return, lie did 
 "this day sec a Rattled snake, ye first we had seen in 
 all our journey." No doubt he was better acquainted 
 with the black snakes and moccasins of Fairfax. On 
 the l.Sth of April, he notes: "Mr. Fairfax got safe 
 home and I Myself to my Brothers, which concludes 
 my journal." 
 
 One of two letters written on this trip shows his 
 interest growing in another direction: 
 
 "DearFrikxd Robin, 
 
 "As it's the greatest mark of friendship and esteem, 
 absent friends can show each other, in writing and 
 often communicating their thoughts, to his fellow com- 
 panions, I make one endeavor to signalize myself in 
 acquainting you, from time to time, and at all times, 
 my situation and employments of life, and could wish 
 you would take half the pains of contriving me a letter 
 by any opportunity, as you may be well assured of its 
 meeting with a very welcome reception. My place of 
 residence is at present at his Lordship's, where I might, 
 was my heart disengaged, pass my time very pleasantly 
 as there's a very agreeable young lady lives in the same 
 house, Colonel George Fairfax's wife's sister.) But 
 as that's only adding fuel to tire, it makes me the more 
 uneasy, for by often, and unavoidably, being in com- 
 pany with her revives my former passion for your 
 Lowland beauty; whereas, was I to live more retired 
 
 from young women, I might in some measure eliviate 
 
MOUNT VERNON 31 
 
 my sorrows, by burying that chaste and troublesome 
 passion in the grave of oblivion or etarnall forgetful- 
 ness, for as I am very well assured, that's the only 
 antidote or remedy, that I shall ever be relieved by or 
 only recess that can administer any cure or help to me, 
 as I am well convinced, was I ever to attempt any 
 thing, I should only get a denial which would be only 
 adding grief to uneasiness." 
 
 From which it seems George did not take seriously 
 Lord Fairfax's warnings about women, of whom, as has 
 been seen, his lordship's early experience had made him 
 as suspicious and bitter as later on Tony Weller was of 
 "vidders." 
 
 At Mount Vernon these were quiet and uneventful 
 years. In this the life on the estate only reflected the 
 calm of the colony. There was no war on at the time 
 with French or Indian, no trouble with colonial governor, 
 and not yet any acute trouble with the mother coun- 
 try. There was peace, plenty, and growth. Lawrence 
 devoted himself to his estate and to his public offices as 
 adjutant of the militia, member of the House of Bur- 
 gesses, and president of the Ohio Company. 
 
 George, though still in his nonage, pursued his career 
 as surveyor in earnest. It is said that he had an office 
 in the small but important city of Alexandria, on 
 the Potomac six miles above Mount Vernon, and that 
 he rode back and forth over the rolling country on 
 horseback. In the summer of 1749 he was appointed 
 surveyor of the County of Culpepper, just west of 
 Fredericksburg. His surveyor's tripod may be seen 
 in the library at Mount Vernon. 
 
3* MOUNT VERNON 
 
 At this time every day's absence must have been an 
 anxiety, for his brother, who had been to him friend 
 and father as well, began to develop the weakness of 
 the lungs which was his eventual undoing. The win- 
 ters of 1750 and 1751 were full of foreboding for those 
 at Mount Vernon. In the spring Lawrence felt obliged 
 to resign his commission as adjutant and succeeded in 
 having George appointed in his stead. 
 
 So at nineteen and at Mount Vernon began his mili- 
 tary career. "He now set about preparing himself, 
 with his usual method and assiduity," says Washington 
 Irving, "for his new duties. Virginia had among its 
 floating population some military relics of the late 
 Spanish war. Among them was a certain Adjutant 
 Muse, a Westmoreland volunteer, who had served with 
 Lawrence Washington in the campaigns in the West 
 Indies, and had been with him in the attack on Car- 
 thagena. He now undertook to instruct George in the 
 arts of war, lent him treatises on military tactics, put 
 him through the manual exercises, and gave him some 
 idea of evolutions in the field. Another of Lawrence's 
 campaigning comrades was Jacob Van Bramm, a 
 Dutchman by birth, a soldier of fortune of the Delgatty 
 order; who had been in the British army, but was now 
 out of service, and, professing to be a complete master 
 of fence, recruited his purse in this time of military ex- 
 citement, by giving the Virginian youth lessons in the 
 sword exercise. Under the instructions of these 
 veterans, Mount Vernon, from being a quiet rural re- 
 treat, where Washington, three years previously, had 
 indited love ditties to his 'lowland beauty,' was sud- 
 denly transformed into a school of anus, as he practised 
 
The Ruins of the Old Tomb 
 
 Which (ieorge Washington liuill as executor of his half-brother Lawrences wil 
 
 and in which the General and other members of the family were buried until 
 
 the New Tomb was finished in 1831. From an original pencil sketch 
 
 made on the spot in is M) now in the Library of ( 'ongress 
 
 The Old Tomb 
 Restored in 1887, as it appears to-day 
 
MOUNT VERNON 33 
 
 the manual exercise with Adjutant Muse, or took lessons 
 on the broadsword with Van Bramm." 
 
 Lawrence remained at home during the warm Vir- 
 ginia summer, but, as the autumn approached, he was 
 advised to seek a change. Barbadoes, the most easterly 
 of all the West Indies, was selected as a healthy and 
 agreeable resort, and thither he sailed the middle of 
 September. His wife had a baby less than a year old in 
 her arms, and in her stead George accompanied his 
 brother on the stout sailing vessel which carried them 
 the length of the Spanish Main, consuming, in the 
 leisurely fashion of wind-driven travel, over six weeks 
 from the Potomac to Barbadoes. 
 
 This was not the first time a Washington set foot on 
 this island. Another of this name, some say John, the 
 Emigrant, great-grandfather of the two young travellers, 
 stopped here on his way from England to Virginia, nearly 
 a hundred years before, in 1658. This, however, was 
 the only time that George Washington went outside the 
 confines of his own country. 
 
 The two brothers were apparently much missed at 
 Mount Vernon, and Lawrence felt keenly the separation 
 from his wife. He decided to remove to Bermuda for the 
 spring and dispatched George home to get Mrs. Washing- 
 ton and bring her to him there. George "embarked on 
 the Industry, Captn Saunders," for Virginia on Decem- 
 ber 12th, only a few days after his release from the 
 quarantine imposed on him by an attack of smallpox. 
 He reached home through pounding seas on the 1st of 
 February. 
 
 For some reason Lawrence's wife did not leave home. 
 It was a trying springtime at Mount Vernon. George 
 
34 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 had not brought encouraging news from the invalid. 
 Soon significant letters came from Bermuda, tempering 
 the edge of llieir surprise when Lawrence hurried home 
 "in time to die under his own roof, surrounded by his 
 family and friends," the 26th of July, 1752. 
 
 This was the first poignant sorrow of George's life. 
 lie had been really too young to realize his loss when his 
 father died, and Lawrence meant more to his sum of 
 happiness, experience, and advancement than any other 
 member of the family. George looked up to him with 
 affection and confidence. His brother's death was, in- 
 deed, one of the crucial events of his life. It placed 
 him in a position of independence and responsibility. 
 Henceforward he walked alone. It marked his tran- 
 sition from boyhood to manhood. 
 
 They laid Lawrence by the side of his three infant 
 children in the family burying ground on the estate. He 
 seems, however, to have felt the need of something more 
 ambitious and permanent, for in his will he directed 
 "that a proper vault, for interment, may be made on my 
 home plantation, wherein my remains together with my 
 three children may be decently placed; and to serve for 
 my wife, and such other members of my family as may 
 desire it." 
 
 As executor of his brother's will, George faithfully ful- 
 filled this wish. He built the vault on the brow of the 
 hill about two hundred yards south of the house and in 
 plain view of the south windows. It was built of brick 
 and sandstone and survives to-day, with its arched en- 
 trance over oak doors. It sinks into the green bank in 
 such a way that it seems a part of the hillside. There 
 Lawrence and his children were laid, and it received and 
 
MOUNT VERNON 35 
 
 held the remains of the family who died at Mount 
 Vernon for nearly one hundred years. 
 
 The disposition of Mount Vernon was partially pro- 
 vided for in the will of Augustine, father of Lawrence 
 and George, in this: 
 
 "Item Forasmuch as my several children in this my 
 will . . . cannot inherit from one another in order to 
 make a proper Provision ag l their dying without Issue, It 
 is my will and desire that in Case my son Lawrence 
 should dye without heirs of his body Lawfully begotten 
 that then the Land and the Mill given him by this my 
 Will lying in the County of Prince William shall go & re- 
 main to my son George and his heirs." 
 
 Lawrence in his will expressed his "will and desire" 
 that his wife should have the "benefits and profits" of 
 Mount Vernon estate during her lifetime. To his 
 daughter Sarah, who at the time of his death was less 
 than a year old, he did "give and bequeath" all his real 
 and personal estate in Virginia and Maryland "not 
 otherwise disposed of," which included Mount Vernon. 
 But in case his daughter died without issue he gave 
 "unto my loving brother George Washington" all his 
 lands in Fairfax (formerly a part of Prince William) 
 County. 
 
 Little Sarah died in September. Anne was welcome 
 in the house which now virtually belonged to her 
 brother-in-law, but it had been a home of disappoint- 
 ment, suffering, and grief, and she preferred to return to 
 Bel voir. She seems to have enjoyed the "benefits and 
 profits" of Mount Vernon, for, soon after this, having 
 
30 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 married George Lee, the uncle of Charles and Richard 
 Lee, her husband joined her in a deed to George which 
 indicates that her young brother-in-law bought her life 
 interest : 
 
 "We the parties of the first part grant to the party of 
 the second part the life interest of Ann Lee, widow of 
 Lawrence Washington, in two parcels of land, one 
 situated on Little Hunting ("reek, the other on Dogue 
 Creek in Fairfax, of which Lawrence Washington died 
 seized, also one Water Grist Mill, also certain Slaves — in 
 consideration that Geo Washington during the natural 
 life of Ann Lee, do each year pay to her husband, Geo 
 Lee — on the 25th of December, the sum or quantity of 
 fifteen thousand pounds of tobacco in fifteen hogsheads, 
 to be delivered at one or some of the Warehouses in Hie 
 Co of Fairfax, or as much current money of Virginia in 
 lieu thereoff as will be equal thereto at twelve (12) 
 shillings & six pence current money, for every hundred 
 weight of tobacco." 
 
 Thus George, heir to Mount Vernon and executor of 
 his brother's will, at twenty, wisely completed his title 
 to his estate. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Absences from Home — Military Expeditions to the Ohio — Mary 
 Washington's Last Visit to Mount Vernon — Organizing the 
 Household— Political Aspirations — John Augustine Wash- 
 ington the First Manager — Off to the West with Braddock — 
 Military Career Unremunerative — Home with Extended 
 Fame, General Braddock's Battle Charger and Bishop — Wo- 
 men Who Might Have Been Mistress of Mount Vernon — 
 Washington Made Commander of All Virginia Troops — A 
 Winter's Illness at Mount Vernon, Not Without Compensa- 
 tion. 
 
 HE story of Mount Vernon during the next 
 seven years is not notably eventful. Its new 
 master was a bachelor, the leading strings of 
 his developing career drew him easily away from his 
 home, and he has not left in his letters evidence that he 
 was even preparing to organize his estate into anything 
 approaching the perfected condition which it reached 
 later and which became the wonder and the admiration, 
 and in some degree perhaps the despair, of those who ap- 
 preciated what he overcame in meagre resources and 
 service. 
 
 He was a constant visitor to the Fairfaxes at Belvoir, 
 to George Mason's family at Gunston Hall, and to the 
 Ewells of Belle Aire, where he often stopped on his way 
 to see his mother and sister Betty at Fredericksburg and 
 to keep in touch with others of the family thereabouts. 
 On the 4th of November, 1752, he was initiated into the 
 secrets of Masonry at Fredericksburg, though later he 
 
 37 
 
38 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 affiliated with the lodge at Alexandria, so much more 
 conveniently near his home. 
 
 A m i^t n ^s for Mount Vernon was continually in his 
 thoughts. Women had a ureal attraction for him from 
 his earliest youth. His early diaries and letters are full 
 of sentimental confidences. 
 
 Perhaps at this lime his attack of "pleurise" had 
 passed and he continued on down to the lower tidewater 
 home of Betsy Fauntleroy, as lie promised tier fattier in 
 this letter of the previous May: 
 
 "Sir: I should have been down long before this, but 
 my business in Frederick detained me somewhat longer 
 than I expected, and immediately upon my return from 
 thence I was taken with a violent pleurise, which has 
 reduced me very low; but purpose, as soon as I recover 
 my strength, to wait, on Miss Betsy, in hopes of a 
 revocation of the former cruel sentence, and see if I 
 can meet with any alteration in my favor. I have 
 enclosed a letter to her, which should be much obliged 
 Id you for the delivery of il. 1 have nothing to add 
 but my best respects to your good lady and family." 
 
 Betsy, however, seems to have been unwilling to 
 
 revoke tier "former cruel sentence," and so his de- 
 tached domestic situation made it easier to accept 
 (iovernor Dinwiddie's difficult commission to bear his 
 protest to the encroaching French on the far western 
 frontier of the Ohio. It may almost be believed thai 
 for the ne\l I wo years he made no etl'ort to keep Mount 
 
 Vernon in commission as a place of residence, for he 
 
 frequently passed it by on his way between Alexandria 
 
MOUNT VERNON 39 
 
 and Fredericksburg without mention of visiting his es- 
 tate, though the highroad ran near his western boundary. 
 
 In his diary of the Ohio expedition in 1753 he begins 
 by noting: "I arrived [November 1st] at Fredericks- 
 burg and engaged Mr. Jacob Vanbramm, to be my 
 French interpreter; and proceeded with him to Alex- 
 andria, where we provided Necessaries. From thence 
 we went to Winchester" This diary of his two months' 
 absence draws to a close with this note, of January, 
 1754: "On the 11th I got to Bel voir: where I stopped 
 one Day to take necessary Rest; and then set out and 
 arrived in Williamsburg the 16th." 
 
 On these occasions he was within two miles of his 
 own house. Yet it is scarcely to be believed that he 
 crossed over even while stopping the day at Belvoir, 
 for in mid-January boating on tidewater Potomac 
 is made treacherous by cold high winds sweeping down 
 the "creeks" when the river is not actually impassable by 
 reason of the ice which sometimes grips its entire sur- 
 face. 
 
 Soon after his return from the West he was commis- 
 sioned Lieutenant Colonel and ordered to return to the 
 Ohio in command of a military expedition which Gov- 
 ernor Dinwiddie sent at the end of March "to aid 
 Captain Trench in building Forts and in defending the 
 Possessions of his Majesty against the attempts and 
 hostilities of the French." It was the beginning of the 
 Seven Years' War. 
 
 "It was strange that in a savage forest of Pennsyl- 
 vania," says Thackeray in "The Virginians," "a young 
 Virginian officer should fire a shot and waken up a war 
 which was to last for sixty years, which was to cover his 
 
40 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 own country and pass into Europe, to cost France her 
 American colonies, to sever ours from us, and create 
 the great Western Republic; to rage over the Old 
 World when extinguished in the New; and, of all the 
 
 myriads engaged in the vast contest, to leave the prize 
 of the greatest fame with him who struck the first 
 blow!" 
 
 Washington fought through the summer in the West, 
 but a military order from Dinwiddie made it impossible 
 for him to serve longer with self-respect. He resigned 
 his commission and returned to Mount Vernon, where 
 he arrived in October, remaining almost continuously 
 until March. 
 
 Whatever his other occupations during the winter, 
 he seems not to have been free of his chronic entangle- 
 ment of the heart, for a friend, one of the officers at 
 Williamsburg, wrote him: 
 
 "I imagine you by this lime plung'd in the midst of 
 delight heaven can afford and enchanted By Charmes 
 even Stranger to the Cyprian Dame." (Mrs. Neil.) 
 
 The arrival of the spring of \755 seems to have found 
 some sort of menage established in the house, for, hav- 
 ing been invited by ( Jeneral Braddock to accompany his 
 expedition to the West, lie writes from home, in a letter 
 toOrmc, the General's Aide-de-Camp: 
 
 "The arrival of a good deal of company (among 
 whom is my mother, alarmed at the report of my in- 
 tentions to attend your fortunes) prevents me the 
 
 pleasure of waiting on you to-day, as 1 had intended. " 
 
MOUNT VERNON 41 
 
 This was Mary Washington's last appearance at 
 Mount Vernon. She retired to Fredericksburg, where 
 she spent the rest of her days, at first at her farm across 
 the Rappahannock but, later, near her daughter Betty 
 Lewis' "Kenmore," in the centre of the little city, in a 
 house which her son George bought for her. He 
 visited her whenever he passed through Fredericks- 
 burg and wrote to her always with high but somewhat 
 formal affection. 
 
 Though this visit to Mount Vernon, to persuade her 
 son to keep out of the military service, was her last 
 appearance there, it was not her last protest on this 
 same score. In August she besought him again not to 
 endanger his life in farther armed exploits. He re- 
 plied from Mount Vernon: 
 
 "Honored Madam, 
 
 "If it is in my power to avoid going to the Ohio again, 
 I shall; but if the command is pressed upon me, by 
 the general voice of the country, and offered upon such 
 terms as cannot be objected against, it would reflect 
 dishonor upon me to refuse; and that, I am sure, must 
 or ought to give you greater uneasiness, than my going 
 in an honorable command, for upon no other terms will 
 I accept of it. At present I have no proposals made to 
 me, nor have I any advice of such an intention, except 
 from private hands." 
 
 In the letter to Orme quoted above he said of the 
 domestic situation at his home : 
 
 "I find myself much embarassed with my affairs, 
 having no person in whom I can confide, to entrust the 
 
42 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 management of them with. Notwithstanding, I am 
 determined to do myself the honor of accompanying 
 you, upon this proviso, thai the General will be kind 
 enough to permit my return, as soon as the active part 
 of the campaign is at an end, if it is desired; or, if 
 there should be a space of inaction, long enough to 
 admit a visit to my home, that I may be indulged in 
 coming to it." 
 
 Orine replied : 
 
 'The General orders me to give his compliments, 
 and to assure you his wishes are to make it agreeable 
 to yourself and consistant with your affairs, and, there- 
 fore, desires you will so settle your business at home, as 
 to join him at Will's Creek, if more convenient for you; 
 and, whenever you find it necessary to return, he begs 
 you will look upon yourself as entire master, and judge 
 what is proper to be done." 
 
 Free to return as necessity might compel, he prepared 
 to turn his back again on the comforts and interests of 
 his estate. Three days before setting out to accompany 
 Braddock he wrote from Mount Vernon, under date of 
 May 25, 1755, to William Byrd, whose fame survives, 
 not merely as master of Westover on the James, where 
 he gathered the finest library in the colony, but as 
 "the great Virginia wit and author of the century": 
 
 "I am sony it was not in my power to wait upon you 
 at Westover last Christmas. I enjoyed much satis- 
 faction in the thought <>f doing it, when an unexpected 
 accident put it entirely out of my power to comply 
 
MOUNT VERNON 43 
 
 either with my promise or inclination, both of which 
 prompted me to make the visit. 
 
 "I am now preparing for, and shall in a few days set 
 off, to serve in the ensuing campaign, with different 
 views, however, from those I had before. For here, 
 if I gain any credit, or if I am entitled to the least coun- 
 tenance or esteem, it must be from serving my country 
 without fee or reward; for I can truly say, I have no 
 expectation of either. To merit its esteem, and the 
 good will of my friends, is the sum of my ambition, 
 having no prospect of attaining a commission, being 
 well assured it is not in Gen'l. Braddock's power to 
 give such an one as I would accept of. The command 
 of a Company is the highest commission vested in his 
 gift. He was so obliging as to desire my company this 
 campaign, has honored me with particular marks of 
 his esteem, and kindly invited me into his family — a 
 circumstance which will ease me of expenses that 
 otherwise must have accrued in furnishing stores, camp 
 equipage, &c, whereas the cost will now be easy (com- 
 paritively speaking) as baggage, horses, tents, and some 
 other necessaries, will constitute the whole of the charge. 
 
 "Yet to have a family just settling, and in the con- 
 fusion and disorder mine is at present, is not a pleasing 
 thing and may be hurtful. Be this as it may, it shall be 
 no hindrance to my making this campaign." 
 
 The "family just settling" was that of his younger 
 and favorite brother, John Augustine, father of the 
 next owner of Mount Vernon. He wrote his brother 
 frequently during his absence, usually subscribing 
 himself, "Dear Jack, your most affectionate Brother." 
 
44 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 In an early letter George expresses the hope that his 
 brother "will have frequent opportunities to particu- 
 larize the state of my affairs, which will administer 
 much satisfaction to a person in my situation." 
 
 In another he indicates his first interest in politics: 
 
 "As I understand the County of Fairfax is to be 
 divided, and that Mr. Alexander intends to decline 
 serving it. I should be glad if you would come to 
 Colo. Fairfax's intentions, and let me know whether 
 he purposes to offer himself as a candidate. If lie 
 does not, I should be glad to take a poll, if I thought my 
 chances tolerably good. 
 
 "Majr. Carlyle mentioned it to me in Williamsburg 
 in a bantering way, and asked how I would like it, 
 saying, at the same time, he did not know but they 
 might send me, when I might know nothing of the 
 matter, for one or t'other of the counties. I musl 
 confess I should like to go for either in that manner, 
 but more particularly for Fairfax, as I am a resident 
 there." 
 
 His reply to John Augustine, on receiving the report 
 of his own death, is one of the evidences that he was 
 not without a healthy humor when he chose to disclose 
 it: "As I have heard, since my arrival at this place, a 
 circumstantial account of my death and dying speech, 
 J take this early opportunity of contradicting the first, 
 and of assuring you, that I have not as yet composed 
 the Ial ter." 
 
 The fruit of the sacrifices he made in his absences 
 from Mount Vernon, during the three years since it 
 
MOUNT VERNON 45 
 
 became his, he sums up vigorously to his half-brother, 
 Augustine, on his return from the Braddock campaign 
 at the end of July : 
 
 "I was employed to go on a journey in the winter 
 (when, I believe, few or none would have undertaken 
 it), and what did I get by it? My expenses borne! I 
 then was appointed, with trifling pay, to conduct a 
 handful of men to the Ohio. What did I get by this? 
 Why, after putting myself to a considerable expense, in 
 equipping and providing necessaries for the campaign, I 
 went out, was soundly beaten, lost them all ! — came in 
 and had my commission taken from me, or, in other 
 words, my command reduced, under pretence of an order 
 from home ! I then went out a volunteer with General 
 Braddock, and lost all my horses and many other things; 
 but this being a voluntary act, I ought not to have 
 mentioned this; nor should I have done it, was it not to 
 show that I have been upon the losing order ever since I 
 entered the service, which is now near two years. So 
 that I think I cannot be blamed, should I, if I leave my 
 family again, endeavor to do it upon terms as to prevent 
 suffering; (to gain by it being the least of my expecta- 
 tion)." 
 
 Futile and tragic as had been Braddock's whole cam- 
 paign, Washington came out of it with added distinc- 
 tion. An amusing and intimate proof of this is found in 
 a note which was brought to Mount Vernon the day 
 after his arrival. The master of Bel voir wrote begging 
 his appearance at his house on Sunday, intimating that 
 if he did not come, "the Lady's will try to get Horses to 
 
16 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 equip our Chair or attempt their strength on Fool to 
 Salute you, so desirous are they with loving Speed to 
 have an occular Demonstration of your being the same 
 Identical Gent that lately departed to defend his 
 
 ( Country's Cause." 
 
 With this arrived the following appeal signed by Sally 
 Fairfax, Ann Spearing, and Elizabeth Denl : 
 
 "Dear Sin: After thanking Heaven for your safe 
 return I must accuse you of greal unkindness in refusing 
 us the pleasure of seeing you this night. I do assure you 
 thai Dothing l>ut our being satisfied that our company 
 would be disagreeable should prevent us from trying if 
 our Legs would carry us to Mount Vernon this night, hut 
 if you will not come to us to-morrow morning very early 
 we shall be at Mount Vernon." 
 
 There was another Sally Fairfax besides the signer of 
 the Belvoir round-robin. She was born Cary and was 
 the wife of George's friend, George William Fairfax. If 
 George had had Jus way she would have succeeded Aim 
 
 as chatelaine of Mount Vernon. However, he was a 
 persevering lover and is said to have proposed at 
 varying times to Mary Gary, who afterward married 
 Edward Ambler; to Lucy Grymes, who later became 
 Mrs. Henry Lee, mother of "Lighthorse Harry"; and 
 to Mary Philipse, a New York Tory who (led to Eng- 
 land on the outbreak of hostilities with the mother 
 country. 
 
 Accompanying Washington to Mount Vernon on his 
 return from the Braddock expedition was a servanl 
 who deserve^ some introduction, for he henceforth be- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 47 
 
 came a figure in his master's life and one of the historic 
 characters of his home. 
 
 His name was Bishop. He was an English soldier 
 who accompanied Braddock to America. The General 
 observed superior qualities in the man and made him his 
 military servant. When Braddock fell he made some 
 effort to repair his neglect of the young Virginia 
 Colonel's sound advice. The dying soldier presented 
 his battle charger to Washington, the only one of four he 
 rode in the fatal battle of the Monongahela to survive, 
 and he commended to his service and care the faithful 
 Bishop. The two rode together across the mountains 
 to Mount Vernon and only once afterward did Bishop 
 leave the neighborhood except to accompany his 
 master. 
 
 A proof of the colony's appreciation of Colonel Wash- 
 ington's performance under Braddock came within a few 
 months when there arrived at Mount Vernon his com- 
 mission as commander of all the Virginia forces. He 
 was soon off, and during the two years following he was 
 rarely at home. 
 
 In August of the next year, 1756, however, he pe- 
 titioned the Governor for leave to return to the Poto- 
 mac, " As a general meeting of all the persons concerned 
 in the estate of my deceased brother is appointed to be 
 held at Alexandria about the middle of September next, 
 for making a final settlement of all his affairs; and as I 
 am deeply interested, not only as an executor and heir 
 to part of his estate, but also in a very important dis- 
 pute, subsisting between Colonel Lee, who married 
 the widow, and my brothers and self, concerning 
 advice in the will which brings the whole personal 
 
48 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 estate in question." The trip was in vain, "the As- 
 sembly having called away the principal persons con- 
 cerned." 
 
 After another year on the frontier he hurried back 
 again the next September, 1757, to attend the funeral of 
 "Col. Fairfax." It is not surprising he should have 
 made this long trip, under necessity of hurrying directly 
 back, for it was William Fairfax he came to bury, 
 father of Anne, the first mistress of Mount Vernon, 
 the friend of his earliest recollections when the two 
 families came up river to Dogue Creek neighborhood 
 together. 
 
 His friends found him somewhat changed under 
 the stress of his long military campaigns. Soon after 
 his return to his service duties he was stricken with 
 an illness which obliged him to return home again, 
 where he arrived in November. He was attended by 
 his friend, Charles Green, doctor at once of physic and 
 divinity, the Mount Vernon family physician and rector 
 of their parish Church of Pohick. Instead of abating, 
 the disorder became so aggravated that early in the 
 new year Washington wrote that he had "too much 
 reason to apprehend an approaching decay." But good 
 Doctor Green had him up and on his feet and oil' again 
 before April. 
 
 Much of significance in the story of his home was to 
 happen before Mount Vernon saw him again. In May 
 he hurried to Williamsburg with his report on affairs in 
 the West. He was accompanied by the now inseparable 
 Bishop. On his way to the capital, in ending the ferry 
 over the Pamunkey River, the south branch of the 
 York, he most miraculously fell in with "one Mr. 
 
MOUNT VERNON 49 
 
 Chamberlayne, who lived in the neighborhood," and 
 insisted on the traveller resting at his house as his 
 guest. Colonel Washington submitted amiably to 
 being captured and led off, but before the day was done 
 he had been twice captured. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 A Chapter Wholly Away from Mount Vernon — Most Significant 
 to Its History — Bishop's Vigil — Dinner at Mr. Chamber- 
 layne's — Martha Dandridge Custia — Her Family — Early Life 
 — George Washington and Martha Custis Betrothed — Off to 
 the West — Letters — Restoring Mount Vernon in Its Master's 
 Absence — The Wedding — Honeymoon at the Six-chimney 
 House in Williamsburg — Washington in the House of Bur- 
 gesses—Bringing the Bride to Mount Vernon — Curiosity of 
 the Neighbors and Retainers — The Arrival — Martha Wash- 
 ington Mistress of Mount Vernon. 
 
 THERE is only one account of that significant 
 day in the life of Washington and the future 
 mistress of Mount Vernon. It is handed down 
 by the grandson of "the charming widow": 
 
 "The colonel was introduced to various guests (for 
 when was a Virginian domicil of the olden time without 
 guests?), and above all, to the charming widow. 
 Tradition relates that they were mutually pleased on 
 this their first interview, nor is it remarkable; they 
 were of an age when impressions are strongest. The 
 lady was fair to behold, of fascinating manners, and 
 splendidly endowed with worldly benefits. The hero, 
 fresh from his early fields, redolent of fame, and with a 
 form on which 'every god did seem to set his seal, to 
 give the world assurance of a man.' The morning 
 passed pleasantly away. Evening came, with Bishop, 
 true to his orders and firm at his post, holding his 
 
 50 
 
MOUNT VERNON 51 
 
 favorite charger with one hand, while the other was 
 waiting to offer the ready stirrup. The sun sank in the 
 horizon, and yet the colonel appeared not. And then 
 the old soldier marvelled at his chief's delay . 
 for he was the most punctual of all men. Meantime, 
 the host enjoyed the scene of the veteran at the gate, 
 while the colonel was so agreably employed in the 
 parlor; aud proclaiming that no guest ever left his house 
 after sunset, his military visitor was, without much dif- 
 ficulty, persuaded to order Bishop to put up the horses 
 for the night. The sun rode high in the heavens the 
 ensuing day, when the enamored soldier pressed with his 
 spur his charger's side, and speeded on his way to the 
 seat of government." 
 
 The remarkable lady whose attractions captivated 
 the marvel of punctuality and caused his servant a vain 
 vigil was Mrs. Martha Dandridge Custis. Though this 
 is represented as her "first interview" with Washington, 
 it is hardly to be believed that they were unknown to each 
 other. Her town and country houses were respectively 
 in and near Williamsburg. Washington was in the capi- 
 tal at least twice every year between October, 1753, and 
 November, 1756, in all on six different occasions. His 
 growing fame and the official nature of his visits to 
 Williamsburg made him a conspicuous figure even now 
 in his twenty-sixth year. In this instance introduction 
 was a shallow formality. 
 
 Martha Custis was one of the most admired young 
 matrons in lower tidewater. She was Washington's 
 junior by a few months. Her girlhood home was in 
 New Kent at the head of the York River. The social 
 
MOUNT VERNON 
 
 life of the young women of thai time began at an age al- 
 mosl inconceivable now, so it is small wonder to road 
 that, when according to modern ideas she should have 
 been in the uursery, or at most in the school-room, she 
 was "presented" in Williamsburg "during the admin- 
 istration of Governor Gooch." There's a whole pan- 
 orama in the phrase, for in the picturesqueness of bro- 
 cade and laces, jewels and smallswords, powdered 
 coiffures and tie-hack wigs, indeed in all the formality of 
 manner and observance, the Royal Governors in the 
 Colony of Virginia held a veritable court . 
 
 When sixteen Martha Dandridge engaged the at- 
 tentions of Daniel Parke Custis, in point of antecedents 
 and persona] character one of the most desirable bache- 
 lors in their neighborhood, in the large sense of the far- 
 flung neighborhood of those days. At seventeen she 
 became his bride. They were married one June day 
 in 1749, at St. Peter's Church, near the White Bouse, 
 their home in New Kent. Vaughan Kester, in "The 
 Prodigal Judge," hints amusingly at the tradition that 
 the titles of the old-time Southern planters might be 
 read in the number of chimneys on their houses. If, 
 as his Yancy said they did, two chimneys breveted a man 
 colonel and four raised him to the rank of general, 
 what shall l>c said of the magnificent rank of a man 
 whose house stood supported by six chimneys? The 
 Williamsburg house of the Custises was known as the 
 Six-chimney House. Between the two homes they 
 spent the eight years of their married life. Two chil- 
 dren, John Parke and Martha, survived their father. 
 
 Their mother, widowed ;it the age of t went y-fi\ <\ Was 
 
 in her own right one of the rich women of the colony. 
 
' • ■ ■■ i HI f •.<; flBM Ol • '.■••' • < ■ ' ■ i i. 
 
 Prom the portrait ' Peale painted al Mount V'ernoi 
 
 now hanging in Waahingf on awl I> I ;fon Virginia f Sw p. 1 1 4.) 
 
MOUNT VERNON 53 
 
 The day after her first meeting with Washington he 
 rode gayly forward to the Capital and represented 
 "the fortunes of our officers at Winchester" with all 
 possible speed, for there was a strong lure in his heart 
 and he hastened his return overland to the White 
 House on the Pamunkey for his second meeting with 
 pretty Mrs. Custis. His entire stay in the East was 
 brief; not more than a fortnight, it is said. But when 
 he turned his horse's head westward early in June and 
 began his journey back to the mountains, he took with 
 him the promise which insured Mount Vernon a mis- 
 tress as soon as he could conclude his military service 
 and come and bear her away to his home at the head 
 of tidewater Potomac. 
 
 The mails in those days were irregular and uncertain, 
 even over the well-travelled coastwise highways. The 
 carriage of letters to and from the frontier, as anything 
 beyond the Shenandoah Valley was called at that time, 
 must have been quite irresponsible enough to try the 
 two lovers' souls. Yet what messages passed between 
 them then or afterward was made a secret forever when 
 later Martha destroyed the letters she had from George. 
 By some chance at least one escaped and is preserved. 
 It is of this period of their engagement, and was sent her 
 as he was putting added miles of uncertain wilderness 
 between them. Self-possession was characteristic of 
 Washington, as boy and as man, but there is a gravity in 
 this letter which, coupled with its tenderness, indicates 
 apprehension for his issue from this military expedition : 
 
 "We have begun our march for the Ohio. A courier 
 is starting for Williamsburg, and I embrace the op- 
 
54 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 portunity to send a few words to one whose life is now 
 inseparable from mine. Since that happy hour when 
 we made our pledges to each other, my thoughts have 
 been continually going to you as another Self. That 
 an all-powerful Providence may keep us both in safety 
 is the prayer of your ever faithful and affectionate 
 friend." 
 
 An entire other mood is reflected in the letter written 
 James Wood about the same time, when Washington 
 heard that he was elected to the House of Burgesses: 
 
 "If thanks flowing from a heart replete with joy and 
 Gratitude can in any Measure compensate for the 
 fatigue, anxiety and Tain you had at my Election, be 
 assured you have them; 'tis a poor, but I am convinced, 
 welcome tribute to a generous Mind. Such, I believe 
 yours to be. How shall I thank Mrs. Wood for her 
 favorable Wishes, and how acknowledge my sense of 
 obligations to the People in general for their choice 
 of me, I am at a loss to resolve on. But why? Can I 
 do it more effectually than by making their Interest 
 (as it really is) my own, and doing everything that 
 lyes in my little Power for the Honor and welfare of 
 the Country? I think not; and my best endeavors 
 they may always command. I promise this now, when 
 promises may be regarded, before they might pass as 
 words of course." 
 
 Washington's great-grandfather, John the Emi- 
 grant, his own father and his half-brother Lawrence, 
 sat in the lower house of the Assembly at Williamsburg. 
 
MOUNT VERNON 55 
 
 It has been seen how three years before he wrote his 
 brother John at Mount Vernon of his willingness to 
 put his name up for election to represent his home 
 county of Fairfax, if his chances were "tolerably good." 
 When the call did come it was not from Fairfax but 
 from Frederick, his headquarters during many months 
 of his military service on the frontier. From this 
 time he held his seat as Burgess consecutively for nearly 
 fifteen years. Until 1765 he represented Frederick 
 County, and after that until the outbreak of the Rev- 
 olution he was returned by Fairfax County. 
 
 One of Washington's first thoughts after the happy 
 conclusion of his sentimental errand to the White House 
 was of the future home of the bride. Mount Vernon 
 in 1758 was substantially as when built except that it 
 was the worse for fifteen or more years of wear. Though 
 absent on the frontier, Washington wrote directions 
 for a thorough renovation of the villa, as it was called 
 at the time. 
 
 His brother John had moved from the estate. The 
 house was empty. Reports of the progress of the im- 
 provements sent him from Mount Vernon show that 
 Humphrey Knight was in charge of the farms, William 
 Poole operated the mill when there was water in the 
 branch to turn the wheel, and the rebuilding of the 
 house was pushed forward by John Patterson. From 
 time to time George William Fairfax came over from 
 Belvoir, overlooked the work of Patterson and the 
 carpenters, supplied hewed and sawed lumber from 
 his stock when Washington's was delayed in coming 
 from other directions, and wrote him frequent neigh- 
 borly letters about the details of the rebuilding project. 
 
56 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 The house seems not to have been enlarged at this 
 time, but it was thoroughly rebuilt, inside and out. 
 Fifteen thousand bricks were burned on the place, the 
 house was raised on its foundations and new founda- 
 tions were placed under it. New weather-boarding, 
 newly painted, freshened up the outside; the windows 
 were all reglazed; and new sheathing and shingles wen! 
 on to the root'. Inside there was a deal of ripping out 
 of old plaster and laying on of new, closets were built 
 in, and the floors upstairs and the stairway into the 
 attic gave Colonel Fairfax and Patterson much con- 
 cern. 
 
 "For with regard to the Garrett Stairs," wrote Col. 
 Fairfax, "I am at a loss unless I know whether you 
 intend that for Lodging Apartments for Serv ts . If not. 
 the Stairs may be carried from the left hand room, 
 which you design for Lumber, without- making it 
 publick." Considering the dilemma of whether to 
 plane down the old floors or to lay new ones, Patterson 
 wrote with an indication of honesty: "Its just y e Nail 
 holes of y; latter, looks but indifferent, but y^ Joynts 
 makes amends for that; & in me would be base to take 
 it up, when I am confident, its not in my power to 
 lay a better one, y; Stuff of it being dry, & when playnd 
 over will have much a better look." But in spite of 
 tliis Colonel Fairfax decided on new floors and the 
 planks were senl over from Belvoir. 
 
 Two new small houses were built at this time. In 
 the absence of any written evidence of where they stood, 
 
 it is caw to locate them by regular and identical sub- 
 merged foundations, below the present turf, at equal 
 dist ances from the west front, and equidistant from the 
 
MOUNT VERNON 57 
 
 front door. The little houses were razed when later 
 the additions were made to the villa and the curved 
 colonnades were flung out at either end. The submerged 
 foundations define the little houses of this time as 
 having stood just west of the extreme ends of the pres- 
 ent enlarged mansion. They were probably connected 
 with the villa by some architectural device — wall, 
 lattice, or colonnade. 
 
 No doubt when winter closed in and the villa and 
 its complementary little houses were completed they 
 presented a neat and comfortable appearance. In 
 whatever he did Washington's taste did not err at 
 either end of parsimony or extravagance. 
 
 There were letters from others at Mount Vernon, 
 one in particular which the Colonel must have passed 
 about for the amusement of his staff. Those were 
 days of irresponsible spelling and use of capital letters. 
 But William Poole the miller in addressing his "hon- 
 ourabel Comal," disclosed real imagination in the use 
 of these tools of expression. Punctuation he ignored 
 altogether. Here is Poole's phonetic masterpiece: 
 
 "Most honourabel Cornal this with Great Sub- 
 mishon and i hope with out a fens and i hope your 
 honour is in good health, i have hear made Bold to 
 let you no the Qualatys of your mill i have in gande now 
 gaind 604 Barels of Corn and Sixteen Barels of wheat 
 and have in gaind a Great Deal of Custum from 
 meariland as well as heare and now She fails for want of 
 water By reason of a good Deel of Dry weather which 
 makes me Sorry that i cant grind faster for your Cus- 
 tumers and by havein so Cloes in ploy with the mill the 
 
58 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 fore part of the year it has hind ard me from tendin 
 the ground which i was to have and by M r John Wash- 
 ington Desiers i throd up the ground to humphry 
 Knight and M r John Washington told me he would 
 be bound your honour would Sattis fy me for it in which i 
 make no Dout of your honours goodness as i am reaDy 
 to obay and have in a Large famalea to maintane i musl 
 in Deaver for a maintaneance for them in which i hope 
 youre honour wont tak it amiss and that you will 
 bepleast to let me no in time if i am to minde the mill 
 agane and upon what tirms as i Can maintane my 
 famalea i be in very willin to serv your honour with out 
 liurtin my Self the hors which your Brother put here 
 Dy d witli a Distemper which is a great Dis a point- 
 ment to the meariland Custumars and now Sur i must 
 begg a line ar to from your honour that i ma no what 
 i have to Doo up on which i Shall rely, and so to Con- 
 clud from your humbel Servant at Command 
 
 Willim Poolk miller 
 July ye 9 : 1758 
 To 
 The Honourabel Curnal George 
 Washington — att Win Chester or 
 Elsewheare 
 
 This. 
 
 The end of the campaign in the West terminated the 
 frontier troubles with the French, and Washington was 
 free to fulfil with honor his earlier purpose to resign his 
 commission. This ho did on his return to Williamsburg 
 in December, 1758. lie did not again take up his sword 
 until the Colonics called him from his retirement at 
 
MOUNT VERNON 59 
 
 4 
 
 Mount Vernon, nearly seventeen years later, to lead 
 their army in the War of Independence. 
 
 The termination of the war with the French meant 
 more to Washington than merely his return to civil life. 
 It brought the consummation of those promises ex- 
 changed the previous spring. He and Martha Custis 
 were married in January, 1759. 
 
 There is so little that is definite and authentic about 
 this event, so important in this story, that it is not easy 
 to reconstruct a detailed picture of the interesting oc- 
 casion. The Rev. Mr. Mosson, rector of St. Peter's, 
 performed the ceremony. The exact date was lost 
 for nearly a hundred years, when it was picked out of 
 a letter written by Mrs. Bache to her father, Benjamin 
 Franklin, and dated January, 1779. She wrote: "I 
 have lately been several times invited abroad with 
 the general and Mrs. Washington. He always in- 
 quires after you, in a most affectionate manner, and 
 speaks of you highly. We danced at Mrs. Powell's on 
 your birthday, or night, I should say, in company to- 
 gether, and he told me it was the anniversary of his 
 marriage; it was just twenty years that night." 
 
 Dr. Franklin was born on January 17, 1759, by the old 
 calendar in vogue at the date of his daughter's letter. 
 The discrepancy between the old and the new calendar 
 was eleven days, which fixes Washington's wedding day 
 on the sixth of January. 
 
 The place where they were married is still undeter- 
 mined. Washington Irving, Bishop Meade, and Ben- 
 son J. Lossing say at Mrs. Custis' residence, the White 
 House on the Pamunkey. Worthington Ford and 
 Henry Cabot Lodge say at Saint Peter's Church. The 
 
00 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 bride's own grandson avoided the controversy. As all 
 the accounts of the festivities at the White House that day 
 
 are based on tradition, his recital is apt to be as depend- 
 able as any. And much had he heard of that marriage, 
 
 he said, "from gray-haired domestics who waited at the 
 board where love made the feast and Washington was 
 
 the guest. And rare and high was the revelry, at that 
 palmy period of Virginia's festal age; for many were 
 gathered to that marriage, of the good, the great, the 
 gifted, and the gay, while Virginia, with joyous ac- 
 clamation, hailed in her youthful hero a prosperous and 
 
 1 nippy bridegroom. 'And so you remember when 
 Colonel Washington came a courting of your mistress?' 
 said the biographer to old Cully, in his hundredth year. 
 'Ay, master, that I do,' replied the ancient family 
 MTvant, who had lived to see five generations; 'great 
 times, sir, great times! Shall never see the like again!' 
 'And Washington looked something like a man, a 
 proper man; hey, Cully?' 'Never seed the like, sir; 
 never the likes of him, tho' I have seen many in my day; 
 so tall, so straight! and then he sat a horse and rode 
 with such an air! Ah, sir; he was like no one else! 
 Many of the grandest gentlemen in their gold lace were 
 at the wedding, but none looked like the man himself! ' ' 
 
 Mrs. Pryor, in her life of the mother of Washington, 
 says Martha's wedding gown "was thus described by one 
 
 of the guests: a white satin quilt, over which a heavy white 
 silk, interwoven with threads of silver, was looped back 
 with white satin ribbons, richly brocaded in a leaf pal- 
 tern. Her bodice was of plain satin, and the brocade was 
 
 fastened on the bust with a stiff butterfly bow of the 
 
 ribbon. Delicate lace finished the low, square neck. 
 
Mrs. George Washington 
 
 From an engraving of the original painting by John Woolaston 
 Now hanging in Washington and Leo University, Lexington, Virginia 
 
MOUNT VERNON 61 
 
 There were close elbow sleeves revealing a puff and frill 
 of lace. Strings of pearls were woven in and out of her 
 powdered hair. Her high-heeled slippers were of white 
 satin, with brilliant buckles." 
 
 There is at Mount Vernon one surviving link between 
 that event and what can be conjectured of it. It is pre- 
 served at this writing in the cabinet in one of the upper 
 chambers, known as the Green Room, a quaint old pin- 
 cushion made of a piece of Martha Custis' wedding dress, 
 and from it may be confirmed at least that portion of the 
 anonymous guest's description which says that it was 
 brocaded satin and was white and was threaded with 
 silver. 
 
 The honeymoon was spent in Williamsburg. To-day 
 the old town is a diminishing echo of the sprightly capi- 
 tal of the middle of the eighteenth century. The 
 venerable buildings of William and Mary rise in proud 
 consciousness that it is the second oldest college in the 
 country. The Raleigh Tavern, where the "dissolved" 
 Burgesses met in defiance of their Royal Governor, still 
 stands and nearby is old Bruton Church shepherding its 
 yard of colonial notables. But gone is the House of 
 Burgesses where Washington sat a part of every one of 
 fifteen consecutive years. Gone is the Governor's palace, 
 scene of so much viceregal splendor, social and official. 
 Gone are the old mansions where the worthies lived and 
 made the capital so gay; among them Martha Custis' 
 Six-chimney House. Near the place where it was stands 
 a yew tree, and the visitor is told that it was planted by 
 her own hand. In the days of this story the Six-chim- 
 ney House stood bravely forth one of the handsome 
 mansions of the little capital. Here the young couple 
 
62 MOUNT VERXOX 
 
 spent the first months of their honeymoon. Martha had 
 never been to Mount Vernon, and keen as was her curi- 
 osity to see her new home it had to wait on the readjust- 
 ment of her affairs and her husband's attendance upon 
 his first session of the House as a Burgess. 
 
 Already a man of extended land possessions, Wash- 
 ington, by his marriage, found himself a well-provided 
 man in other respects. Besides Mount Vernon's 
 twenty-five hundred acres, he owned the paternal farm 
 on the Rappahannock and thousands of acres beyond 
 the mountains, part of the bounty land which the colony 
 paid its soldiers. His wife's estate was described by her 
 lawyer as "large and very extensive," and he had urged 
 her to engage a steward, but "none except a very able 
 man though he should require very large wages." Her 
 grandson estimated that, "independently of extensive 
 and valuable landed estates," she received fifteen 
 thousand pounds from Mr. Custis. Elsewhere the 
 widow's third is described as equalling "fifteen thou- 
 sand acres of land, a good part of it adjoining the city of 
 Williamsburg; several lots in the said city; beween two 
 and three hundred negroes; and about eight or ten 
 thousand pounds upon bond." 
 
 If he found the partnership of material advantage, so 
 did she. He was one of the ablest administrators of his 
 time, and how devoted he was as husband to her and as 
 father to her children and grandchildren will be seen. 
 
 Not less engrossing than the Colonel's readjustment 
 of her business affairs were Mrs. Washington's prepara- 
 tions in closing one and opening another domestic 
 period in her life. The old houses were to be abandoned, 
 and she was preparing to settle her family in a new and 
 
MOUNT VERNON 63 
 
 distant home. Those were the days of water travel. 
 The boats were loaded at the landing near the mansion 
 with the furniture and bulkier baggage, and sailed out 
 of the York and up the Potomac. No such leisurely 
 conveyance for the master and mistress. Time was 
 valuable to them. Only the speediest form of travel 
 would satisfy. As soon as the Burgesses rose, the 
 Colonel, his bride, and her two children, with their at- 
 tendants and light luggage, flew across country in their 
 own coach, behind four galloping thoroughbreds, whips 
 cracking and dust clouds rolling, faster and faster, but 
 not so fast as their eagerness to reach the house of his 
 promise and her hope. 
 
 Mount Vernon and its neighborhood were on their 
 part in a high state of expectancy. First the engage- 
 ment and then the wedding had supplanted every other 
 topic and curiosity fed on the dire poverty of informa- 
 tion about the bride. To those on the estate she was 
 an entire stranger whom they were nevertheless eager to 
 welcome on their trust in the master's choice. It was 
 long before the day when a photograph might have 
 satisfied the curious. Even Daguerre was fifty years in 
 the future with his sensitized silver plates. The only 
 acquaintance they had with her was built from bits out 
 of letters of varying dates to numerous people. She 
 was "plump," of "medium height," with "hazel eyes 
 and brown hair," "hot tempered," "over-fond, pos- 
 sessed of many amiable beauties of disposition." 
 
 When the wedding day was announced it was be- 
 lieved at Mount Vernon that they would come there at 
 once. But when the Assembly was pleaded for a delay 
 in the South, it was seen to be fortunate that she 
 
64 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 was not to have her first homecoming over the bottom- 
 less clay of January roads, and arrive amid the desola- 
 tion of leafless, shivering winter into an unwomaned 
 house. Expectation was willingly transferred 1<> May, 
 when the birds, the blossoms, and the balmy days and 
 nights of spring would create a more fitting atmosphere 
 for the bride. 
 
 That was the incomparable month when Martha first 
 knew Mount Vernon. Advance riders with thesmalllug- 
 gage brought word that the great coach was on the way. 
 Another courier hurried ahead from Fredericksburg with 
 the detailed directions for every trifle of preparation, as 
 was Washington's wont, while he remained long enough 
 to rest the bride at Sister Betty's Kenmore House in the 
 centre of town and then take her across the Rappahan- 
 nock to his mother's farm thai she might know her new 
 daughter. On the last lap of the trip Belle Aire invited 
 a stop with a welcome from the Ewells and Graysons. 
 Thru forward again, across the head of Belmont Bay on 
 Colchester Ferry, over the highlands past the old parish 
 church, down Michael Reagen's lull, through another 
 valley with two or three branches to ford, up the long 
 hill at the west end of Colonel Fairfax's lands, and, as 
 the road descends again, with the Potomac in sight at 
 the right, an interminable valley on the left, its long 
 reach lost in the purple haze of the distant hills, and 
 before them the glistening white villa on the high hori- 
 zon three miles to the east, they came on to their own 
 domain. They were home again, and for forty years 
 neither knew any other place by that hallowed name 
 except Mount Vernon. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 Settling in Mount Vernon — Development of the Domestic Life on 
 the Plantation — Martha Washington as a Housekeeper — 
 Mount Vernon Grows into a Village — The Spinning House 
 — The Laundry — The Dairy — The Smokehouse — The Kitchen 
 — Shopping in London by Way of the Tobacco Ships — Wash- 
 ington's Taste — Daily Routine — The Beginnings of Sixteen 
 Years of Home Life and the Upbuilding of the Estate. 
 
 WITH the arrival of the master and the new mis- 
 tress life at Mount Vernon took on a new as- 
 pect. During the previous seven years the 
 mansion had been occupied only occasionally, there 
 seems to have been no ordered life on the place, and 
 none of the development under which it soon blossomed 
 into one of the first estates of the colony. During 
 these seven years the master was absent almost con- 
 tinuously on the western frontier. Even the exten- 
 sive repairs, which he planned in anticipation of bring- 
 ing home his bride, had been made in his absence. 
 
 Mount Vernon now became a house of life and gayety. 
 The estate was developed and enlarged. The sixteen 
 years following the arrival of Martha in the spring of 
 1759, until the outbreak of the Revolution in 1775, was 
 the longest period of the Washingtons' uninterrupted 
 life at home. 
 
 Writing to England in the year of his marriage, 
 Washington said: "I am now I believe fixd at this 
 seat with an agreable Consort for Life. And I hope to 
 
 65 
 
66 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 find more happiness in retirement than I ever experi- 
 enced amidst a wide and bustling World." He would 
 like to have visited the land of his ancestors and the 
 capital of the mother country, but he admitted the 
 restraint on his further freedom: "I am now tied by 
 the leg and must set Inclination aside." 
 
 Mrs. Washington had brought with her to Mount 
 Vernon the two children of her former marriage: Martha 
 and John Parke Custis. Washington became their 
 guardian. His home was their home, and by all the 
 ties except blood there was an affectionate union be- 
 tween them which went a long way to compensate him 
 for his childless marriage. 
 
 These four were the nucleus of a busy and exten- 
 sive life on the estate. The gradual accumulation of 
 shoemakers, tailors, smiths, carpenters, wheelwrights, 
 masons, charcoal burners, farmers, millers, hostlers, 
 house and outside servants, and overseers, all with 
 their families, constituted an army of several hundred. 
 Everything and everybody that had no relation to the 
 "big house," as the master's dwelling on a Virginia 
 estate has always been called, fell under the direct 
 jurisdiction of Colonel Washington. This phase of 
 life at Mount Vernon will be considered later in is 
 detail and development. The house servants and all 
 those connected with the domestic side of life in the 
 big house were the responsibility of Mrs. Washington. 
 
 She was a woman of methodical habits, with real love 
 For domestic management, and a Dative energy which 
 kept her hands busy at all times. Even when she sat 
 down to \i>it or rest the knitting needles danced under 
 her chubby fingers. 
 
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MOUNT VERNON 67 
 
 Her grandson gives this brief sketch of her domestic 
 life: "In her dress though plain, she was so scrupu- 
 lously neat, that ladies often wondered how Mrs. Wash- 
 ington could wear a gown for a week, go through her 
 kitchen and laundries, and all the varieties of places in 
 the routine of domestic management, and yet the gown 
 retained its snow-like whiteness, unsullied by a single 
 speck. In her conduct to her servants, her discipline 
 was prompt, yet humane, and her household was re- 
 markable for the excellence of its domestics." 
 
 Near the big house grew up little houses for all sorts 
 of domestic offices and manufacture. In one the shuttle 
 bobbed back and forth through the great loom, in 
 another buzzed a whole battery of spinning-wheels. 
 In one year at Mount Vernon one man and four girls 
 wove "eight hundred and fifteen and three quarters 
 yards of linen, three hundred and sixty five and one 
 quarter yards of woollen, one hundred and forty four 
 yards of linsey, and forty yards of cotton, or a total 
 of thirteen hundred and sixty five and one half yards." 
 Later, when other hands were added, the list of manu- 
 factured cloths included: "Stripped woolen, woolen 
 plaided, cotton striped, linen, wool-birdseye, cotton 
 filled with wool, linsey, M.'s & O's, cotton-India 
 dimity, cotton jump stripe, linen filled with tow, cotton 
 striped with silk, Roman M., Janes twilled, huccabac, 
 broadcloth, counterpain, birdseye diaper, Kirsey wool, 
 barragon, fustian, bed-ticking, herring-box, and shal- 
 loon." 
 
 Across the lawn in another of the little white houses 
 stood the suddy, steaming tubs. There was no ap- 
 pointed "washday" on the plantation. Every day 
 
68 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 the laundry rang with the music of washbdard and 
 mangle, beaten clothes and hissing steam. Its neigh- 
 bor, the dairy, was scarcely less active with the gallons 
 of milk to skim, the butter to churn, and the cheese to 
 prepare. A nearby smokehouse, lined with sides, legs, 
 and shoulders hanging on crude forked hooks of natural 
 wood, was the one quiet house in the little group. 
 
 After the fashion of most old Virginia homes, the 
 kitchen was in a detached house next to the big house, 
 and processions of pickaninnies carried the heaped 
 dishes across the lawn in to the family dining-room. 
 The modern or even the now old-fashioned cook-stove 
 was unknown. The altar of this temple was a great 
 fireplace with an opening which would accommodate 
 half a dozen grown persons. Here andirons held w r ood 
 cut to conl size, and often oak logs which strained a 
 brace of black 1 tacks to lift into place. Cranes of iron, 
 wrought over the hill in the blacksmith shop, swung 
 steaming kettles over the glow T ing coals. Quarters of 
 beef, young suckling pigs, and rows of fowl, game and 
 domestic, were roasted on spits. Corn pone and 
 sweet potatoes nestled in the ashes. The plantation 
 cooks knew the nice properties of all the woods, and 
 were [(articular to have sassafras or beech-nut, red or 
 while oak. hickory, pine, or gum, according as they 
 needed a slow fire or fast, or as the epicure demanded 
 each wood's own smoky aroma. 
 
 Mrs. Washington refurnished Mount Vernon through- 
 out. Some things she brought up from her former 
 homes in the York country and she retained a few 
 things in the house which survived the days of Lawrence 
 
 and Anne. Among the latter were the painting of the 
 
The Kitchen Fireplace 
 
 In the small building connected with the Mansion by the west colonnade. The 
 
 most interesting feature of the great kitchen fireplace is the smoke-jack— a 
 
 slender belt chain operating from a circular fan in the chimney that turn. 
 
 the spit. The chain runs over a flanged wheel at the end of the 
 
 spit, and the drafl from the fire keeps the fan in motion 
 
MOUNT VERNON 69 
 
 English fleet before Carthagena and the old lantern in 
 the hall, sent Lawrence by Admiral Vernon, and the 
 brass window cornices and curtain bands in the west 
 parlor, all of which have survived the changes of years 
 and are to-day preserved in their accustomed places. 
 
 In the main Mount Vernon was refurnished by order 
 on London. The Virginia colonial dame of means 
 shopped almost exclusively by mail order on England, 
 though in point of time she was then more distant from 
 the London market than is Japan to-day. 
 
 Robert Cary & Company were Washington's London 
 correspondents at this time. Immediately the Colonel 
 and his bride reached home they made an invoice of 
 needed furnishings and sent a long order, which in- 
 cluded : 
 
 " 1 Tester Bedstead 1\ feet pitch with fashionable bleu or blue 
 and white curtains to suit a Room laid w yl Ireld. paper. — 
 
 "Window curtains of the same for two windows; with either 
 Papier Mache Cornish to them, or Cornish covered with the Cloth. 
 
 " 1 fine Bed Coverlid to match the Curtains. 4 Chair bottoms 
 of the same; that is, as much covering suited to the above furni- 
 ture as will go over the seats of 4 Chairs (which I have by me) in 
 order to make the whole furniture of this Room uniformly handsome 
 and genteel. 
 
 "1. Fashionable sett of Desert Glasses and Stands for Sweet 
 meats Jellys &c — together with Wash Glasses and a proper Stand 
 for these also. — 
 
 "2 Setts of Chamber, or Bed Carpets — Wilton. 
 
 "4. Fashionable China Branches & Stands for Candles. 
 
 " 2 Neat fire Screens — 
 
 "50 lbs Spirma Citi Candles — 
 
 "6 Carving Knives and Forks — handles of Stained Ivory and 
 bound with Silver. 
 
 " 1 Large neat and Easy Couch for a Passage. 
 
70 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 "50 yards of best Floor Matting — 
 
 "Order from the best House in Madeira a Pipe of the best Old 
 Wine, and let it be secured from Pilferers." 
 
 Tbis order further included hosiery of cotton and 
 silk; half a dozen pairs of shoes "to be made by one 
 Didsbury, on Colo. Baylor's Last — but a little larger 
 than his — & to have high heels"; riding gloves; a "Suit 
 of Cloaths of the finest Cloth & fashionable colour"; 
 a "large assort incut of grass seeds"; "the newest and 
 most approvd Treatise of Agriculture"; also "a New- 
 System of Agriculture, or a Speedy Way to grow Rich," 
 and "Six Bottles of Greenhows Tincture." 
 
 This was dispatched in May, 1759. In September 
 Washington forwarded an order of about two hundred 
 and fifty items, nearly all from two to six pairs or dozens 
 of the articles itemized. Activities were extending on 
 a large scale on the estate, but the orders assumed such 
 wholesale character because they were sent to the Eng- 
 lish agents only twice a year. 
 
 "From this time," he writes, "it will be requisite, 
 that yon should raise three accounts; one for me, an- 
 other for the estate, and a third for Miss Patty Custis; 
 or, if you think it more eligible (as I believe it will be), 
 make me debtor on my own account for John Parke 
 Custis, and for Miss Martha Parke Custis, as each will 
 have their part of I lie estate assigned to them this fall, 
 and the whole will remain under my management, 
 whose particular care it shall be to distinguish always, 
 cither by letter or invoice, from whom tobbacos are 
 shipped, and for whose use goods arc imported, in order 
 to prevent any mistakes arising." 
 
 Quaint items arrest the eye all along these lists. 
 
MOUNT VERNON 71 
 
 There are "a light summer suit made of Duroy, 2 plain 
 Beaver Hats, a Salmon-covered Tabby, Calamanco 
 shoes, 6m Minnikin Pins, 30 yards Red Shalloon, 6 
 castor Hats, 2 Postilion Caps, one dozen pairs coarse shoe 
 and knee buckles, 450 ells Osnabergs." In an order 
 "for Miss Custis, 4 years old," were "2 Caps, 2 pairs 
 Ruffles, 2 Tuckers, Bibs, and Aprons, if fashionable, 2 fans, 
 2 Masks, 2 Bonnetts," a "stiffened Coat of Fashionable 
 silk, made to pack-thread stays," one fashionable 
 dressed baby 10s. For "Master Custis, 6 years old," 
 he ordered " 1 piece black Hair Ribbon, 1 pair handsome 
 silver Shoe and Knee Buckles, 10s. worth of toys, 6 
 little books for children beginning to read, and 1 light 
 duffel Cloak with silver frogs." 
 
 Other interesting articles in the early lists are some 
 two hundred carpenter's tools, an extensive provision for 
 the pharmacopoeia, "all liquids in double flint bottles," 
 and these art objects for the adornment of his rooms 
 listed under "Directions for the Busts": 
 
 "4. One of Alexander the Great; another of Julius 
 Csesar; another of Charles XII. of Sweden; and a fourth 
 of the King of Prussia. 
 
 "N. B. These are not to exceed fifteen inches in 
 height, nor ten in width. 
 
 "2 Other busts, of Prince Eugene and the Duke of 
 Marlborough, somewhat smaller. 
 
 "2 Wild Beasts, not to exceed twelve inches in 
 height, nor eighteen in length. 
 
 "Sundry small ornaments for chimney-piece." 
 
 These objects have been described as having actually 
 been a part of the furnishings of Mount Vernon. Un- 
 
72 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 fortunately, Washington was disappointed in expecting 
 these. Indeed, when the vessel brought the other goods 
 ordered, the invoice had these entries instead of the art 
 objects requested: 
 
 "A Groupe of Aeneas carrying his Father out of Troy, 
 with four statues, viz. his Father Anchises, his wife Creusa 
 and his son Ascanius, neatly finisht and bronzed with copper £ 3.3 
 
 Two Groupes, with two statues each of Bacchus & Flora 
 finisht neat, & bronzed with copper £2.2 each 4.4 
 
 Two ornamented vases with Faces and Festoons of Grapes 
 and vine Leaves, finished neat & bronzed with copper . . . 2.2 
 The above for ye Chimney Piece. 
 
 Two Lyons alter the antique Lyons in Italy, finished neat 
 and bronzed with copper, £1.5 each 2.10 
 
 These is the best ornaments I could possibly make for the 
 chimney piece. And of all the wild beasts as coud be made, there 
 is none better than the Lyons. The manner of placing them on 
 ye chimney piece should be thus: 
 
 A groupe of Vase Aeneas Vase Groupe of 
 
 Flora Bacchus 
 
 There is no Busts of Alexander ye Great, (none at all of Charles 
 12th of Sweden.) Julius Ciesar, King of Prussia, Prince Eugene, 
 nor the Duke of Marlborough, of the size desired; and to make 
 models would be very expensive — at least 4 guineas each." 
 
 However, William Cheere, the London art dealer, 
 offered to make "Busts exactly to the size wrote for (15 
 inches) and very good ones, at the rate of 10/ each: of 
 Homer, Virgil, Horace. Cicero, Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, 
 Galens, Vestall, Virgin Faustina, Chancer, Spencer, 
 Johnson, Shakespear, Beaumont, Fletcher, Milton. 
 Prior, Pope, Congreve, Swift, Addison, Drydon, Locke, 
 Newton." 
 
MOUNT VERNON 73 
 
 Although bills were itemized in pounds, shillings, 
 and pence, they were paid in tobacco. This plant was 
 at once a crop and currency. Washington, like other 
 great planters, shipped his tobacco to London and drew 
 against it in orders for merchandise. 
 
 The orders which were sent from Mount Vernon to 
 London show as clearly as any other surviving evidence 
 the taste of the master which he stamped on the life 
 there. He did not believe in a false economy. There 
 is rarely a question of price. But throughout the orders 
 appear the three requisites: good, neat, and fashionable. 
 Always fashionable, but never ostentatious. In one 
 letter he asks for the "finest cloth and fashionable 
 colour"; again for a "genteel suit of cloaths made of 
 superfine broadcloth, handsomely chosen"; but, he 
 writes, "I want neither lace or embroidery. Plain 
 clothes, with a gold or silver button (if worn in genteel 
 dress), are all I desire." This excellence, neatness, 
 and fashionableness in his personal attire was reflected 
 in his house and its furnishings. 
 
 The domestic life at Mount Vernon was simple and 
 methodical. One of Washington's sense of order and 
 organization could endure nothing else. Martha, either 
 natively or by cultivation, supplemented him exactly. 
 "Everywhere order, method, punctuality, economy 
 reigned," said his adopted son. " His household . . . 
 was always upon a liberal scale, and was conducted with 
 a regard to economy and usefulness." 
 
 They both were early risers, though breakfast was not 
 early for all the household. Washington in winter 
 often made his own fire in his library and there, over his 
 correspondence and accounts, did an immense amount 
 
74 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 of work in a few hours. Mrs. Washington rose when he 
 did and directed the beginning of the day's domestic 
 duties into easy and ordered channels. After break- 
 fast he rode out on one of his horses to overlook the 
 laborers on the various farms into which he divided 
 Mount Vernon estate, and returned, according to 
 Custis, "Punctual as the hand of a clock, at a quarter to 
 three . . . and retired to his room to dress, as was 
 his custom." Mrs. Washington chose the first hour for 
 religious devotion in her own room, an unfailing custom 
 her life long. Dinner was a mid-afternoon meal after 
 the Southern tradition. Washington rarely ate any 
 supper, though it was always spread for his household 
 and guests. When at Mount Vernon it was his habit to 
 retire at nine o'clock. 
 
 Washington was already an important figure, one of 
 the most important in the colony. But in the sixteen 
 years of his married life at Mount Vernon before the 
 Revolution he led a life of comparative retirement, and 
 of real freedom and ease, devoting himself to the 
 amenities of family life and the development of his 
 estate. It was the life of his choice. lie never planned 
 and he had no ambition for any career elsewhere than on 
 his own acres. Mount Vernon was the shrine of his 
 greatest happiness. lie was rarely far from his home 
 during these sixteeD years. When later he did consenl 
 t<> absent himself it was at the call of his country in the 
 public service. It was only patriotic duty that made 
 the long absences endurable, and he wrote and spoke of 
 Mount Vernon always in terms of affection and home- 
 sickness. 
 
 If during this period the estate did not reach in every 
 
MOUNT VERNON 75 
 
 aspect the maturity, expansion, and beauty of later 
 years, nevertheless, under his able administration, it 
 grew steadily in acreage and productiveness, until even 
 at this time it became one of the largest and best- 
 ordered plantations in the colonies. It was the scene of 
 an easy, graceful social life, based on an opulent hospi- 
 tality for which the villa eventually grew too small and 
 compelled the additions which give the mansion its 
 familiar outlines. These years were freer of care and 
 more buoyant in happiness than any that followed, 
 when leadership imposed its burden of responsibility and 
 fame robbed him of his treasured retirement. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 Washington as a Planter — Extending the Boundaries of the 
 Estate- -The Five Farms — Farm Organization — Virginia 
 Methods — Agricultural Experiments Morses and Cattle 
 —The Old Mill The Distillery— The Ovens— Fish and 
 
 Fishing -Charity — Making Ends Meet. 
 
 WASHINGTON'S ambitions when he settled in 
 retirement at Mount Vernon with his "agre- 
 able Consort" did not extend beyond a 
 desire "to pursue the arts of agriculture, increase his 
 fortune, cultivate the social virtues, fulfill his duties as a 
 citizen, and sustain in its elevated dignity the character 
 of a country gentleman." 
 
 But so thorough was he in all he undertook, that of 
 his pursuit of but one item of this program, the science 
 of farming, he made a career less notable only than his 
 public services to his country. He found "much more 
 delightful to an undebauched mind the task of making 
 improvements on the earth, lliau all the vain glory that 
 can be acquired by ravaging it by the most unin- 
 terrupted career of conquests." He expressed the be- 
 lief that "the life of the husbandman of all others is the 
 mosl delectable. . . . To see plants rise from the 
 earth and flourish by the superior skill of the laborer fills 
 a contemplative mind with ideas which are more easy to 
 be conceived than expressed." 
 
 When h<' \\;is settled his first thought was to extend 
 
 the boundaries of his estate. Washington seemed to 
 
 76 
 
v. — 
 
 ' z f. 
 
 1 ,5 -^ 
 
 x; 7 - 
 
 
 it ft 
 
MOUNT VERNON 77 
 
 have possessed a passion for land, though he treated his 
 purchases lightly and declared there was "in truth more 
 fancy than judgment " in them. His eagerness to add to 
 his home lands may for all that have been based on his 
 foresight. He had seen about him overmuch of the habit 
 of farming which planted one or at most two crops in 
 repetition until it exhausted the ground and compelled 
 the planter to turn to a virgin field for new production. 
 Spreading acres gave the Virginian colonist more than a 
 sense of domain. An abundance of new land eased his 
 situation when repeated tobacco or wheat and corn 
 crops destroyed the fertility of the overworked 
 ground. 
 
 His first addition to Mount Vernon was the Clifton 
 tract across the original Little Hunting Creek boundary, 
 thus extending his river-front to the east. From 
 Thomas Hanson Marshall, of Marshall Hall across the 
 Potomac but in sight of Mount Vernon, and from 
 his kindly but unfortunate neighbor, Captain John 
 Posey, and from others he added land to the west- 
 ward which in a measure completed the original 
 Spencer- Washington tract bounded by Little Hunting 
 Creek and Dogue Creek. Other lands were acquired 
 which carried the estate northwestward over the hills at 
 the head of the latter inlet. This gave him ferry landing 
 a mile west of the Mansion, where he often crossed 
 to the Maryland side and cut across country to Port 
 Tobacco and thence ferried to the Virginia side only a 
 short distance from his brother Augustine's in West- 
 moreland, where he sometimes visited on his way to the 
 dower lands in New Kent and to Williamsburg. The 
 purchase likewise added to his possession at the same 
 
78 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 point one of the notable "fishing shores" of the upper 
 Potomac. In a few years the ferry proved unable to 
 support the boats. On Washington's petition to the 
 Assembly it was closed by law, but the fishing shore re- 
 tains its ancient prestige to-day. 
 
 Washington was from the first a scientific farmer. 
 He had all the respectable authorities he could obtain 
 in his library. He organized and prosecuted the work 
 with that masterly executive faculty which he displayed 
 later in mustering and manipulating the raw colonial 
 troops. 
 
 He divided Mount Vernon into five farms: the 
 Mansion House Farm on which stood the big house 
 and the village of surrounding buildings; the River 
 Farm which lay across Little Hunting Creek to the 
 ea>t ; Muddy Hole Farm on the low r meadows to the 
 north; Union Farm next west of Mansion House Farm 
 along the river and Dogue Creek; and Dogue Run Farm 
 which extended up the valley of the north branch of 
 the run feeding Dogue Creek. About half of all Mount 
 Vernon estate was in woodland. 
 
 Each farm was a separate establishment with its own 
 overseer, hands, quarters for the slaves, farm buildings, 
 and stock. Over all the farms was a general steward 
 or overseer, who was responsible directly and only to 
 Washington. He called this man his manager. Once 
 a week, on Saturday, reports were made to the manager. 
 These were set in order and passed on to the master. 
 Washington transcribed the data in these reports with 
 scrupulous exactness into note-books, diaries, and ac- 
 count books, as those which survive attest in his own 
 handwriting. They recited in detail the work under- 
 
a -f j 
 
 i 
 
 ii 
 
 ft *■ 
 
 f\ k 43 
 
 ;t) 
 
 I if m 
 
 i 
 
 
 1 $&' n | 
 
 
 wi 
 
 < B oo M 
 
MOUNT VERNON 79 
 
 taken and accomplished; the labor performed by each 
 hand; the place, time, and conditions of sowing, har- 
 vest, and sales. Though each farm was run separately 
 Washington directed them all on an interdependent 
 system. 
 
 He has described the mode of farming which prevailed 
 in Virginia: "There is, perhaps, scarcely any part of 
 America where farming has been less attended to 
 than in this , State. The cultivation of tobacco has 
 been almost the sole object with men of landed prop- 
 erty, and consequently a regular course of crops have 
 never been in view. The general custom has been, 
 first to raise a crop of Indian corn (maise) which, accord- 
 ing to the mode of cultivation, is a good preparation for 
 wheat; then a crop of wheat; after which the ground 
 is respited (except from weeds, and every trash that 
 can contribute to its foulness) for about eighteen 
 months; and so on, alternately, without any dressing, 
 till the land is exhausted; when it is turned out, with- 
 out being sown with grass-seeds, or any method taken 
 to restore it; and another piece is ruined in the same 
 manner. No more cattle is raised than can be sup- 
 ported by. lowland meadows, swamps, &c, and the 
 tops and blades of Indian corn; as very few persons 
 have attended to sewing grasses, and connecting cattle 
 with their crops. The Indian corn is the chief support 
 of the laborers and horses. Our lands, . . . were 
 originally very good; but use, and abuse, have made 
 them quite otherwise." 
 
 For the prevailing conditions he gradually studied 
 out a substitute on the basis of stimulating and resting 
 instead of taxing and exhausting the land. He finally 
 
80 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 drew up for his manager this rotation table, covering 
 six years, as best for Mount Vernon farms: 
 
 "1 st . . . . Indian Corn, with intermediate rows of Potatoes, 
 or any root more certain or useful (if such there 
 be) that will not impede the plough, hoe or har- 
 row in the cultivation of the Corn. 
 2 d . . . . Wheat, Rye or Winter Barley at the option of the 
 Tenant — sown as usual when the Corn receives 
 its last working. 
 3 d . . . . Buckwheat, Peas or Pulse; or Vegetables of any 
 sort, or partly of all; or anything else, except 
 grain (that is corn crops) — for which this is 
 preparatory. 
 4 th . . . . Oats, or Summer barley, at the discretion of the 
 Tenant, with Clover, if and when the ground is 
 in condition to bear it. — 
 
 5. . . . To remain in Clover for cutting, for feeding, or 
 
 for both— or if Clover should not be sown — 
 or if sown should not succeed; — then and in that 
 case the field may be filled with any kind of 
 Vetch, pulse or Vegetables. 
 
 6. . . . To lie uncultivated in pasture, and for the purpose 
 
 of manuring, for the same round of crops again." 
 
 From the time that he set I led at Mount Vernon 
 Washington conducted experiments in combinations of 
 soil, fertilizers, and seeds. None is more interesting than 
 one of his earliest set out in his diary, "Where, how, 
 and with whom my time is Spent," for April 14, 1760; 
 ;m example in theory and practice: 
 
 "Mix'd my compost in a box with ten apartments, in 
 the following manner, viz: in No 1. is three peeks of 
 the earth brought from below the hill out of the 46 
 acre field without any mixture; — in No. L 2 — is two pecks 
 
MOUNT VERNON 81 
 
 of the same earth and one of marie taken out of the 
 said field, which marie seem'd a little inclinable to sand. 
 
 "3. Has — 2 Pecks of said earth, and 1 of river side 
 sand. 
 
 "4. Has a peck of horse dung. 
 
 "5. Has mud taken out of the creek. 
 
 "6. Has cow dung. 
 
 "7. Marie from the gulleys on the Hill side which 
 seem'd to be purer than the other. 
 
 "8. Sheep Dung. — 
 
 "9. Black mould taken out of the Pocoson on the 
 creek side. 
 
 "10. Clay got just below the garden. 
 
 "All mix'd with the same quantity and sort of earth 
 in the most effectual manner by reducing the whole 
 to a tolerable degree of fineness and jabling them well 
 together in a Cloth. 
 
 "In each of these divisions were planted three grains 
 of wheat, 3 of oats, and as many of barley — all at equal 
 distance in rows, and of equal depth (done by a ma- 
 chine made for the purpose). 
 
 "The wheat rows are next the number'd side, the 
 oats in the middle, and the barley on that side next the 
 upper part of the garden. — 
 
 "Two or three hours after sowing in this manner, and 
 about an hour before Sunset I water'd them all equally 
 alike with water that had been standing in a tub about 
 two hours exposed to the Sun." 
 
 Later he made this proposal for the feeding of cattle : 
 
 "I think it would be no unsatisfactory experiment 
 to fat one bullock altogether with Potatoes; — another, 
 
82 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 altogether with Indian meal;— and a third with a mix- 
 ture of both: — keeping an exact account of the time 
 they arc tatting, and what is eaten of each, and of hay, 
 by the different steers; that a judgement may be 
 formed of the best, and least expensive mode of stall 
 feeding beef for market, or for my own use." 
 
 Another kind of experiment which was always going 
 forward was the testing of foreign seeds in Mount 
 Vernon's soil. Washington's fame as a farmer after 
 some years spread to England and a lively correspond- 
 ence grew up with English farming enthusiasts and 
 experts. Mount Vernon became a kind of experi- 
 mental station for the growth of the sample grains and 
 seeds which they continually sent him. 
 
 Thorough in everything, he said: "I had rather hear 
 it [grain] was delayed than that it should be sown before 
 everything was in perfect order for it; for it is a, fixed 
 principle with me, that whatever is done should be well 
 
 done."' 
 
 Indeed his thoroughness must have been the despair 
 of his managers and farmers. His study in detail ex- 
 tended to the count of the number of honey locust seeds 
 in a quart, and he found: "a (large) quart contains 
 4,000 seed; this, allowing ten Seed to a foot, would 
 sow, or plant, four rows of 100 feet each." 
 
 His experiments were not all to circumvent the 
 perversity of soil and seed. He had to contend with 
 much perverse human nature. In plain terms the 
 overseers of the various farms stole and sold the seed 
 
 allotted to them to plant. To prevent this his manager 
 was directed to "mix in a bushel of well dried earth as 
 
MOUNT VERNON 83 
 
 many pints of seed as you allow to an acre, and let it 
 be sown in this manner. Two valuable purposes are 
 answered thereby — 1st in this State, the seed is ren- 
 dered unsaleable; 2dly a person not skilled in sow- 
 ing small seeds, will do it more regularly when thus 
 mixed." 
 
 Tobacco was the purchase crop of the colony, in a 
 sense the legal tender, and as such every planter was 
 obliged to raise it. Washington began his farming at 
 Mount Vernon with large acreages of the leaf, but he 
 very spon discontinued it, and said: "I make no more 
 of that article than barely serves to furnish me with 
 goods." Eventually the estate raised large crops of 
 wheat, corn, oats, hay, flax, buckwheat, potatoes, 
 clover, hemp, saintfoin, and bailey. 
 
 His attention to the advisability of growing other 
 crops was, perhaps, not wholly on account of the vital 
 tax tobacco laid upon the land. It may have been in 
 discouragement as well with the parasites which de- 
 stroyed his plants, for he wrote a friend that this crop 
 "is assailed by every villainous worm that has had an 
 existence since the days of Noah (how unkind it was of 
 Noah, now that I have mentioned his name, to suffer 
 such a brood of Vermin to get a birth in the Ark) but 
 perhaps you may be as well of as we are — that is, have 
 no Tobacco for them to eat, and there I think we nicked 
 the Dogs." 
 
 In addition to selected breeds of plough and draft 
 horses, Samson, Magnolia, Leonidas, Traveller, and 
 other stallions "covered" mares on the place "with 
 pastureage and a guarantee of foal." The roads on 
 and about Mount Vernon were familiar with the lei- 
 
84 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 surely progress of yoked oxen which were driven until 
 their eighth year, when they were fattened for the 
 market. The meadows took a decorative effect from 
 the flocks of sheep and from the grazing beef cattle 
 which were branded on the right shoulder with their 
 owner's initials "G. W." 
 
 Washington kept before himself and his overseers 
 always the intrinsic and permanent improvement of 
 his property rather than the temporary gain from a 
 transient crop: "Hedging, ditching, and putting my 
 Meadows in prime order, would be infinitely more agree- 
 able to me, and ultimately more profitable, than an at- 
 tempt to encrease my crops of grain." 
 
 Coupled with his broad outlook on the scientific side 
 of farming was a liberal policy of expenditure. "I shall 
 begrudge no reasonable expence that will contribute 
 to the improvement and neatness of my Farms," he 
 told an overseer about to begin his stewardship; "for 
 nothing pleases me better than to see them in good 
 order, and everything trim, handsome and thriving 
 about them; — nor nothing hurts me more than to find 
 them otherwise." 
 
 Mount Vernon maintained a small army of men, 
 women, and children, black and white. The farm work 
 was done by native labor, for the most part slaves, but 
 the more finished work like gardening and building was 
 done almost entirely by imported and frequently in- 
 dentured workmen. To support them all and to bring 
 the land up taxed Washington's science and skill in 
 economy to the utmost. Every resource of the place 
 was utilized, for he knew how to squeeze out the by- 
 products. The greal work which went forward on the 
 
A Lane Below the Old Brick Barn 
 
 Leading around the lower side of the Vegetable Garden. "At the foot of '.vli.it is 
 commonly called the vineyard enclosure," on the left, is the New Tomb 
 
MOUNT VERNON 85 
 
 place was farming, but there were many affiliated 
 establishments. 
 
 The old mill, which Augustine Washington built, was 
 improved and turned out a quality of flour so well ap- 
 proved that the Mount Vernon label on the barrel was 
 sufficient for the English officials to exempt it from ex- 
 amination as to grade. His diary (April 8, 1760) tells 
 of word coming to the big house that, as a result of a 
 heavy night rain, the mill was "in great danger of blow- 
 ing." He hurried off with all hands and got there "just 
 in time to give her a reprieve for this time by wheeling 
 dirt into the place which the water had wash'd." A 
 thunder-shower held him at the mill and he experi- 
 mented on "what time the mill requir'd to grind a 
 bushel of corn, and to my Surprize found she was within 
 5 minutes of an hour about this. Old Anthony at- 
 tributed to the low head of water, but whether it was so 
 or not I can't say — her works [being] all decayed and out 
 of Order, which I rather take to be the cause. 
 
 " This bushel of corn when ground measurd near a peck 
 more Meal." 
 
 He rebuilt the mill in 1770 and reconstructed the mill 
 race in 1795. Time and neglect have since destroyed 
 both, and the creek has so filled since that ships can no 
 longer come within hundreds of yards of the old landing. 
 During the last century the ruin was known as Jack's 
 Mill from the name of the last miller Washington es- 
 tablished there. Like Gray, who gave his name to 
 Gray's Hill on the heights on the west, he was one of 
 Washington's legion, a recommendation which never 
 failed to reach the heart and interest of the commander. 
 
 A distillery was set up on the place and furnished 
 
SG MOUNT VERNON 
 
 liquor for the hands at harvest time or when malaria 
 gripped them. When a deposit of stone was found it 
 was quarried and supplemented the brick-kilns in 
 furnishing foundations for the buildings. Another in- 
 stitution was a huge oven, although this may have been 
 at his other mill above Mount Vernon on Four Mile 
 Run. When the price of wheat and Hour was down they 
 were turned into biscuit. One of the old contracts 
 survives, signed by Washington, and provides for his 
 delivery "al his mill on Potomack one thousand Barrels 
 
 of fine ban flour & Barrels of good well baked bis- 
 
 cuii for a long Voyage. ... It is agreed by Geo: 
 Washington to lend his Boat to assist in getting the 
 Flour from the Mill door to the Ship at the Mouth of the 
 Creek." 
 
 Second only to the productiveness of the soil w T as the 
 yield of the waters of the Potomac. The diaries often 
 refer to the fishing shore, his seins and his schooner built 
 on the place in 1765. One entry reads: "The white fish 
 ran plentifully at my Sein landing having catch'd abt. 
 300 in one Hawl." At another time "the Herrings run 
 in great abundance." Herring was the staple fish, but 
 the Potomac has always been rich in a large variety of 
 sail water fish, especially sturgeon, shad, cat, perch, and 
 rock. The herring brought "live shillings per thou- 
 sand" and the shad "twelve shillings per hundred." 
 When the herring were abundant they were salted down 
 in barrels for use on the place <>r for winter market at an 
 advanced price. "A sufficiency of fish for the use of my 
 own people" was secured from "the first that comes." 
 There were repeated orders to the managers to send 
 presents of fish from Mount Vernon In friends inland and 
 
MOUNT VERNON 87 
 
 at Alexandria, and of the generosity in both fish and corn 
 which went forth from the place, Peake, a manager, 
 gives this testimony: 
 
 "I had orders from Gen. Washington to fill a corn 
 house every year, for the sole use of the poor in my 
 neighborhood, to whom it was a most seasonable and 
 precious relief, saving numbers of poor women and 
 children from extreme want, and blessing them with 
 plenty. . . . He owned several fishing stations 
 on the Potomac, at which excellent herring were caught, 
 and which, when salted, proved an important article of 
 food to the poor. For their accomodation he ap- 
 propriated a station — one of the best he had — and 
 furnished it with all the necessary apparatus for taking 
 herring. Here the honest poor might fish free of ex- 
 pense, at any time, by only an application to the over- 
 seer; and if at any time unequal to the labor of hauling 
 the seine, assistance was rendered by order of the 
 General." 
 
 Writing of his affairs four years after his marriage, 
 Washington gave this somewhat pessimistic review: "I 
 doubt not but you will be surprized at the badness of 
 their condition unless you will consider under what 
 terrible management and disadvantages I found my 
 estate when I retired from the publick service of this 
 Colony; and that besides some purchases of Lands 
 and Negroes I was necessitated to make adjoining me 
 (in order to support the expenses of a large family), I 
 had Provisions of all kinds to buy for the first two or 
 three years; and my Plantation to stock in short with 
 
88 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 every- thing; — buildings to make and other matters 
 which swallowed up before I well knew where I was, all 
 the money I got by marriage, nay more, brought me in 
 debt, and I believe I may appeal to your own knowledge 
 of my circumstances before." 
 
 Mount Vernon w r as eventually brought to high pro- 
 ductiveness, but the scale of life there was such that 
 rarely did the farms show a balance wholly on the right 
 side of the ledger. Washington had to look to his 
 estate for other assets than appeared in the physical 
 valuation of its produce. He found its true and largest 
 asset in the fulfilled ideal of private life; in solving the 
 interesting problems of the planter; in mental health 
 and physical strength ; and in the enjoyment of the easy 
 and graceful social life of the colonial country gentle- 
 man, of which Mount Vernon became a veritable example. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 Social Life — Processions of Guests — Dinner Parties — English 
 Naval Officers — Neighborhood Life — The Mansions on Both 
 Sides of the Potomac — To Annapolis for the Races — Captain 
 John Posey's Letter — Alexandria Associations — The Bread 
 and Butter Ball — Fox Hunting — Nearby Race Tracks — 
 Lotteries — Duelling — Mrs. Washington's Children, John and 
 Martha Custis — Dancing Classes. 
 
 BEFORE the Revolution Mount Vernon bore its 
 share of the open-handed hospitality which 
 distinguished Virginia colonial life. The brief 
 call of visitors whose home base is near by was practi- 
 cally unknown. Distances were great, travellers came 
 with their own coach and horses and servants, and ah 
 arrival meant additional places at the master's table 
 and in the servants' hall, additional beds, and stabling 
 and feed for from six to twelve horses. It was part of 
 the flexible, cordial social system, and the hospitality 
 and provision was on a large scale. Every one was 
 welcome: brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces, 
 and cousins to remote degrees ; friends passing north and 
 south, crossing from Maryland to lower Virginia, or 
 only on their way to the plantation next beyond. Not 
 least welcome were strangers, with and often without 
 letters. Washington is several times at a loss, in his 
 diary, to recall the names of visitors in his house. But 
 without distinction the horses were sent to the stables, 
 the servants to quarters, and the visitors were welcomed 
 to all the big house afforded. 
 
 so 
 
90 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Not less true of this period than a little later was 
 IV Chastellux's description of the guests' reception at 
 Mounl Vernon: "Your apartments were your house; 
 the servants of the house were yours; and, while every 
 inducement was held out to bring you into the general 
 society of the drawing-room, <>r at the table, it rested 
 \\ ith yourself to be served or nol with everything in your 
 « >w n chamber." 
 
 The family were so rarely alone that when they were 
 il wasa matter of surprised comment and record. Day 
 after day, year after year, the diary details the seemingly 
 never-ending procession of guests. Here is a week in 
 August, 17<i!>, which is not unlike other weeks in other 
 year-: 
 
 10 Mr. Barclay dined with us again as did Mr. Power, and 
 
 Mr. ( reo. Thornton — 
 
 1 1 Lord Fairfax ..V Colo. Geo. Fairfax dined with us — 
 1 1 Mr. Barclay dined with us this day also 
 
 1". We dined u ith Lord Fairfax — 
 
 14 Colo. Loyd, Mr. Cadwallader & Lady, Mrs. Dalton & 
 
 Daughter & Miss Terretl dind with us 
 [5 Had my horses broughl in n> carry Colo. Loyd as far as 
 
 Sedges on his return home cV rid with him a- far as Slet py 
 
 Creek returned to Dinner & had Mr. Barclay & a Mr. 
 Brown to dine u it h me 
 
 16 Hordes returnd from carrying Colo. Loyd - Mr. Ban-lay, 
 
 Mr. Goldsbury, Mr. Hardwick, Mr. Jno. Lewis & Mr. Wr. 
 Washington Junr. dined here — 
 
 17 Mr. Jno. Lewis, & Mr. W. Washington Junr. dined here — 
 
 We drank Tea with My Lord — 
 
 is Mr. Barclay, Mr. Woodrow & Mr. Wood dined here — My 
 
 Lord ye two < '<>l»>. FVs & others drank '1'ea here 
 
 The dining-room wns not large and one wonders how 
 it held them all, for in addition to those enumerated 
 
MOUNT VERNON 91 
 
 there were Colonel and Mrs. Washington, Jack and 
 Patty Custis, and relatives and house guests. The week 
 quoted above shows only continual entertainment. The 
 numbers there given were indeed comparatively small. 
 On one occasion Washington reached home from Williams- 
 burg and "found Mrs. Bushrod, Mrs. W. Washington and 
 their families here — also Mr. Boucher Mr. Addison Mr. 
 Magowan & Doctr Rumney." At another time he 
 enters: "The 4 Mr. Digges came to dinner also Colo. 
 Fairfax, Colo. Burwell. Messrs. Tilghman, Brown, 
 Piper, Adam, Muir, Herbert, Peake, and Dr. Rumney 
 all of whom stayd all night except Mr. Peake." 
 
 When British ships of war appeared in the Potomac 
 and ascended to Mount Vernon there was a general 
 exchange of courtesy between house and ship. A 
 characteristic entry in the diary is that in July, 1770, 
 when an English frigate anchored in the stream: "Sir 
 Thomas Adams and Mr. Glassford his first Lieutt 
 Breakfasted here — Sir Thos returnd after it; but 
 Mr. Glassford dined here as did the 2d Lieutt. Mr. 
 Sartell Mr. Johnston of Marines Mr. Norris & Mr. 
 Richmore — two Midshipmen." 
 
 Mount Vernon was the centre of a neighborhood 
 life of much activity. "Neighborhood" is a relative 
 term. Virginia country gentlemen of colonial days 
 called any man their neighbor who lived within a day's 
 ride. Separated from Washington's home only by 
 Dogue's Creek was Belvoir, the seat of his lifelong 
 friends the Fairfaxes. They were his nearest neigh- 
 bors, but by water Belvoir was a barge ride of two miles 
 and on land it was a ride of about eight miles around 
 the head of the creek. Next beyond Belvoir, and 
 
9 2 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 separated from it only by Gunston Cove, was Gunston 
 Hall, home of George Mason, an active planter on a 
 large scale and a philosophic statesman of the firsl 
 order. His son Thomson Mason's house, Ilollin Hall, 
 was a few miles to the north of Mount Vernon, beyond 
 Mm- River Farm and on the well-travelled road to 
 Alexandria. At a somewhat greater distance, but still 
 in the wide colonial latitude of neighborhood, was 
 Belle Aire, of which Gunston Hall was in many feat- 
 ure- a replica, high on the hills of Neabsco, the home of 
 the Ewells, cousins of the Washingtons, and a family 
 connected by marriage with William Grayson, Vir- 
 ginia's firsl Senator; Pars< »n Weems, one of Washington's 
 early if qoI most reliable biographers, and Doctor James 
 Craik, Mount Vernon family surgeon and later Surgeon 
 ( leneral of the Revolutionary Army. 
 
 Like many other colonial country houses Mount 
 Vernon, Gunston Hall, and Belle Aire are all set iden- 
 tically the same in relation to the compass, with each 
 corner pointing to one of the cardinal points. In this 
 way each side of the house admits the sunlight at some 
 time during the day. 
 
 Across the Potomac to the eastward, where now rises 
 Fort Washington, was the estate of the Digges family 
 
 and their seal Warburton Manor. Washington and 
 
 Digges had a code of signals between Mount Vernon 
 
 and Warburton, and when the signal went up that there 
 were guests on the way the handsome barges which 
 
 each house maintained shot oul from the shores, driven 
 by the oars of gayly liveried black men, and met in 
 midst ream to1 ransfer the visitors. 
 
 At Warburton the Washingtons met not only the 
 
The West Lodge Gates 
 
 Seen from tlie Mansion across the Howling (ireen and tlie intervening meadows. 
 Through these gates Washington drove whenever leaving or returning home 
 
 y*» 
 
 
 
 The River Shore 
 
 From the wharf. The high point of land in the distance is Belvoir. The lower 
 shore-line beyond is Gunston 
 
MOUNT VERNON 93 
 
 extensive connection of the Digges family but Governor 
 Eden, Major Fleming, Mr. Boucher, who tutored John 
 Parke Custis, the Calverts, Daniel of Saint Thomas 
 Jenifer, and other Maryland notables. At times the 
 whole party would cross the river for a hunt and dinner 
 at Mount Vernon, spend the night there, and next day 
 press on in a body to Belvoir for further entertainment, 
 and even on to Gunston Hall and Belle Aire, picking 
 up recruits to the merry party enroute, and on their lei- 
 surely return dropping them at their homes after partak- 
 ing of renewed hospitality. 
 
 The races at Annapolis always drew the family from 
 Mount Vernon. The visit to the Maryland Capital 
 gave country life a touch of urbanity. On these oc- 
 casions the great coach, the horses, the coachman, 
 footmen, and postilions were sent across the river the 
 day before, to be in readiness without delay, for the 
 arrival of the master and mistress next morning for an 
 early start. The trip was broken by stops in Marlboro 
 and at Mount Airy, home of the Calverts, who were 
 later to be connected with the family at Mount Vernon 
 by the marriage of Miss Eleanor Calvert and John 
 Parke Custis. 
 
 Washington's pastors and friends at Pohick Church 
 were frequent and welcome visitors at his home, among 
 them Dr. Green, the Rev. Lee Massey, Captain Daniel 
 McCarty of Cedar Grove on Accotink Creek, Col. 
 Alexander Henderson, Dr. Peter Wagener, Col. William 
 Grayson, Mr. George Johnston, and Mr. Martin Cock- 
 burn of Springfield, near Gunston Hall. 
 
 Two other neighbors within sight of the villa were 
 Thomas Hanson Marshall of Marshall Hall on the Mary- 
 
94 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 land shore aboui two miles to the south, and John 
 Posey of Rover's Delight, the sentimental name he 
 gave liis house on the Dogue Creek tract later added 
 to Mount Vernon. As revealed in their letters to 
 Washington they were as definitely opposite types as 
 could well be imagined. Marshall was precise, un- 
 yielding, self-sufficient, and admirable. Dear old Posey 
 was easy-going, dependent, timid, irresolute, and de- 
 li-lit I'ul. Indeed a single passage from one of Posey's 
 letters >eiit up to liis friend Colonel Washington give- 
 his character in a paragraph: 
 
 "1 could [have] been able to [have] Satisfied all my 
 old Arrears, Some months AGoe, by marrying [an] old 
 widow woman in this Comity, She has Large soms 
 [of] cash by her, and lYittey good Es*- She is as thick, 
 as she is high And gits drunk at Least three or foure 
 [times] a weak which is Disagreable to me — has 
 Yiliant Sperril when Drunk — its been [a] Great Dis- 
 pute in my mind what to Doe, — I believe I shu'd Run 
 all Resk's if my Last wife, had been [an] Even tem- 
 per'd woman, but her Sperrit, has Given me such [a] 
 Shock thai I am afraid to Hun the Resk Again, when 
 1 -..• the object before my Ey[e]s [it] is Disagreable."* 
 
 The Mount Vernon coach and horses were nowhere 
 more familiar than on the road to Alexandria. The 
 little city eight miles up river was the background of a 
 large pari ^\' Washington's life and of some of (he most 
 important events of his career. Here at one time he is 
 said to have had his < Sice ;is surveyor; it was the base of 
 
 Edited by Si inialaua Murray Hamilton), published 
 1 1 1 .■ . - . >f America, Volume IV. page 86. 
 
MOUNT VERNON 95 
 
 his departure on his trips westward on surveying bound 
 and later to fight in the wars with the French, he repre- 
 sented it in the House of Burgesses, he surveyed its 
 streets, he was a member of the town council, here he cast 
 his votes, here later in life he worshipped at Christ 
 Church, and here he held his last review. Alexandria 
 was warehouse and market town for the products of 
 Mount Vernon farms, its physicians attended the family 
 in illness, and not only did the Washingtons enter fully 
 into the social life of the little city, but their friends 
 there were in an intimate sense their neighbors, and 
 stood out conspicuously in the picture of social life at 
 Mount Vernon. 
 
 The assemblies at Alexandria were a never-failing 
 lure to Washington. One of the first to which he took 
 Mrs. Washington after their marriage was thus re- 
 corded in the diary : 
 
 "Went to a ball at Alexandria, where Musick and 
 dancing was the chief Entertainment however in a 
 convenient room detached for the purpose abounded 
 great plenty of bread and butter, some biscuits, with 
 tea and coffee, which the drinkers of could not distin- 
 guish from hot water sweet'ned — 
 
 "Be it remembered that pocket handkerchiefs servd 
 the purposes of Table cloths & Napkins and that no 
 apologies were made for either. I shall therefore 
 distinguish this ball by the stile and title of the Bread 
 & Butter Ball." 
 
 Repeated like the responses in a litany are these 
 
 entries of Herberts, Alexanders, Carlyles, Ramsays, 
 
\m MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Rumney, Laurie, and other Alexandrians at Mount 
 Vernon, gathered at random from a few months of the 
 diary in 1760 and L768: 
 
 "Just as we were going to Dinnr. Capt. Walter 
 Stuart appeared with Doctr. Laurie," who attended 
 all Washington's people by contract for £15 a year; 
 'Doctr. Craik lefl this for Alexandria"; "Doctr 
 Laurie dined here"; "Returned home receiving an 
 invitation to Mrs. Chew's Ball on Monday night next- 
 first"; "Colo. Carlyle dind here"; "Returnd home, 
 M rs. ( Jarlyle accompanying us, the day being exceeding 
 tine"; "Mr. Carlyle (who came here from Port Tobo. 
 Court lasl night) and Mrs. Carlyle were confin'd here 
 all day"; "Mr. Carlyle and his wife returnd home"; 
 "Doctr Laurie came here, I may say drunk"; "Mrs. 
 Washington was blooded by Doctr Laurie"; "Sent 
 Tom and Mike to Alexandria in my boat for 20 or 25 
 bushels of oats. Went up myself there to Court"; 
 "At home with Doctr. Rumney"; "Confined by rain 
 with Mr. Fairfax and Mr. Alexander" — the city was 
 named after the Alexanders who were great landholders 
 on its site and in its vicinity; "In the afternoon went 
 up to Mr. Robt. Alexander's in order to meet Mr. B. 
 Fairfax \; others a foxHuntg"; "Returnd home, much 
 disordered by a Lax, Griping & violent straining"; 
 "Sent for Doctr. Rumney, who came in ye afternoon"; 
 "Doctr still here & Mr. Ramsay came down to see 
 me"; "Went with Colo. Carlyle and our Families to 
 Belvoir"; "Went to Court," at Alexandria; "Colo. 
 
 Carlyle & Family also went up. Mr. Stcdlar stay'd <Sc 
 
 Sally Carlyle"; "We (together wl. Miss Betey Ram- 
 wenl to AJexa. to a Ball"; "Went to church at 
 
The Wist Parlor 
 
 The Family Dining Room 
 
MOUNT VERNON 97 
 
 Alexandria and Dined at Colo Carlyle's"; "Went up 
 to Alexandria to meet the Attorney-General & returned 
 with him, his Lady and Daughter, Miss Corbin & Majr. 
 Jenifer"; "At home with the above Company. Colo. 
 Fairfax, his Lady & Miss Nicholas, Colo. West & his 
 wife, & Colo. Carlyle, Captn. Dal ton & Mr. Piper — - 
 the three last of whom stayd at night " ; " Went to Alex- 
 andria & bought a Brick layer from Mr. Piper & re- 
 turnd to Dinner. In the afternoon Mr. R. Alexander 
 come"; "Miss Manly dind here, and Mr. Alexander 
 came in the evening"; "Mr. Alexander & Miss Manly 
 went away"; " Went to a Ball in Alexandria" ; "Went 
 to a Purse Race at Accotinck & returnd with Messrs. 
 Robt. and George Alexander"; "Miss Sally Carlyle 
 came here" ; " Went to Alexandria to see a ship launched, 
 but was dissapointed and came home"; "Went up 
 again, saw the ship Launched, stayd all night to a 
 Ball"; and so on. 
 
 One of the great attractions at Mount Vernon for 
 Washington's friends was the hunting. Though the 
 Potomac has always been famous for duck and fish, 
 Washington only occasionally went gunning, and less 
 often did he try his skill with hook and line. The latter 
 sport was little in evidence on this river where fishing 
 has always been done on a wholesale scale by seines and 
 nets and traps. 
 
 His prime outdoor diversion was fox hunting. The 
 pursuit of Brer Fox seems sometimes to have been less 
 an object in itself than an excuse to be in the saddle 
 and to ride afield, for he loved to feel a horse under him, 
 and he rode with famous skill. He loved the yelp of 
 the pack and the excitement of a galloping group of 
 
98 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 horsemen, and the hard ride for hours a1 a time "across 
 a country thai was only for those who dared." They 
 justified the day whatever its end. It is inevitable 
 thai he was "fashionably" dressed for the hunt. His 
 stepson says he "was always superbly mounted, in 
 true sporting costume, of blue coat, scarlel waistcoat, 
 buckskin breeches, top boots, velvet cap, and whip 
 w ith long thong." 
 
 Some notion of the out-of-door life al Mount Vernon, 
 as well as the relative number of days devoted to duck- 
 ing and fox hunting may be gathered from these quo- 
 tations from the diary for the months of January and 
 February, L769: 
 
 "Jan. I, Fox hunting; 1<>, Foxhunting; 11, Foxhunt- 
 ing; 12, Foxhunting; 16, Went a ducking; 17, Foxhunt- 
 ing; is. Fox hunting; 19, Fox hunting; 20, Fox hunting; 
 21, Fox hunting; 25, Hunting below Accotinck; 28, Fox 
 hunting; Feb. 3, Went a Gunning up the Creek; 9, Wen1 
 a Ducking; 10, Went a shooting again; 11, Ducking till 
 Dinner; 1 fc, Fox hunting; 17, Kid out with my hounds; 
 IS, Went a hunting with Doctr. Rumney Started a fox 
 <>r rather 2 or ."» & cat died none — Dogs mostly got after 
 deer & never joind; 27, Fox hunting." 
 
 When in pursuil of the fox they not infrequently 
 started <\<-<-v or hear. 
 
 These parties seem generally t<» have drawn from 
 these friend^ and relatives: the Fairfaxes, Colonel 
 
 Bassett, Jack Cuslis, T. and Win. Triplet, II. Mauley, 
 
 Philip and Robert Alexander, William Ramsay, Colonel 
 Fielding Lewis. Dr. Rumney, Captain McCarty, Lloyd 
 
The Music Room 
 
 In the foreground is the harpsichord which General Washington imported from 
 
 London for Mrs. Washington's granddaughter, Nellie Custis 
 
 The Sitting Rohm 
 
 Veross the hall from the Music Room. Beyond the open door is the stairway 
 between General Washington's Librarj and his Bedroom 
 
MOUNT VERNON 99 
 
 Dulaney and his brother, and Messrs. Chichester, Wag- 
 ener, Tilghman, Posey, Peake, and others. 
 
 There was a famous pack of hounds at Mount Vernon, 
 in the kennels down on the western slope leading to the 
 wharf. Their names ring across the years fresh and in- 
 spiring: Pilot, Musick, Countess, Truelove, Lawlor, 
 Forrister, Singer, Ringwood, Mopsey, Cloe, Dutchess, 
 Chaunter, Drunkard and, doubtless his son, Tipsy. 
 From a stable full of thoroughbred mounts the names of 
 Blueskin, Valiant, Ajax, and Chinkling are preserved. 
 
 The races in Fairfax or neighboring counties in 
 Virginia and Maryland were potent in drawing forth the 
 squire of Mount Vernon. He contributed liberally, 
 entered horses from his stables, and occasionally laid a 
 wager on the result. Washington was a steward of the 
 Alexandria Jockey Club. Nearer Mount Vernon was 
 Bogg's Race Track in the meadow below and to the 
 west of Pohick Church, but the reader is left to wonder 
 where might have been the track referred to in the 
 brief entry: "Went up to a Race by Mr. Beckwith's & 
 lodgd at Mr. Edwd. Paynes." 
 
 Rainy days or the early winter evenings were devoted 
 to cards. Washington's account books indicate that 
 playing cards were quickly used up. The profit and 
 loss columns record his winnings and losses, which at 
 times mounted to nine pounds at a sitting. It was a 
 liberal age. Not only was gambling on a moderate scale 
 considered a fashionable diversion, but the family at 
 Mount Vernon patronized the lotteries on various oc- 
 casions. These institutions were under distinguished 
 social and even, in one instance, ecclesiastical patronage. 
 Among the many lotteries in which Washington bought 
 
loo MOUNT VERNON 
 
 tickets were the Alexandria Street Lottery, "Colo. 
 Byrds Lottery," Peregrine and Fitzhugh's Lottery, the 
 Mountain Road Lottery, and Earl Sterling's Land and 
 Cash Lottery. From letters and accounts it would seem 
 thai the last was much trafficked in. One item is for 
 " l"s:> ... for twelve tickets. Washington 
 
 took quantities of Lord Sterling's Delaware lottery 
 tickets and then resold them. His agent in this trans- 
 action was the Reverend Walter Magowan, of Saint 
 James Parish, Anne Arundel County, Maryland, who 
 w&s a frequent visitor at Mount Vernon and was one of 
 John Parke < Justis' tutors. 
 
 One of the fashionable customs which was not toler- 
 ated at Mount Vernon, however, was duelling. Thack- 
 eray was under another impression, for he hinged the 
 plot of "The Virginians" on the challenge sent to Wash- 
 ington by young Warrington, and it is implied that 
 Washington will fight. Thackeray had evidently not 
 read this letter of George Mason's: "You express a fear 
 that General Lee will challenge our friend. Indulge in 
 qo such apprehensions, for he too well knows the senti- 
 ments of General Washington on the subject of duelling. 
 From his earliest manhood I have heard him express his 
 
 contempt of the man who sends and the man who ac- 
 cepts a challenge, for he regards such acts as no proof of 
 
 moral courage; and the practice he abhors as a relic of 
 old barbarisms, repugnant alike to sound morality and 
 christian enlightenment." 
 
 Such are some of the aspects of life at Mount Vernon 
 and of the character of its occupant before the Revolu- 
 tion. Hut such a survey would be incomplete if it 
 carried the impression that so much social activity 
 
MOUNT VERNON 101 
 
 diminished interest in the family spirit, which in this in- 
 stance rose out of the presence of Mrs. Washington's 
 two children, Martha Custis and her brother, John 
 Parke Custis. 
 
 Washington met the demands of his wife's children 
 with the same tenderness and generosity as if he had 
 been their own father. Martha, or Patty as she was 
 more often called, was an invalid all her short life. It 
 was in large part for her that Dr. Green and Dr. Laurie 
 and Dr. Rumney made their repeated visits to Mount 
 Vernon. Once, in their hope to relieve the child, "Joshua 
 Evans, who came here last night, put an Iron ring upon 
 Patey (for fits)." 
 
 Mrs. Washington took her children on the trips away 
 from Mount Vernon, though once she made the experi- 
 ment of leaving Jacky at home, as she wrote her sister, 
 Mrs. Bassett, and with such anxiety to herself that the 
 boy probably accompanied his mother on future trips: 
 *'I carried my little patt with me and left Jacky at home 
 for a trial to see how well I could stay without him 
 though we ware gon but wone fortnight I was quite im- 
 patient to get home. If I at aney time heard the doggs 
 barke or a noise out, I thought thair was a person sent 
 for me." 
 
 There was a tutor at Mount Vernon to instruct Patty 
 and Jack in their letters and figures, but the popular 
 occasions of instructions were the days when Mr. Chris- 
 tian, the dancing master, arrived on his way over his 
 itinerary, which extended the length of the Potomac's 
 tidewater valley. The classes were held at Mount 
 Vernon and Gunston Hall in turn, when all the children 
 of the neighborhood assembled to be taught the rollick- 
 
L02 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 ing country dances or tin- Formal minuet. When the 
 afternoon had been danced away and candles were 
 brought, Mr. Christian retired, and the young people 
 romped at "Button to gel Pauns for Redemption" or 
 "Break the Pope's Neck." The fun was carried on 
 with " sprightliness and Decency," bu1 the "Pauns" 
 were potent to wring "kisses from the Ladies." 
 
 Washington was fond of dancing and he took an in- 
 terest in the dancing classes and the after sport of the 
 children. Though his manner was gentle and kindly, 
 his presence was so imposing that young people a.s well 
 as their elders were inclined to become reserved when 
 with him. The reminiscence of an old Virginia lady of 
 ninety-one, who in her twelfth year romped under the 
 eyes of Colonel and Mrs. Washington, is a likely one: 
 '"Often, when at their games in the drawing-room at 
 oighl perhaps romping, dancing and uoisey —they [the 
 children] would see the General watching their move- 
 ments at some side door, enjoying their sport, and if at 
 any time his presence seemed to check them, he would 
 1 hem nut to mind him, hut go <»n jusl as before, en- 
 couraging them in every possible way to continue their 
 amusemenl to their hearts' content." 
 
 The little family kept together until l?(iS, when the 
 Reverend Walter Magowan, of lottery fame, who had 
 been tutoring the Custis children, left for England. r l ne 
 education of girls was not a serious matter in those days, 
 and Miss Patty was considered sufficiently accomplished 
 in Mr. Magowan's rudiments and the graces Mi - . ( Ihris- 
 li.in had given her. With a man it was different. lie 
 had In he educated. So in the Same year Jack went over 
 
 t" Annapolis under the care of Reverend Jonathan 
 
MOUNT VERNON 103 
 
 Boucher, who had several other young gentlemen under 
 his charge. During the next five years Jack was away 
 from home much of the time, either at Annapolis or at 
 King's College in New York. 
 
 Running parallel with Washington's private life at 
 Mount Vernon, throughout the pre-Revolutionary 
 period, was an active public life, for he met and recog- 
 nized the responsibilities of citizenship always in full. 
 The period of this public service was so much over- 
 shadowed by his earlier and later military career and by 
 his supreme service under the new Republic, that it is 
 easy to think of Mount Vernon at this time merely as a 
 home of an industrious, pleasure-loving planter. Bound 
 up in his home though he was, there emanated from 
 Mount Vernon wider and more unselfish interests than 
 those which were merely social and domestic. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 Washington in Colonial Public Life — Vestryman of Truro Parish 
 — Drawing the Parish Lines to Capture Mount Vernon — 
 Attendance at Pohick Church — As a Churchman — As Burgess 
 in the Assembly at Williamsburg — Trips Between Mount 
 Vernon and the Capital — Late Summers at Bath Springs — A 
 Trip to New York — Charles Willson Peale — The First Por- 
 trait. 
 
 BEFORE the Revolution Mount Vernon was 
 represented in the civic life of the neighborhood 
 and colony by Washington's long tenure as a 
 vestryman of Truro Parish and as a member of the 
 House of Burgesses at Williamsburg. 
 
 The Revolution divorced the Church and State, but 
 until that time the Episcopal Church was a civic estab- 
 lishment in the colony as well as in England. The 
 parish was created by the Assembly, and by its direc- 
 tion the parish was surveyed and the first vestry was 
 elected by the "freeholders and housekeepers" of the 
 county. Thereafter the vestry constituted a tight 
 little self-perpetuating corporation, by itself filling all 
 vacancies in its own body. Hut the vestry was unfail- 
 ingly representative of the "ablest and most discreet" 
 citizens of the ueighborhood. Under authority and 
 direction of the vestry deeds were recorded, the tithe 
 
 lists made up, the tithes collected, the poor cared for, 
 ami the landmarks renewed by the process called "pro- 
 
 cessioning." To tin- churchwardens fell "the duty of 
 binding orphans and other indigent children as Ap- 
 
 1M 
 
MOUNT VERNON 105 
 
 prentices," and the obligation of looking after the 
 apprentices' morals, their education and their initiation 
 into the "Art and mystery" of shoemaker, carpenter, 
 cooper, etc. 
 
 The vestry of Truro Parish was probably the most 
 distinguished in the colony. Of its members eleven 
 sat in the House of Burgesses; two of them, the Fair- 
 faxes, were of His Majesty's Council for Virginia; an- 
 other member, George Mason, author of the Virginia 
 Bill of Rights and the Constitution of the State of 
 Virginia, was one of the most enlightened men in the 
 colonies; and, finally and first, George Washington. 
 
 Pohick, the parish church of Truro Parish, was first 
 situated on Michael Reagan's Hill on the road from 
 Alexandria and the north to Colchester and the south, 
 due west of Mount Vernon by a drive of about nine 
 miles. When in 1767 the present surviving edifice was 
 projected, it was built at a point selected by Washington 
 two miles nearer his home. 
 
 Washington was first elected vestryman October 25, 
 1762. The family name was not new to the Truro 
 Parish register, for his father, Augustine Washington, 
 entered the same vestry in November, 1735. The 
 date is valuable in connection with establishing the 
 period when the family, including George at the age of 
 three years, came first to Mount Vernon. 
 
 Some confusion has marked the various statements as 
 to where Washington and his family worshipped and 
 when and to what vestries he belonged. The confusion 
 results from an interesting parish contest for the posses- 
 sion of Mount Vernon. 
 
 Truro Parish was divided by act of Assembly, in 
 
km; MOUNT VERNON 
 
 February, 1765, creating the new parish of Fairfax. 
 1 Rogue's Run was a pari of the dividing line, and Mount 
 Vernon found itself in the new parish, cut off from old 
 Pohick. This act raised immediate and general protesl 
 from the parent parish. Mount Vernon was the hone 
 of contention. Washington himself seems to have been 
 averse to being legislated oul of Pohick and out of his 
 association with Colonel Fairfax, Colonel Mason, and 
 his other neighbors of the vestry, for he was one of a 
 committee of Burgesses who introduced the act, passed 
 the following May, which moved the northern boundary 
 of the parish from Dogue's Creek on the west side of 
 Mount Vernon to a line running with Little Hunting 
 Creek to the northeast of the mansion. Mount Vernon 
 was thus restored to Pohick, where it has remained ever 
 aince. 
 
 Meanwhile, on its creation in May, 1765, I lie new 
 parish of Fairfax had .-it once elected Washington a 
 vestryman. On the realignment of the parishes four 
 months later he resigned from Fairfax and was again 
 elected to the vestry of Truro. Washington was con- 
 tinuously reelected to the same vestry and attended 
 Pohick Church with a high average of regularity until 
 the Revolution took him away from home. 
 
 The Mount Vernon coach was in evidence at Pohick 
 from 1 7. v.) to 1771, of ten accompanied by a chaise and by 
 gentlemen on horseback, for Washington seems to have 
 been persuasive in inducing his usually numerous house 
 guests to accompany him and Mrs. Washington to 
 church. At least one effort has been made to establish 
 Washington's lukewarmness as a churchman. The 
 author thereof cite- an average of fifteen entries of 
 
MOUNT VERNON 107 
 
 church attendance each year between 1760 and 1773. 
 He assumes that Washington never went to church 
 that he did not record it in his diary. Even so he 
 might have thought better of Washington's fifteen 
 annual trips to Pohick if he had experienced year after 
 year the condition of colonial Virginia roads and realized 
 the futility of trying to force a great chariot through a 
 round trip of from fourteen to eighteen miles of Fairfax 
 clay during wet and winter weather. In further justice 
 to Washington's practical interest in the church it is 
 fair to call attention to the fact that Pohick Church 
 was not open every Sunday of the year. The rector 
 "supplied" one and sometimes two other churches. 
 Moreover, Washington made additional trips to Pohick 
 Church to attend meetings of the vestry. "During 
 the eleven years of his active service from February, 
 1763, to February, 1774," says the parish historian, 
 "thirty one 'vestries' were held, at twenty three of 
 which he is recorded as being present. On the eight 
 occasions when he was absent, as we learn from his diary 
 or other sources, once he was sick in bed, twice the 
 House of Burgesses, of which he was a member, was 
 in session, and three other times certainly, and on the 
 two remaining occasions probably, he was out of the 
 County." 
 
 Washington bought pew twenty-eight, in the centre of 
 the church, before the Communion table, on the north 
 aisle. Lund Washington bought number twenty-nine, 
 next behind, but George Washington later bought it 
 from him. The Sunday attendance from Mount 
 Vernon required these two great square box-like pews, 
 which Washington kept all his life, even when the 
 
108 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 parish foil upon ueglected clays and Pohick was without 
 a regular rector, and he and his family worshipped at 
 ( Jhrisl Church, Alexandria. 
 
 Churchgoing really played a Large part in the social 
 side of Virginia colonial life. Philip Vickers Fithian, 
 in his Journal, gives a graphic idea of this phase: 
 
 "There are three grand divisions of time at the church 
 on Sundays; Viz: before Service giving and receiving 
 Utters of business, reading Advertisements, consulting 
 about the price of Tobacco, Grain, &c, and settling 
 either the lineage, Age or qualities of favorite Horses. 
 2. In the church at Service, prayers read over in haste, 
 a Sermon, seldom under and never over twenty minutes, 
 but always made up of sound morality, or deep-studied 
 Metaphysicks. 3. After Service is over, three quarters 
 of an hour spent in strolling round the church among 
 the crowd in which time invitations are given by gentle- 
 men to go home with them to dinner." 
 
 Which gives significance to a certain item in the speci- 
 ticit inns for the building of Pohick Church: "And the 
 said Daniel French doth further agree to build two 
 Horse-Blocks with each two flights of Steps; to fix six 
 benches for the people to sit on under the trees; and to 
 clear and remove all the rubbish and litter from off the 
 Church Lott, so as to fix it for the Reception of the 
 Congregation; and to have those additional works done 
 by the time appointed for the finishing of the ( Jhurch." 
 
 V.S already seen, Mount Vernon had to wait for its 
 new niUi ress on its master's first appearance in the 
 House of Burgesses. After that session in 17.')!) he was 
 returned as Burgess every year until the Revolution 
 
MOUNT VERNON 109 
 
 made his attendance impossible; at first, as stated, by 
 Frederick County, but from 1765 by Fairfax. 
 
 Washington did not exert his influence on the floor 
 of the House as an orator. His first effort there at a 
 speech was a fiasco, but justified its failure by produc- 
 ing the celebrated tribute from Mr. Speaker Robinson. 
 When Washington rose to reply to the Speaker's pro- 
 fession of the colony's thanks for his distinguished mili- 
 tary services in the West, he blushed, stammered, and 
 was mute. Mr. Robinson came to his rescue with: "Sit 
 down, Mr. Washington,your modesty equals your valour, 
 and that surpasses the power of any language I possess." 
 
 His genius showed itself rather in leadership in com- 
 mittee, in sound advice, and especially in the drafting 
 of legislative papers. When John Parke Custis, at this 
 time a boy at Mount Vernon, was later elected to the 
 Assembly, Washington wrote to him his own conception 
 of the duty of the Burgess: 
 
 " I do not suppose that so young a senator as you are, 
 little versed in political disquisitions, can yet have much 
 influence in a popular assembly, composed of Gentln. 
 of various talents and of different views. But it is in 
 your power to be punctual in your attendance (and 
 duty to the trust reposed in you exacts it of you), to 
 hear dispassionately and determine coolly all great 
 questions. To be disgusted at the decision of questions, 
 because they are not consonant to your own ideas, and 
 to withdraw ourselves from public assemblies, or to 
 neglect our attendance at them, on suspicion that there 
 is a party formed, who are inimical to our cause, and to 
 the true interest of our country, is wrong, because these 
 
no MOUNT VERNON 
 
 things may originate in a difference of opinion; but, 
 supposing the facl is otherwise, and that our suspicions 
 are well founded, it is the indespensable duty of every 
 patriot to counteract them by the most steady and 
 uniform opposition." 
 
 The sessions of the Burgesses were held in the spring 
 after the roads had settled and in the fall before winter 
 opened them again. The trips back and forth between 
 Mount Vernon and Williamsburg were made by coach 
 as a rule, especially when Mrs. Washington accom- 
 panied her husband; otherwise in his chaise or "chair," 
 or on horseback, attended by his servants. 
 
 The distance was generally covered in four days. 
 The diary sets forth the dates and the stoppages which 
 indicate the routes followed; first in October, 1768: 
 
 1!). Set (.f on my Journey to Williamsburg & reachd Colo. 
 Henry I. crs to Dinner. 
 
 20. Detaind there all day by Rain. 
 
 21. Reachd Fredericksburg, found Warren Washington & Ca. 
 
 there. 
 
 22. Dined at Parkers Ordy. & lodgd at Mr. Benja. Hubbards, 
 
 Colo. Lewis also. 
 Dined at the Causey & got to Colo. Bassetts. 
 24. Dined at Josh. Valentine's sent Chairs & Horses over James 
 River, & lodged in Wins. burg ourselves. 
 
 and returning the early part of next month: 
 
 6. Left Williamsburg & dined & lodgd at Colo. Bassetts. 
 
 7. Set out for home with Betsy Dandridge. Dined at King 
 
 Wm. Court Ho. & lodgd at Mr. Win. Avletts. 
 
 8. Dined at Parkers and lodgd at Fredericksburg. 
 
 !». Reached home in about 7 hours & an half, found Doctr. 
 
 Rnmv. and Miss Ramv. here. 
 
MOUNT VERNON 111 
 
 The round trip another year, in 1774, was made in 
 this fashion, starting in May: 
 
 12. Set off with Mrs. Washington for Williamsburg. Dined 
 
 at Dumfries and lodged at Col. Lewis's in Fredericksburg. 
 
 13. At Fredericksburg all day. Dined at Col. Lewis's and 
 
 spent the evening at Weedon's. 
 
 14. Dined at Roys Ordinary and lodged at Tods Bridge. 
 
 15. Breakfasted at Ruflfins Ferry and dined and lodged at Col. 
 
 Bassett's. 
 
 16. Came to Williamsburg, dined at the Governor's, and spent 
 
 the evening at Mrs. Campbell's. 
 
 And returning in June: 
 
 18. Dined at Mrs. Dawson's and came up to Col. Bassetts in 
 
 the afternoon. 
 
 19. At Colo. Bassett's all day. 
 
 20. Set off from thence on my return home. Dined at Todd's 
 
 Bridge and lodged at Hubbard's. 
 
 21. Breakfasted at the Boiling Green, dined and lodged at Col. 
 
 Lewis's in Fredericksburg. 
 
 22. Reached home to a late dinner, after breakfasting at Acquia. 
 
 Many more days were sometimes consumed, however, 
 as in the spring of 1768, when Washington loitered on 
 the journey homeward over twenty-five days. The 
 diary furnishes a graphic sketch of Washington at play : 
 
 May 
 
 6. Rid to the Plantations near Williamsburg & dined at Mr. 
 
 Valentine's. 
 
 7. Came up to Colo. Bassett's to Dinner. 
 
 8. Went to Church & returnd to Dinner. 
 
 9. Went a Fox hunting and catched a Fox after 35 minutes 
 
 chase; returnd to Dinner & found the Attorney, his 
 Lady & daughter there. 
 
112 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 10. Rid to the Buck House & returnd to Dinner; after which 
 
 went a dragging for sturgeon. 
 
 11. Dined at the Globe with Mr. Davis. 
 
 12. Wenl to New (Cent Court with Colo. Bassett. 
 
 13. Went after sturgeon & a gunning. 
 
 14. Went to my Plantation in King William by water and dragd 
 
 for St urgeon & catchd one. 
 1"). Rid to see Colo. Bassetts meadows at Roots's. 
 Ki. Fishing for Sturgeon from Breakfast to Dinner but catchd 
 
 none. 
 
 17. Rid to Buck House & returnd to Dinner. 
 
 18. Did the same & got my Chariot & Horses over to Claibornes. 
 
 19. "Went a shooting & hair huntg. with the Hounds who started 
 
 a Fox which we catchd. 
 
 20. Set of from Colo. Bassetts for Nomony, crossed over to 
 
 Claibornes; from thence by Frazer's Ferry to Hobs hole 
 dining at Webbs Ordinarj'. 
 
 21. Reaehd my Brothr. John's who & his wife were up the 
 
 Country. Crossed over to Mr. Booths. 
 
 22. Went to Church (Nomony) & returnd to Mr Booths to 
 
 Dinner, who was also from home in Gloucester. Mr. 
 Smith, the Parson, dind with us. 
 
 23. At Mr Booth's all day with Revd. Mr. Smith. My Car- 
 
 penter & House People went to work at my Mill repairing 
 the Dams, (lightening of them & opening the Race. 
 
 24. Came up to Pope's ( 'reek & staid there all day. 
 
 25. Got up to my Brother Sams to Dinner, found Mrs. Wash- 
 
 ington &C. there. 
 20. Remaind at my Brother Sams where my Brother Jno. came, 
 as also Mr. Lawr. Washington &c to Dinner. 
 
 27. Dined at Mr. L. Washingtons with the Compy. at my 
 
 Bro. 
 
 28. Went to Boyd's hole & returnd to my Brothers to Dinr. 
 
 w here we found ( Jolo. Lew is & my Br. ( lharles. 
 
 29. Wenl to St. Pauls church & Dined at my Brothers. 
 
 The bitch Chanter brought five Dog puppies & 3 Bitch 
 ditto which were named as follows: viz — Forrester, 
 
North and South Lanes 
 
 Taken in the North lane near the Spinning House and 
 showing the Sun-dial in the Circle 
 
MOUNT VERNON 113 
 
 Sancho, Ringwood, Drunkard, and Sautwell — and Chan- 
 ter, Singer & Busy. 
 
 30. Went fishing & dined under Mr. L. Washington's store. 
 
 31. Returnd home crossing at Hooes Ferry — through Port 
 
 Tobacco. 
 
 The trips to Williamsburg represent Washington's 
 principal absences from Mount Vernon during the fif- 
 teen years next after his marriage. Occasionally he took 
 the family to the Bath Warm Springs, but on only two 
 other occasions did he go farther from his beloved home. 
 In 1770 he went to the Ohio and in 1773 to New York. 
 
 The Warm Spring trips were made partly in hopes of 
 benefiting Patsy Custis, and partly to counteract the 
 malaria imbibed at Mount Vernon, against which the 
 "Bark" seems not to have been wholly effective. 
 August was the month selected for the sojourn at the 
 Springs. Of his earliest experience there he said: 
 "Lodgings can be had on no terms but building for 
 them. . . . Had we not succeeded in getting a 
 tent and a marquee from Winchester we should have 
 been in a most miserable station here." Lloyd 
 Dulaney's inquiry about the rent of his house there in 
 1771 would suggest that he built at once, though his 
 diary clearly establishes the building of a new house, 
 kitchen, and stable there in 1784. The journey to the 
 Ohio in the autumn of 1770 was made to see the bounty 
 lands which he and his companions in arms, during the 
 campaigns against the French and their Indian allies, 
 had received from the Government for their military 
 services. He was accompanied by his friend, neighbor, 
 and fellow campaigner, "Dr. Craik, his servant, two of 
 mine, with a led horse and baggage." They departed 
 
1 1 t MOUNT VERNON 
 
 October 5th and on December 1st he "Reaehd home, 
 being absent from it nine weeks and one day," longer 
 than he was away from Mount Vernon at any other 
 time between 1759 and 1775. 
 
 The occasion of his trip to New York City in May and 
 June, 1773, was to place Jack Custis in King's College. 
 He was absent twenty-nine days, only four of which 
 were spent in New York. The journey northward con- 
 sumed sixteen days, the return nine days. In going and 
 in returning he crossed the Potomac at the ferry above 
 Mount Vernon, landing on Piscataway, and making 
 his firsl stop with Mr. Calvert of Mount Airy. The 
 points touched during the sixteen days' outward journey 
 were Annapolis, Rockhall, Chestertown, "Georgetown 
 on Sassafras," Newcastle, Wilmington, Chester, Phila- 
 delphia, Burlington, Trenton, Princeton, Bound Brook, 
 'Lord Sterling's at Baskin's Ridge," and "Elisabeth 
 town." Southward he stopped at New Ark, Amboy, 
 Brunswick, Princeton, Bristol, Philadelphia, "the Sorrel 
 House, 13 miles from it," "the Ship Tavern, 34 off," 
 the Sign of the Bull, " 13 miles from ye Ship," Lancaster, 
 York Town, " the Sign of the Buck, 14 miles from York," 
 Sul tons, Slades, "Baltimore Town," the Widow Ram- 
 say's, and Mount Airy, and he "reached home to dinner 
 about 2 o'clock." 
 
 The earliesl portrait of Washington was painted at 
 this time at Mount Vernon. He wrote Dr. Boucher, in 
 May, 1772: " Inclination having yielded to Importunity, 
 1 am now contrary to all expectation under the hands of 
 Mr. Peale; but in so grave so sullen a mood and now 
 and then under the influence of Morpheus, when some 
 critical strokes are making, that I fancy the skill of this 
 
MOUNT VERNON 115 
 
 Gentleman's Pencil, will be put to it, in describing to the 
 World what manner of man I am." 
 
 The artist was Charles Willson Peale and the portrait 
 was the three-quarter length picture in the uniform of a 
 Virginia colonel. On "May 19. Found Mr. Peale and 
 J. P. Custis. — 20. I sat to have my picture drawn. — 
 21. I set again to take the drapery. — 22. Set for 
 Mr. Peale to finish my face." The artist found subjects 
 also in Mrs. Washington, Martha and Jack Custis. 
 These three productions, however, were in miniature. 
 The cost of the four paintings was £57.4.0. 
 
 So passed the life at Mount Vernon, domestic and 
 social, private and public, during the years which were 
 for Washington among the happiest, if not quite the 
 happiest, he ever enjoyed. The colony was at peace 
 and was blessed with the serenity of a period practically 
 without history. What Washington wrote to a relative 
 in England was typical of this whole period: "I do not 
 know that I can muster up one tittle of news to com- 
 municate. In short, the occurances of this part of the 
 world are at present scarce worth reciting; for, we live in 
 a state of peaceful tranquility ourselves, so we are at 
 very little trouble to inquire the operations against the 
 Cherokees, who are the only people that disturb the re- 
 pose of this great continent, and who, I believe, would 
 gladly accomodate differences upon almost any terms." 
 
 Not yet apparent was the significance of the increas- 
 ing visits of the fathers of the colony to Mount Vernon 
 and their earnest discussion with its first citizen; nor 
 was it obvious as yet what would issue from the mass of 
 correspondence rolling out of Mount Vernon library to 
 every corner of the clustering colonies. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Last Years Before the Revolution — Changes in the Family and 
 in the Neighborhood— Death of Martha Custis — The Fair- 
 faxes Leave for England— Sale at Belvoir — Jack Custis 
 Marries Eleanor Calvert —Courtly Letters — Mount Vernon 
 Adapts Etself to the Stamp Act— The Fairfax Resolves — 
 Notable Conferences at Mount Vernon — Preparing to En- 
 large the House -Eccentric Charles Lee — Preparations for 
 the Impending Struggle — The Eyes of the Colonies on Mount 
 Vernon -The Richmond Convention — To the Congress in 
 Philadelphia — Commander-in-Chief of the Army. 
 
 THE last two years before the Revolution 
 brought many changes to Mount Vernon. 
 They affected the bouse itself, the family 
 circle, and the neighborhood, and the issues of which, in 
 discussion and in correspondence, it was the storm centre 
 were the most significant in character and effect in the 
 history of our country. 
 
 The firsl grief that shadowed the house in more than 
 twenty years came with the death of Martha Parke 
 Custis, Mrs. Washington's daughter, the "Patsy" and 
 "little pall " of their letters. She bad been an invalid 
 all her brief life, which endeared her the more to her 
 devoted stepfather. On the night of June 10, 177.'). he 
 wrote briefly in bis diary: "About five o'clock poor 
 Patey Custis died suddenly," and in a letter to his wife's 
 brother-in-law, Colonel Bassett: "It is an easier matter 
 t<» conceive than l<> describe the distress of this Family; 
 « specially tli;it of the unhappy Parent of our Dear Patsy 
 
 ik; 
 
MOUNT VERNON 117 
 
 Custis, when I inform you that the Sweet Innocent Girl 
 Entered into a more happy & peaceful abode than any 
 she has met with in the afflicted Path she hitherto has 
 trod." He begs that Mrs. Washington's mother come 
 to make her home at Mount Vernon and concludes: "I 
 do not purpose to add more at present, the end of my 
 writing being to inform you of this unhappy change." 
 He was about to start on a journey into the West with 
 the Governor, Lord Dunmore, but he gave this up and 
 remained with the bereaved mother, his own "dear 
 Patsy," as he was wont to call her. Martha Custis left 
 her entire and very considerable fortune to her step- 
 father. 
 
 This year, too, Mount Vernon lost its long-time 
 neighbors and friends, the Fairfax family, and there- 
 after the diary is silent of fox-hunting and dining and 
 visiting across the creek at the merry old mansion. 
 George William Fairfax fell heir to the ancestral estates 
 in England, placed Bel voir in the care of Colonel Wash- 
 ington, who knew it and loved it better than any other 
 man after its proprietor, and departed America never to 
 return. Washington and his wife were with Colonel 
 Fairfax and his family during their last hours at Bel voir, 
 saw them embark, and from the noble height waved sad 
 adieux as the ship sailed away to southward around the 
 sharp turn in the Potomac. 
 
 Though Colonel Fairfax never returned to America, 
 he and Washington kept up an intimate correspondence 
 for the rest of his life. In 1774 most of the chattels at 
 Belvoir were disposed of at public sale, and Washington 
 bought at the prices below and brought to Mount 
 Vernon the following items: 
 
118 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 1 mahogany shaving desk 4 £, 1 settee bed and furniture 13 £, 
 4 mahogany chairs 4 £, 1 chamber carpet 1 £ Is, 1 oval glass with 
 gilt frame in the "green room" 4 £ 5s, 1 mahogany chest and 
 drawers in Mrs. Fairfax's chamber 12 £ 10s, 1 mahogany sideboard 
 12 £ 5s, 1 mahogany cistern and stand 4 £, 1 mahogany voider, a 
 dish tray and knife tray 1 £ 10s; 1 Japan bread tray 7s, 12 chairs 
 and :> window curtains from dining room 81 £, 1 looking glass and 
 gilt frame l.'J £ 5s, 2 candle sticks and a bust of Shakespeare 1 £ 
 6s, ■"• floor carpets in gentlemen's room 3 £ 5s, 1 large carpet 11 £, 
 1 mahogany wash desk, &c., 1 £ 2s 6d; 1 mahogany close stool 
 
 1 £ 10s, 2 matresses 1 £ 10s, 1 pair andirons, tongs, fender and 
 shovel, 3 £ 10s; 1 pair andirons, tongs, fender and shovel, 3 £ 
 L7s 6d; 1 pair andirons, tongs, fender and shovel, 1 £ 17s (id; 1 
 pair dog irons in great kitchen 3 £, 1 hot rache 4 £, 1 roasting fork 
 2s (id, 1 plate basket 3s, 1 mahogany spider make tea table 1 £ 
 lis. l screen 10s, 1 carpet 2 £ 15s, 1 pair bellows and brush lis, 
 
 2 window curtains 2 £, 1 large marble mortar 1 £ Is, 1 hot rache 
 in cellar 1 £ ?s (id, 2 mahogany card tables 4 £, 1 bed, pair of 
 blankets, 1!) coverlets, pillows, bolsters and 1 mahogany table, 11 I'; 
 bottles and pickle pots 1 Is, 1 dozen mountain wine 1 £ 4s, 4 chariot 
 glasses frames 12s (5d, 12 pewter water plates 1 £. 
 
 Colonel Fairfax presented Colonel and Mrs. Wash- 
 ington with (be entire suite of furniture in k 'the Blue, or 
 Dressing Room." 
 
 The Fairfaxes were moderate loyalists. Not only 
 was it not on account of tbe presaging troubles with the 
 mother country that Colonel Fairfax returned to Eng- 
 land, bill throughoul tbe war be extended liberal assist- 
 ance to Americans in England, to which Washington 
 testified when the confiscation of his American property 
 wa> threatened: 
 
 "I hope, I trust, thai no act of Legislation in the State 
 of Virginia bas affected, or can affect, tbe property of 
 this gentleman, otherwise than in common with that of 
 
MOUNT VERNON 119 
 
 every good and well disposed citizen of America. It is a 
 well known fact that his departure for England was not 
 only antecedant to the present rupture with Great 
 Britian, but before there was the most distant prospect 
 of a serious dispute with that country, and if it is 
 necessary to adduce proof of his attachment to the in- 
 terests of America since his residence there, and of the 
 aid he has given to many of our distressed countrymen 
 in that kingdom, abundant instances may be produced, 
 not only by the Gentlemen alluded to in his letter of 
 December 5, 1779, but by others that are known to me, 
 and on whom justice to Col. Fairfax will make it nec- 
 essary to call, if occasion should require the facts be 
 ascertained." 
 
 John Parke Custis had now grown into young man- 
 hood, and he, too, was soon lost to Mount Vernon, but 
 under consoling circumstances. He had spent the last 
 few years away from home at college or under private 
 tutors, with results that often tried and vexed his step- 
 father, who once said: "I can govern men, but I can- 
 not govern boys." He supposed Jack was finally 
 safely anchored when he placed him with the Rev. Mr. 
 Boucher in Annapolis. There were frequent visits 
 home from there, but the way lay past the door of 
 Mount Airy, the seat of the Cal verts of Maryland, and 
 within was an irresistible temptation in the person of 
 Miss Eleanor. 
 
 When the young people's intentions became obvious 
 the politest letters passed between Mount Vernon and 
 Mount Airy. Washington wrote Benedict Calvert, the 
 young lady's father: 
 
120 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 'My son-in-law and ward, Mr. Custis, lias, as T have 
 been informed, paid his addresses to your second daugh- 
 ter, and, having made 4 sonic progress in her affections, 
 has solicited her in marriage. How far a union of this 
 sort may be agreeable to you, you host can tell; but 
 I should think myself wanting in candor, were I not 
 to confess, thai Miss Nellie's amiable qualities are 
 acknowledged on all hands, and that an alliance with 
 your family will be pleasing to his. ... It may 
 be expected of me, perhaps, to say something of prop- 
 erty; l>ut, to descend to particulars, at this time, must 
 seem rather premature. In general, therefore, I shall 
 inform you, that Mr. Custis's estate consists of about 
 fifteen thousand acres of land, a good part of it adjoining 
 the city of Williamsburg, and none of it forty miles from 
 that place; several lots in the said city; between two and 
 three hundred negroes; and about eight or ten thousand 
 pounds upon bond, and in the hands of his merchants. 
 This estate he now holds independent of his mother's 
 dower; which will he an addition to it at her death; and, 
 upon the whole, it is such an estate as you will readily 
 acknowledge ought to entitle him to a handsome 
 portion with a wife. But as I should never require a 
 child of my own to make a sacrifice of himself to interest 
 so neither do I think it incunihcnt on me to recommend 
 it as ;i guardian. At all times when you, Mrs. Calvert, 
 or the young ladies, can make it convenient to favor us 
 with a visit, we should he happy in seeing you at this 
 
 place." 
 
 To which Mr. Calverl replied with the grace which 
 became one of the family of the Lords Baltimore: 
 
MOUNT VERNON 121 
 
 " I Received the favour of yours of the 3 d Instant by M r 
 Custis which I feel myself highly honoured by, and am 
 truly happy in your Approbation of that young Gentle- 
 mans future Union with my Second Daughter. I should 
 be dead to Parental feelings, were I untouched with the po- 
 lite manner in which you are pleased to compliment Nel- 
 ly's Qualifications; Being her father, it would illy become 
 me to sound her praise, perhaps I might be deemed partial 
 — I shall therefore only say, That it has ever been the 
 Endeavor of her Mother and me, to bring her up in such 
 a manner, as to ensure the happiness of her future Hus- 
 band, in which, I think, we have not been unsuccessful — 
 if we have, we shall be greatly disappointed. . . . 
 Mr. Custis I must acknowledge, is, as a match for my 
 Daughter, much superior to the sanguine hopes which a 
 parents fondness may have at any time encouraged me to 
 indulge. . . . I can only add, on this subject, that, 
 from the largeness of my family (having ten Children) no 
 very great fortune can be expected : What that may be 
 depends upon the Issue of my present depending Claim. 
 Of this, Sir, however be assured, nothing in my power 
 shall be left undone to promote so pleasing a Union — 
 Nelly's portion, as far as my personal Estate will go, shall, 
 at least, be equal to any of my other Children, nor will 
 you, Sir, I am sure, desire more — I shall at all times, when 
 convenient, be happy in bringing my family to wait on 
 M rs Washington, and equally glad to see her & Miss Cus- 
 tis with you at Mount Airy, where I hope it will suit you 
 to call (next week early) in your way to Annapolis, and 
 I will have the pleasure of attending you thither. 
 
 " I am Dear Sir Your most obed 1 Humble Serv 1 
 
 "Bened t Calvert 
 
122 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 "I expect the pleasure of the Governors & M r . Hay- 
 woods Company a Saturday Evening, they stay with 
 me (ill Monday Morning, when they set off for M r . 
 Bouchers where they propose to dine, and then go for 
 Annapolis, I shall attend them there & return home in 
 the Evening, without it will sute you to come here on 
 Sunday and go up with them 
 
 "B C" 
 
 At the end of January, in 1774, the chariot was 
 ferried across to AYarburton, and Colonel Washington 
 followed the next day in the great barge and rolled in 
 state to the Calvert seat. Mrs. Washington still felt 
 the loss of her daughter too keenly to enter into the 
 bridal gayety. The fashion of the two colonies were 
 there, and on February 3d the nuptials were celebrated 
 amid much festivity. Jack was not wholly lost to 
 Mount Vernon, however, for he and his wife made their 
 home at Abingdon, a plantation on the Virginia side of 
 the Potomac about four miles above Alexandria and 
 formerly the home of their friend Robert Alexander. A 
 large portion of their time and their children's was 
 -p«nt at Mount Vernon only a dozen miles away. It is, 
 indeed, one of the traditions that "if any horse of the 
 stables were started from Abingdon, and left to his own 
 fnc will, it would be found in due time at the entrance 
 <>f Mount Vernon." 
 
 The passage of the Stamp Act imposing duties on 
 goods imported into the colony, though at firsl con- 
 sidered as a domestic difficulty which would yield to 
 argument, was nevertheless resisted at once by the 
 colonists. Washington was among the first by per- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 123 
 
 suasion and example to oppose the injustice of the 
 measure. 
 
 The non-importation Resolves were the weapon with 
 which the colonists hoped to change England's attitude. 
 They were the basis of a continual stream of letters from 
 Mount Vernon advancing at first the formation of a 
 local non-importation association, after the pattern of 
 that established at Philadelphia, and later the more 
 aggressive attitude which culminated in the conventions 
 of Fairfax County, Williamsburg, Richmond, and the 
 two Congresses at Philadelphia. 
 
 How Washington's principles bore upon the life of his 
 own household is seen in his instructions to his London 
 correspondents. In sending one of his orders to Robert 
 Cary & Company for domestic goods in 1769, he wrote: 
 
 "If there are any articles contained in either of the 
 respective invoices (paper only excepted) which are 
 taxed by act of Parliament for the purpose of raising a 
 revenue in America, it is my express desire and request, 
 that they may not be sent, as I have very heartily 
 entered into an association (copies of which I make no 
 doubt you have seen, otherwise I should have enclosed 
 one) not to import any article which now is, or hereafter 
 shall be taxed for this purpose until the said act or acts 
 are repealed. I am therefore particular in mentioning 
 this matter as I am fully determined to adhere relig- 
 iously to it, and may perhaps have wrote for some things 
 unwittingly which may be under these circumstances." 
 
 This intention to import nothing for his home upon 
 which Parliament had imposed a tax is repeated in an- 
 other order on London in 1770: 
 
124 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 "You will perceive, in looking over the several in- 
 voices, thai some of llie goods there required, are upon 
 condition, thai the act of Parliament imposing a duty on 
 tea, paper, &c. for the purpose of raising a revenue in 
 
 America, is totally repealed; and I beg the favor of you 
 to be governed strictly thereby, as it will not be in my 
 power to receive any articles contrary to our non-im- 
 portation agreement, which I have subscribed, and shall 
 religiously adhere to, and should, if it were, as I could 
 wish it to be, ten times as strict." 
 
 Washington and his neighbor, George Mason, were 
 the leaders in the more aggressive attitude of the out- 
 raged colonists. In 1771 there were continual trips be- 
 tween Mount Vernon and Gunston Hall for conferences, 
 and there eventuated the famous Resolves, written by 
 Mason, and presented at a convention of the inhabi- 
 tants of Fairfax County in July, at which Washington 
 presided. In this meeting was the germ of the Second 
 Continental Congress and in the Resolves was the in- 
 spiration of the Declaration of Independence. 
 
 Washington recorded this occasion with a simplicity 
 which is the despair of the student; but in the light of 
 w hat was accomplished and its etfect on the destiny of a 
 people, the few words are epic: 
 
 ".Inly 17. ( Jol. Mason came in the afternoon, and staid all night. 
 IS. Went up to Alexandria to a meeting of the County. 
 Returned in the evening." 
 
 After the Fairfax convention he was ; at Mount Vernon 
 only long enough to pack up and hurry to the conven- 
 tion at Williamsburg, where the astonishing conduct of 
 General Gage at Boston was discussed. The nominally 
 
MOUNT VERNON 125 
 
 silent delegate from Fairfax showed the warmth of his 
 ardor when need be, as now, when, in "the most 
 eloquent speech that ever was made," he declared with 
 fire and force: "I will raise one thousand men, subsist 
 them at my own expense, and march myself at their 
 head for the relief of Boston." 
 
 Hurrying home he discovered the house full of com- 
 pany, but he found time for the Fairfax sale, letters to 
 England and elsewhere, the arrangement of domestic 
 affairs, and hurried off on the last day of the month for 
 the first Congress at Philadelphia. The day before his 
 departure Mount Vernon was the scene of another 
 significant conference with George Mason, Patrick 
 Henry, and Edmund Pendleton. They "came in the 
 evening and stay'd all night." Next day, August 31st, 
 "All the above gentlemen dined here; after which with 
 Colo. Pendleton and Mr. Henry, I set out on my journey 
 to Philadelphia." Pendleton said that before they set 
 out Martha Washington "talked like a Spartan mother 
 to her son on going to battle. 'I hope you will all stand 
 firm — I know George will,' she said." 
 
 When Washington returned home it was to pick up 
 again the threads of the life he loved so well. He began 
 at this time to make a reality of plans for the enlarge- 
 ment and perfection of his house and grounds, which 
 had long been maturing in his mind. 
 
 The house stood in 1773 exactly as he found it when 
 he took up his home there with his brother Lawrence, 
 save for the repairs he made in anticipation of his 
 marriage. The intervening fourteen years of domestic 
 and social life brought out the limitations of the villa. 
 It began to call again for repairs after so many years of 
 
126 MOUNT VERNOX 
 
 hard use. Washington desired a more ambitious and 
 commodious residence, and as early as 1773 planned the 
 house as it appears to-day. This included the extension 
 of the length of the house by the additions at each end 
 measuring the full width of the original house, thirty- 
 two feet by twenty-two feet, which would extend the 
 house by forty-four feet in length. 
 
 The new building operations were under way in the 
 fall of 1773, as indicated by a quaint letter from a joiner 
 in Washington's employ: 
 
 "Sir/ 
 
 "I am apprehensive that in the Bill of Scantling 
 that I sent you it was order4 so as to have the Sleepers 
 of Both the additions to Ly Length ways with the house 
 if so the will not be Right by that means the floor will be 
 a Cross and the Gelling plank the Length of the addition 
 will not answer the intended purpose of haveing no 
 heading Joints in the Lower floors, the S[l]eepers Need 
 not l)c More then 10 feet Long to Join on a Summer 
 in the Middle that must be Layd Length ways of 
 House, the Sleepers Must be the same Breadth & 
 thickness as them Mention? in the Bill & the Two 
 Summers 10 by 14 and % L 2 foot Long 
 
 "I am Sir Y r Most Hum'f Serv 1 
 "Going Lanphier 
 
 "N B I prepos d from the 
 beginning l«> hay die floor- 
 ing <x seeling Jousts Length 
 way of the House it will be 
 a Great Means to Strength- 
 en the additions . . . . G L" 
 
 "New Church Oct r 16: 1773 
 
MOUNT VERNON 127 
 
 Washington no sooner began the cherished plans than 
 the war drew him away. He left Lund Washington 
 in charge of Mount Vernon, and the letters that passed 
 back and forth tell somewhat of the progress and dura- 
 tion of the work. At least one of the new additions was 
 completed within two years, for Washington wrote 
 home from Camp at Cambridge, August 20, 1775: "I 
 wish you would quicken Lanphier and Sears about the 
 Dining Room Chimney Piece (to be executed as men- 
 tioned in one of my last letters) as I would wish that end 
 of the House compleatly finished before I return." 
 
 Lund Washington referred to the "new room" in his 
 letters to his chief in 1775, as when, on October 15th, he 
 wrote: "As to pulling down the plastering in the new 
 room, it will not make a days odds in his doing the room. 
 Mrs. Washington seems desireous that whatever is to be 
 done to it, may be at once that she may get into it this 
 winter"; and again on December 10th: "Sears has 
 now painted the dining room twice over and the new 
 room once." 
 
 The further progress of Washington's extensive plans 
 for his dwelling and for the outbuildings, the gardens 
 and their walls, will appear later. At this time in- 
 terruptions checked the work. Mount Vernon seemed 
 destined to see its master's carefully planned efforts in 
 its behalf carried on in his absence now as when he first 
 put it in order to receive his wife. 
 
 During the winter of 1774-1775 he was frequently 
 from home. The house was the scene of continual con- 
 ferences of the leaders of thought and action in the 
 neighborhood and in the colony at large. George 
 Mason was there; William Grayson, later first Senator 
 
l >s MOUNT VERNON 
 
 For Virginia but now arming the Independenl Militia of 
 Prince William with funds he was promised on these 
 visits; Edmund Pendleton and Daniel of Saint Thomas 
 Jenifer, the latter now as Major Jenifer, neighbor, 
 coming to be directed in militia organization, but later 
 to live in history as Signer of the Declaration of In- 
 dependence for Maryland; Charles Lee, British and un- 
 balanced, accompanied by his hounds, which he in- 
 sisted on feeding in the dining-room; Horatio Gates, 
 Major now but Adjutant General in June next; old 
 companions in the French War, who, scenting powder, 
 found their way to their former chief's scat "in search 
 of courage and sympathy"; delegations from the various 
 counties who came to offer Washington the command 
 of their Independenl Militia "should they be obliged to 
 have recourse to arms to defend their King and coun- 
 try"'; and others in numbers, patriots for the most part, 
 who recognized in the master of Mount Vernon their 
 hope in the impending struggle. 
 
 Washington found time for his visitors and for endless 
 letters, and for the obligations placed upon him by the 
 neighborhood and the colony. He was still a member 
 of the House of Burgesses. As such he attended the 
 \ irginia convention "in the old church in the town of 
 Richmond," in March (1775) and brought home his ap- 
 pointment torepresenl Virginia in the Second Continen- 
 tal Congress and the thrilling story of Mr. Henry's per- 
 oration: " I know not what course others may take, but 
 as for me. give me liberty or give me death!" 
 
 Less dramatically but uoi less fervently he wrote his 
 lu-othei-. John Augustine, his own "full intention to de- 
 vote my life and fortune in the cause we are engaged in." 
 
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MOUNT VERNON 129 
 
 He had scarcely returned to Mount Vernon when 
 word followed him from the low country that the Royal 
 Governor had confiscated the powder stored in Wil- 
 liamsburg, and he rode instantly to Fredericksburg to 
 calm the six hundred men who had rushed to arms. 
 Riders came to his door with messages from the militia 
 of various counties offering to serve under his command. 
 The pulse of the people was indeed throbbing. 
 
 Toward the end of April his chariot rolled away again 
 to Philadelphia. There was not probably either in his 
 heart or Mrs. Washington's a full understanding of what 
 their good-byes meant. He left to be absent a few 
 weeks, at most, as Virginia's delegate in the Congress. 
 He remained under pressure of a unanimous Assembly to 
 accept the command of the independent army of the 
 colonies. 
 
 At this moment of such significance and obligation his 
 thoughts flew at once to Mount Vernon. He wrote his 
 "dear Patsey": 
 
 "I am now set down to write you on a subject, which 
 fills me with inexpressible concern, and this concern 
 is greatly aggravated and increased, when I reflect upon 
 the uneasiness I know it will give you. It has been de- 
 termined in Congress, that the whole army raised for the 
 defense of the American cause shall be put under my 
 care, and that it is necessary for me to proceed im- 
 mediately to Boston to take upon me the command of 
 it. ... I shall feel no pain from the toil or the 
 danger of the campaign ; my unhappiness will flow from 
 the uneasiness I know you will feel from being left alone. 
 I therefore beg, you will summon your whole fortitude, 
 
130 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 and pass your time as agreeably as possible. Nothing 
 will give nic so much sincere satisfaction as to hear this, 
 and to hear it from your own pen." 
 
 To Jack Custis he wrote: 
 
 "My great concern upon this occasion is, the thought 
 of leaving your mother under the uneasiness which I 
 fear this affair will throw her into; I therefore hope, ex- 
 pect, and indeed have no doubt, of your using every 
 means in your power to keep up her spirits, by doing 
 everything in your power to promote her quiet. 
 At any time, I hope it is unnecessary for me to say, that 
 1 am always pleased with yours and Nelly's abidence at 
 Mount Vernon; much less upon this occasion, when I 
 think it absolutely necessary for the peace and satis- 
 faction of your mother; a consideration which I have no 
 doubt will have due weight with you, and require no ar- 
 gument to enforce." 
 
 To his brother John Augustine: 
 
 "I am now to bid adieu to you, and to every kind of 
 domestic ease, for a while. I am embarked on a wide 
 ocean, boundless in its prospect, and in which, perhaps, 
 no safe harbor is to be found. I have been called upon 
 by the unanimous voice of the Colonies to take the com- 
 mand of the Continental army; an honor I have neither 
 sought after, nor desired, as I am thoroughly convinced, 
 that it requires greater abilities and much more ex- 
 perience, than I am master of, to conduct a business so 
 extensive in its nature, and arduous in its execution. 
 Hnl the partiality of the Congress, joined to a political 
 
MOUNT VERNON 131 
 
 motive, really left me without a choice; and I am now 
 commissioned a General and Commander-in-chief of all 
 the forces now raised, or to be raised, for the defense of 
 the United Colonies. That I may discharge the trust 
 to the satisfaction of my employers, is my first wish; that 
 I shall aim to do it, there remains as little doubt of. 
 How far I shall succeed, is another point; but this I 
 am sure of, that, in the worst event, I shall have the 
 consolation of knowing, if I act to the best of my judge- 
 ment, that the blame ought to lodge upon the ap- 
 pointers, not the appointed, as it was by no means a 
 thing of my seeking, or proceeding from any hint of my 
 friends. ... I shall hope that my friends will 
 visit and endeavor to keep up the spirits of my wife, 
 as much as they can, as my departure will, I know, be a 
 cutting stroke upon her; and on this account alone I 
 have many very disagreeable sensations. I hope you 
 and my sister, (although the distance is great) will find 
 as much leisure this summer as to spend a little time at 
 Mount Vernon." 
 
 Washington did not see Mount Vernon again for six 
 years. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 Mount Vernon During the Revolution — Mrs. Washington's 
 Absences in Camp— Lund Washington in Charge of the Estate 
 
 —The Door of Hospitality Kept Open by the Absent Master 
 Postal Facilities — British on the Potomac — Designs on 
 Mount Vernon — Mrs. Washington Flees for a Night — Tarl- 
 ton's Raiders — Lund Propitiates the British — The General's 
 Rebuke — Building Operations — The Northeast and South- 
 west Additions Completed — Outbuildings Built and Rebuilt 
 
 —The Portico— Belvoir Burned — The General's Brief Visit 
 After Six Years' Absence — Death of John Parke Custis — 
 Washington Adopts Two of His Children — Two Years Later 
 Resigns Commission and Returns Home and to Private Life. 
 
 MOUNT VERNON was indeed desolate to 
 Martha Washington as she read the message 
 of dreaded triumph which placed the destinies 
 of the country in her husband's bands. The sacrifice 
 was hers. In less than two years she had seen her family 
 completely disintegrate: her daughter lost by death; her 
 son by marriage; her husband by the call to the military 
 service of his country. A sympathetic sense of this 
 prompted Washington to write (hose first Idlers, after 
 receiving his commission, to her relatives and his, beg- 
 ging them to go to Mount Vernon and comfort his 
 lonely wife. 
 
 Jack Custis and his wife came down frequently from 
 Abingdon, as the years rolled by, bringing the growing 
 Family of babies l<> their affectionate grandmother: 
 Elisabeth Parke the first; then Martha Parke, named 
 for Mrs. Washington; then Eleanor Parke, named for 
 
 132 
 
I 1 111 
 
 
 ''jjU BBB III 
 
 mi in 
 i i ibftii 
 
MOUNT VERNON 133 
 
 her mother and hurried from her frail arms to Mount 
 Vernon to be nursed by sturdy Mrs. Anderson, wife of 
 the English steward; and finally the first boy, named 
 for the only father he ever knew, George Washington 
 Parke. Mrs. Washington's brothers and sisters, the 
 Dandridges and Bassetts, journeyed up from New 
 Kent, and friends from Alexandria and the neighboring 
 estates on both sides of the Potomac came to break Mrs. 
 Washington's loneliness. The house was " seldom with- 
 out company" while she was there and "our stables are 
 always full of horses," read the letters from home to the 
 General. 
 
 Mount Vernon was in charge of Lund Washington, 
 as manager for the General, with whom no doubt a 
 connection could be traced far out on some leafy branch 
 of the ancestral tree. But it is said that neither of them 
 knew what it was. Lund's lieutenant was Bishop, who 
 only once, since the memorable vigil outside Mr. Cham- 
 berlayne's door, had strayed from his chief. Too old 
 for the active service of the days of Braddock, "he was 
 left at home," wrote one who knew him well, "in charge 
 of the manufacturing establishments of the household, 
 wherein the veteran would flourish his cane, expecting 
 as perfect obedience as though he had been commanding 
 officer on parade. A comfortable house had been built 
 for him; he had married; and, looking no more toward 
 his native land, he was contented to pass the remainder 
 of his days on the domain of his patron, where he rested 
 from labor, in the enjoyment of every possible ease and 
 indulgence." 
 
 It may or may not be significant, but it is difficult 
 to discover the traces of cordial intercourse between the 
 
134 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Washingtons and the Custises. From the time of 
 Washington's marriage his mother never came to Mount 
 Vernon. His sister and brothers seem rarely to have 
 appeared there. It is indeed suspected that on their 
 wedding, Washington married into the Widow Custis' 
 family, rather than that she married into his. When 
 her grandson wrote his reminiscences of life at Mount 
 Vernon he mentioned but one of the General's relatives, 
 a young nephew whose first name appeared casually 
 in a quoted letter. In the next generation, however, 
 some of the children of the General's brothers and sister 
 appeared somewhat more at home at their uncle's house 
 than their parents before them. 
 
 When Washington accepted the command of the 
 army he expressed no doubt that lie would return safe to 
 Mount Vernon and his wife in the fall. Instead of 
 which he was detained in Massachusetts. Mrs. Wash- 
 ington, thereupon, was determined to go north and 
 spend the winter in camp with him. For seven years 
 this was her usual custom. When the stress of a sum- 
 mer campaign eased and the army settled in winter 
 quarters, the General would send an aide-de-camp to 
 Mount Vernon to be her personal escort to Cambridge, 
 Morristown, Valley Forge, Middlebrook, New Winsor, 
 or wherever the army happened to be. Her chariot 
 was occasionally accompanied by a military escort, by 
 the General's order if the road lay dangerously near the 
 enemy's line, oftener as a spontaneous compliment of 
 the citizens of the districts through which she passed. 
 
 ( M' I he eight years and eight months that Washington 
 was absenl (hiring the war Mrs. Washington spent 
 Dearly half the time with him. At such times Mount 
 
MOUNT VERNON 135 
 
 Vernon was deserted indeed. The house was quiet, 
 the woods no longer echoed to the hounds and horn, 
 and the well-travelled roadways, deserted by the smart- 
 hoofed mounts and the broad-tired chariots of the cus- 
 tomary stream of visitors, felt the green creeping up 
 from ditches to wheel-rut. His mother resented his 
 military activities now as formerly and said she wished 
 "George would come home and attend to his planta- 
 tion." 
 
 However, even in the absence of both the master and 
 mistress the doors of Mount Vernon were not entirely 
 closed. The General wrote Lund Washington from 
 Cambridge, shortly after Mrs. Washington joined him 
 at headquarters: "Let the hospitality of the house, with 
 respect to the poor, be kept up. Let no one go away 
 hungry. If any of this kind of people should be in 
 want of corn, supply their necessities, provided it does 
 not encourage them in idleness; and I have no objection 
 to your giving my money in charity, to the amount of 
 forty or fifty pounds a year, when you think it well 
 bestowed." 
 
 The progress of the war was followed with passionate 
 but somewhat starved eagerness at Mount Vernon. 
 The newspapers were few and without modern facilities 
 for quick, precise, or ample news. There was no postal 
 system to speak of. At intervals, usually of a week, 
 express pony riders carried the mails north and south 
 between the larger towns. England did nothing for 
 the colonies in this respect and they did practically 
 nothing for themselves. The mails were in the hands of 
 private carriers, and important letters or consignments 
 of money were not considered safe in their hands. If 
 
136 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 the matter was urgent and confidential a private bearer 
 was despatched with the letter. Gentlemen about to 
 undertake a journey allowed the fact to become known 
 among I heir particular friends in the neighborhood and 
 often started away with numerous packets of letters, 
 Large sums of money, and with negotiable papers of con- 
 siderable value. Nevertheless it was upon the unreli- 
 able post-rider and the occasional accommodating 
 traveller that Mount Vernon depended for communica- 
 tion with the General. Lund was faithful to the order 
 that Washington ever put upon his managers in his 
 absence, to write regularly and in full once a week about 
 the condition of his estate. Many of his letters are 
 preserved, and they afford an acquaintance with the life 
 there to be found at no other source. 
 
 Washington had been gone but a few months when 
 the presence of war in the land became evident at Mount 
 Vernon. One of Governor Dunmore's first strokes 
 was to threaten a declaration of freedom for all inden- 
 tured servants in the colonies. Lund Washington wrote 
 that such an order would wreck their working forces. 
 But this fear dwindled presently before the larger alarm 
 which spread along tidewater Potomac, as news came 
 that English ships were on their way up the river to 
 lay waste the towns and country, capture Mrs. Wash- 
 ington, and burn Mount Vernon. 
 
 Lund wrote the General in a tone obviously designed 
 to allay his fears: "She does not believe herself in 
 danger, nor do I," he said; "without they attempt to 
 take her in the dead of night, they would fail, for ten 
 minutes notice would be sufficient for her to get out of 
 the way." A lew days later he wrote: "Mrs. Washing- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 137 
 
 ton was under no apprehension of Lord Dunmore doing 
 her an injury, until your mention of it in several of your 
 letters." Nevertheless, she postponed a trip down 
 country in order to pack the General's papers, the silver, 
 and other valuables, and hold herself and them in readi- 
 ness for instant departure inland. 
 
 Dunmore's expedition came up as far as the mouth of 
 Occoquon Creek, into which flows the Bull Run of two 
 great battles nearly a century later. Here he en- 
 countered the Prince William Militia and a severe 
 storm, a combination which he found too forbidding for 
 his further progress; not, however, before he had thrown 
 the countryside into a panic. A few days later George 
 Mason wrote Washington: "Dunmore has come and 
 gone, and left us untouched except by some alarms. 
 I sent my family many miles back into the country, and 
 advised Mrs. Washington to do likewise as a prudential 
 movement. At first she said, 'No, I will not desert 
 my post,' but finally she did so with reluctance, rode 
 only a few miles, and — plucky little woman as she is, 
 stayed away only one night." 
 
 The dwellers along tidewater became active in con- 
 sidering measures to thwart the dreaded Dunmore; more 
 active in considering than in putting them into effect. 
 It was proposed to protect Mount Vernon and the upper 
 river by batteries on Lower Cedar Point where the 
 channel is narrowest, or at Maryland Point, or farther up 
 even on the commanding bluffs of Indian Head. Hob- 
 son's Santiago expedient was anticipated, Lund Wash- 
 ington writing his chief, October 29, 1775: "As I re- 
 membered hearing Captain Boucher say he would 
 undertake with three ships to stop the channel so that 
 
138 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 no ship of force could get up the River, I proposed that 
 he should be immediately scut to and consulted upon 
 it." But in the cud aothing was done. 
 
 The following January there were renewed rumors of 
 the approach of British vessels to destroy Blount 
 Vernon, and the neighborhood was in another panic. 
 This time Lund did not conceal his apprehensions, per- 
 haps because Mrs. Washington was with the General, 
 and he did not have to dissemble to spare his chief's 
 fears for his wife. 
 
 "Alexandria is much alarmed, and indeed the whole 
 neighborhood," he wrote. "The women and children 
 are leaving the town and stowing themselves in every 
 hut they can find, out of the reach of the enemy's 
 cannon. Every wagon, cart, and pack-horse, they can 
 get, is employed. The militia are all up, but not in 
 arms, for indeed they have none, or at least very few. 
 I could wish, if we were to have our neighborhood in- 
 vaded, that they would send a tender or two among us, 
 that we might see how the people would behave on the 
 occasion. Thay say they are determined to fight. I 
 am about packing up your China and glass in barrels, 
 and other things into chests, trunks, and bundles, and 
 1 shall be able at the shortest notice to remove them out 
 of the way. I fear the destruction will be great, al- 
 though the best care has been taken. Everybody I see 
 tells me, that if the people could have notice they would 
 immediately come and defend your property, so long as 
 they have life, from Loudoun, Prince William, Fau- 
 quier, and this county." 
 
 But this time the ships did not even enter the 
 Potomac After cruising about the Chesapeake they 
 
MOUNT VERNON 139 
 
 finally felt the sting of the colonists' gunfire, and sped 
 away, and Dunmore did not appear again to disturb the 
 planters of the Potomac. 
 
 For the rest of the war Mount Vernon was unthreat- 
 ened until its very last year. Early in 1781 British 
 Tarleton with his band of red-coat raiders swung up 
 from the southwest like a whirlwind. Word came that 
 Jefferson's Monticello was their first objective and 
 Washington's home would be the next. Tarleton 
 reached Charlottesville, but his easterly course was 
 aimed no higher than Fredericksburg. 
 
 W T hen the fright about the river raid was first on at 
 the beginning of the war, Lund wrote bravely: "I think 
 fifty men well armd might prevent two hundred from 
 burning Mount Vernon, situated as it is; no way to get 
 up to it but up a steep hill, and if I remember right 
 General Gates told me it could not be done by the 
 shipping. I wish I had the muskets I would endeavor 
 to find the men, black or white, that would at least make 
 them pay dear for the attempt." 
 
 Apparently he never got the muskets, for shortly after 
 the Tarleton scare British ships appeared in the river 
 and actually anchored off Mount Vernon. Lund ob- 
 viously was not without spirit; but without arms and 
 the men, discretion seemed to him the better part of 
 valor. What he did, and his chief's reflection on it, 
 appear in the General's celebrated rebuke to the man 
 for whom, however, he never lost admiration or af- 
 fection : 
 
 "I am sorry to hear of your loss. I am a little sorry 
 to hear of my own; but that which gives me most con- 
 
L40 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 ecru is, thai you should go on hoard the enemy's ves- 
 sels, and furnish them with refreshments. It would 
 have been a less painful circumstance to me to have 
 heard, that in consequence of your non-compliance with 
 their request, they had burnt my House and laid the 
 Plantation in ruins. You ought to have considered 
 yourself as my representative, and should have re- 
 fleeted on the had example of communicating with the 
 enemy, and making a voluntary offer of refreshments to 
 I hem with a view to prevent a conflagration. It was 
 not in your power, I acknowledge, to prevent them from 
 sending a flag on shore, and you did right to meet it; but 
 you should, in the same instant that the business of it 
 was unfolded, have declared explicitly, that it w T as im- 
 proper for you to yeild to the request; after which, if 
 they had proceeded to help themselves by force, you 
 could have hut submitted; and, (being unprovided for 
 defense,) this was to he preferred to a feeble opposition, 
 which only serves as a pretext to burn and destroy." 
 
 None of the military "alarums and excursions," how- 
 ever, disturbed the work on the place. The improve- 
 ments on the house went forward. Before the end of 
 177.5 Lanphier and Sears and "the stucco man" com- 
 pleted "the new room," the chimney piece, and the 
 dining-room ceiling, which was "a handsomer one than 
 any of Col. Lewis's [at Kenmore House, Fredericksburg] 
 although not half the work on it." Lund had many 
 other operations on the way at this time, among them 
 the building or rebuilding of the storehouse, the wash- 
 house, the garden walls, and their lit tie octagon houses for 
 school and seeds and tools. He was, moreover, eager to 
 
The North Colonnade 
 
 Through the arches may be seen the Circle and the Bowling Green 
 surrounded l>y the Serpentine Drive 
 
MOUNT VERNON 141 
 
 complete the other addition to the mansion, but the fear 
 of new raids filled him with apprehension. 
 
 "I think if you could be of opinion that your buildings 
 would not be destroyed this summer," he wrote his 
 chief in February, 1776, "it would be best to have the 
 other addition to the end of your house raised . . . 
 but this cannot be done without a master workman, un- 
 less you choose to once more try Lanphier." Washing- 
 ton evidently was forced to put up with this incorri- 
 gible, for in the spring of 1778 Lund still had him on hand 
 and wrote: "Of all the worthless men living Lanphier 
 is the greatest, no act or temptation of mine can prevail 
 on him to came to work notwithstanding his repeated 
 promises to do so. I wanted so much to get the windows 
 finished in the Pediment that I might have the garrett 
 passage plastered and cleared out before Mrs. Washing- 
 ton's return, Besides this the scaffolding in the front of 
 the house cannot be taken away before it is finished. 
 This prevents me from putting up the steps to the great 
 front door." 
 
 At this time, 1778, instead of after the war as gener- 
 ally stated, the mansion was raised to the extended pro- 
 portions in which it has ever since been so familiar, and 
 the curved and colonnaded covered ways now rose to 
 connect the big house with the nearest of the many little 
 houses. To this time, too, may doubtless be attributed 
 the lofty portico extending the length of the river side of 
 the mansion, for so shortly after his return after the war 
 as to have made it impracticable for him to have built it 
 at that time, Washington ordered new stone flagging and 
 dug up the old pavement and laid the new. 
 
 The traditions which cluster about the old house in- 
 
142 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 elude among the improvements made early in the war, 
 the removal of the partition in the main passage or hall, 
 thus making one extended hall from front to front, 
 and the installation of the panelling of the new big hall 
 as it has since remained. 
 
 Lund included in his letters all the personal news 
 of tin 4 neighborhood and the estate, making them a 
 gazette of lib 4 at home on the big river. After the 
 receipt of one of these letters it was Washington's sad 
 duty to be obliged to write Colonel Fairfax in England 
 of the complete destruction of his house, Belvoir, by 
 fire early in 1783. "But mine (which is enlarged since 
 you saw it)," he hastened to add, "is most sincerely at 
 your service till you can rebuild it." Belvoir was never 
 rebuilt. Of it there remains neither authentic plan nor 
 painting. Its site is an overgrown thicket where the 
 lines of the foundation are scarcely to be traced. This 
 beautiful and historic spot, which bound up some of the 
 most agreeable and cherished experiences of Washing- 
 ton's life, was threatened with uses a few years ago 
 which would have been at once a blight upon it and 
 Mount Vernon. Friends of Washington's home and 
 neighborhood, however, led by the Mount Vernon 
 Ladies' Association, preserved it by securing the transfer 
 of the threatened lands to the United States Army, 
 which has dedicated it to the training of soldiers and 
 officer-. 
 
 It ha- been said that when Washington rode away in 
 the spring of 1??.*). to attend the Second Continental 
 Congress at Philadelphia, he did not return to Mount 
 Vernon again for six years. In fact, during the whole 
 course of t he war, and for two years after ( 'ornwaUis sur- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 143 
 
 rendered to him at Yorktown in 1781, he was in Virginia 
 only once. In passing south to Yorktown and in re- 
 turning north again he stopped briefly at his home. 
 During his absence of eight years and eight months 
 he was at Mount Vernon only ten days. 
 
 The whole plantation was thrown into a commotion 
 in the early morning of Sunday, the 9th of September, 
 1781, by the announcement of the arrival of the General, 
 and old Bishop's younger rival, Billy Lee, his groom of 
 hunting days and personal attendant throughout the 
 war. They had pressed on ahead of the army which 
 was making a forced march south to join LaFayette at 
 Williamsburg. 
 
 Next to the greeting of his "dear Patsey ," his return was 
 distinguished for him by his first sight of his now com- 
 pleted mansion, and by his first acquaintance with Mrs. 
 Washington's four grandchildren, the three daughters 
 and baby boy of Jack and Nelly Calvert Custis, all born 
 during his absence in the field. 
 
 On Monday General Count de Rochambeau came, 
 followed by General Count de Chastellux. After rest- 
 ing another full day Washington, accompanied by his 
 two French guests, their servants, and Jack Custis, set 
 off on Wednesday morning for the south. 
 
 On this trip there was no dallying at country houses. 
 The errand was stern and significant, and Washington 
 pressed across country in record time. He reached the 
 capital Friday afternoon and was welcomed by La- 
 Fayette and the French soldiers with military honors 
 which became his exalted command. One month and 
 five days later the fighting ceased. 
 
 This happy event was clouded by the news brought 
 
m MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Washington from Eltham, Colonel Bassett's place in 
 New Kent, where Jack Custis lay at the point of death. 
 Couriers had already speeded to Mount Vernon to sum- 
 mon the dying man's wife and mother. Doctor Craik 
 hurried from Yorktown to give his friend what assist- 
 ance lie could. The General and his wife together 
 watched the ebb of the young life of him who had been 
 as son to both of them. By his death Mrs. Washington 
 was now childless, but the General filled the gap in 
 both their lives and gave promise of continued youthful- 
 ncss at Mount Vernon by adopting the two youngest 
 children, Eleanor Parke Custis and George Washington 
 Parke Custis, as their own. 
 
 Six days later Washington was at Mount Vernon, 
 where he remained a week, and departed to the north 
 for another absence of two years, holding the army in 
 that preparedness which would insure a desirable treaty 
 of peace; then disbanding it and concluding his own rela- 
 tion to the military service. lie resigned his commission 
 .it Annapolis on December 23, 1783; took affectionate 
 leave of his companions in arms; and once more a pri- 
 vate citizen, with Mrs. Washington by his side, and 
 accompanied by Colonels David Humphreys, William 
 Smith, and Benjamin Walker, he rode forward over the 
 familiar Maryland roads toward his beloved Mount 
 Vernon. 
 
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CHAPTER XII 
 
 Washington's Delight to Be at Mount Vernon Again — Letters 
 — Journeys to Fredericksburg, Philadelphia, and the Ohio 
 Country — Putting a Finish on Grounds and Buildings — The 
 Bowling Green and the Serpentine Drive — Trees — The Deer 
 Park — Gardens — Walls — Barns — Fences — A Toper's Con- 
 tract — The General's Warhorse, Nelson — Mrs. Washington's 
 Grandchildren — His Nephews and Nieces — First Wedding 
 in the Mansion — Dreaming of a Deed from the General — 
 Shiftless Harriott. 
 
 THE General and Mrs. Washington reached 
 home Christmas Eve. His "people" from 
 the various farms gathered at the gate and 
 along the drive to give them welcome. Among them 
 was Bishop, easily forgiven for any envy he felt of 
 young Billy Lee. They lighted the night with bonfires 
 and made it noisy with fiddling and dancing in the 
 quarters. At the great door of the mansion the home- 
 comers were greeted by a troop of relatives, and next 
 day the neighbors drove in from all directions to add 
 their welcome. 
 
 The unconscious historian of this occasion was a little 
 girl, one of the Lewis children of Fredericksburg, who 
 wrote a friend: "I must tell you what a charming day 
 I spent at Mt. Vernon with Mama and Sally. The 
 General] and Madame came home on Christmas Eve, 
 and such a racket as the servants made! They were 
 glad of their coming. Three handsome young officers 
 came with them. All Christmas afternoon people 
 
 145 
 
146 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 came to pay their respects and duty. Among these 
 were stately dames and gay young women. The General 
 seemed very happy and Mrs. Washington was up before 
 daybreak making everything as agreeable as possible 
 for everybody." 
 
 Washington's early let ters after reaching Mount Ver- 
 non breathe the relief and joy he felt to have closed his 
 "transactions with the public" and arrived at "the 
 goal of domestic enjoyment." 
 
 It was perhaps natural that he should write with 
 least reserve and most sentiment to his dear LaFayctte: 
 
 "At length, my dear Marquis, I am become a private 
 citizen on the banks of the Potomac; and under the 
 shadow of my own vine and fig-tree, free from the bustle 
 of a camp, and the busy scenes of public life, I am solac- 
 ing myself with those tranquil enjoyments, of which the 
 soldier, who is ever in pursuit of fame, the statesman, 
 whose watchful days and sleepless nights are spent in 
 devising schemes to promote the welfare of his own, 
 perhaps the ruin of other countries, as if this globe were 
 insufficient for us all, and the courtier, who is always 
 watching the countenence of his prince, in hopes of 
 catching a gracious smile, can have very little concep- 
 tion. I have not only retired from all public employ- 
 ments, but 1 am retiring within myself, and shall be able 
 to view the solitary walk, and tread the paths of private 
 life, with heartfelt satisfaction. Envious of none, I am 
 determined to be pleased with all; and this, my dear 
 friend, being the order of my march, T will move 
 gently down the stream of life, until I sleep with my 
 fathers." 
 
MOUNT VERNON 147 
 
 In a somewhat similar sentimental vein he wrote the 
 Marchioness de LaFayette, in reply to her felicitations: 
 
 "From the clangor of arms and the bustle of a camp, 
 freed from the cares of public employment and the 
 responsibility of office, I am now enjoying domestic 
 ease under the shadow of my own vine and fig-tree ; and 
 in a small villa, with the implements of husbandry and 
 lambkins around me, I expect to glide gently down the 
 stream of life, till I am entombed in the dreary mansion 
 of my fathers." 
 
 But to his fellow-campaigner, General Knox, he ex- 
 pressed his situation seven weeks after his return in 
 more literal terms: 
 
 "I am just beginning to experience that ease and 
 freedom from public cares, which, however desireable, 
 takes some time to realize; for, strange as it may seem, 
 it is nevertheless true, that it was not till lately I could 
 get the better of my usual custom of ruminating, as soon 
 as I waked in the morning, on the business of the ensuing 
 day; and of my surprise at finding, after revolving many 
 things in my mind, that I was no longer a public man, 
 nor had anything to do with public transactions. 
 
 "I feel now, however, as I conceive a wearied traveller 
 must do, who, after treading many a painful step with a 
 heavy burthen on his shoulders, is eased of the latter, 
 having reached the haven to which all the former were 
 directed; and from his house-top is looking back, and 
 tracing with an eager eye the meanders by which he 
 escaped the quicksands and mires which lay in his way; 
 and into which none but the all-powerful Guide and 
 
1 1,8 .MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Dispenser of human events could have prevented his 
 falling." 
 
 Relief was the keynote of all he expressed, relief and a 
 desire to remain undisturbed in the tranquillity of his 
 home. ki I feel myself relieved of a load of public care,'* 
 lie wrote Governor Clinton. "I hope to spend the 
 remainder of my days cultivating the affections of good 
 men, and in the practice of the domestic virtues." It 
 was now his devoutly expressed wish "to glide silently 
 and unnoticed through the remainder of life." 
 
 The ice and snow of a particularly rigid winter locked 
 the family in the house during I he first weeks of the 
 General's return. During this time he laid oul a scheme 
 of work for his military secretaries, for improvements on 
 the grounds and gardens and farms, and for the recovery 
 of his extensive private interests from the confusion 
 into which they had run during his long absence. 
 
 He settled down eventually to the routine of his life 
 before the war, but not until he had made some trips 
 during the first months after his return home. In 
 February he braved roads and weather to pay his duty 
 to his mother in Fredericksburg. In May he attended 
 the meeting of the Society of the ( incinnati at Philadel- 
 phia. At the (Mid of the summer he made his hasty 
 journey to view his lands on the Kanawha and the 
 Ohio. He was accompanied only by his nephew Bush- 
 rod Washington, Doctor Craik and his son William, 
 and three servants. They travelled on horseback and 
 covered the entire distance of six hundred and eighty 
 miles in thirty-four days between September 1st and 
 October ttl . 
 
A Vista 
 
 Through the lofty portico on the river side of the Mansion, looking down the 
 Potomac. The right shore is Virginia, the left shore is Maryland 
 
MOUNT VERNON 149 
 
 Save for three absences in Richmond he was not many 
 miles from Mount Vernon until public service again 
 made him an exile five years later. It is a notable fact 
 that Washington rarely went far from his home except 
 when called by duty or business. His interest and 
 purpose attached to his house and lands and he left 
 them only at the sacrifice of personal preferences. 
 
 It is not easy to see what Lund Washington left him 
 to do by way of making those improvements to his 
 house which have so often been attributed to the first 
 years after the war. But the severe winter called out 
 his ingenuity to make his house warmer, so it may have 
 been at this time that he lathed and plastered the lower 
 side of the floor planks between the joists in the cellar. 
 The original laths and plaster have long since disap- 
 peared, but the unmistakable evidences of them remain. 
 It was then not an uncommon method of keeping the 
 floors free from draughts, for those were not days of 
 tongue and groove lumber. He now prepared a dry 
 well for ice in the cellar under the banquet hall, and 
 possibly the cupola may be attributed to the work done 
 at this time. 
 
 It is known that, in the spring of 1786, he renewed the 
 paving of the great piazza on the river front. No por- 
 tion of the house received more general or more severe 
 usage than this out-of-door shelter with its magnificent 
 views of the Potomac. Not only was it in constant 
 service by the members of the household, but the great 
 gatherings of visitors were received and entertained 
 there, for which thirty windsor chairs were provided, 
 and, when winter weather prevented the General from 
 taking his usual exercise on foot or horseback, he paced 
 
150 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 tlu* portico for .in hour before retiring to rest. Its 
 floor is, by Washington's own record, one hundred and 
 twenty-four feel and ten and a half inches above the 
 river level. Evidently the first pavement placed there 
 by Lund Washington did not stand well, for says the 
 diary (1786): "May 22, Began to lake up t lie pavement 
 of the piazza," and "May 23, Began to lay the flags of 
 my piazza." Washington attributed the need of new 
 flags to the effect of frost on the old, but the new ones 
 have remained there to the present time. 
 
 In so far as concerned his house and grounds he had 
 passed the days of assembly, and now entered on a 
 period of decoration, polish, and finish. This appeared 
 especially in his attention to his west lawn, its encircling 
 diive, and the trees which border it; the two walled gar- 
 dens, that to the south for vegetables and that to the 
 north for (lowers and flowering shrubs in greenhouse 
 and box-patterned beds; the deer-park, the ha-ha walls, 
 and the miles of fences on the various farms. As in all 
 improvements of whatever character at Mount Vernon, 
 Washington made his own plans and drawings. 
 
 The great enclosed lawn on the west side of the man- 
 sion includes a level stretch of nearly two acres about 
 which he laid out a carriage drive, called his Serpentine 
 Road, and which in its courses passed the great door of 
 I he mansion, the doors of four of the small or "office" 
 buildings, and the entrance to each garden, and de- 
 scribed somewhat the outline of the shield of the I nited 
 States. The trees on either side of the Serpentine, as it 
 stretched away from the big house, terminated, by 
 Washington's own description, "with two mounds of 
 v irth, one on each side, on which -tow weeping willows, 
 

 Samuel Vaughan's Plan of Mount Vernon 
 
 Among the treasures at Mount Vernon where it is accredited the original sketch. It 
 is here reproduced for the first lime. The following references are in part from the 
 notes attached to the original: 1. Mansion House; 'i. Kitchen and Servants' Hall; 
 3. Store House; 4, Smoke House; 5, Wash House; G, Coach House; 7. Old Brick 
 Stables; 8, Barn and Carpenter Shop; !>, Lodgings for White Servants; 1(1, Tailor 
 and Shoemaker Shop; 11, Carpenter Shop; 12, Spinning House; l.'i. Blacksmith Shop; 
 14, House for Families; 1."), Hot House; Hi, Kitchen Gardens; 17, Necessaries, 18, 
 Spring House; 1!), Lawn; 20, For Manure; '21, School; 22, Seed House. Number 
 16 on the left is the Flower Garden 
 
MOUNT VERNON 151 
 
 leaving an open and full view of the distant woods. 
 The mounds are sixty yards apart." 
 
 In 1785 and 1786 his diary is a running guide to his 
 activities in the adornment of his grounds. On Janu- 
 ary 19th he was "employd until dinner time in laying 
 out my Serpentine Road & Shrubberies adjoining." 
 In February he " Removed two pretty large & full-grown 
 lilacs to the N° Garden gate — one on each side taking 
 up as much dirt with the roots as c d be well obtained"; 
 he "also removed from the woods and the old fields, 
 several young trees of sassafras, Dogwood & Redbud, 
 to the Shrubbery on the N° side the grass plot"; and he 
 "planted all the Mulberry trees, Maple trees & Black 
 gums in my Serpentine walks — and the Poplars on the 
 right walk." In the long list of trees that he planted 
 and grafted, earlier and later, at Mount Vernon, are 
 found: the Whitethorn, Hemlock, Mediterranean Pine, 
 Holly, Tulip, Sweet Gum, Oak, Balsam, Mulberry, 
 Aspen, Ash, Locust, Fringetree, Willow, Magnum 
 Bonum Plum, French Walnut, Mississippi Nut, Crab 
 Scions, Butter Pear, Spanish Pear "from Collo. Mason," 
 Black Pear of Worcester, Bergamy Pear, Early June 
 Pear, Newton Pippin, Gloucester White Apple, Cullock 
 Heart Cherry, Early May Cherry, Large Duke Cherry, 
 Black May Cherry, May Duke Cherry, Carnation 
 Cherry, English Mulberry, Quince, Peach, and others. 
 
 He hunted the woods for miles to bring home a rare 
 or perfect specimen for his lawns. He brought acorns 
 and buckeyes back from the Monongahela. He sought 
 the cooperation of friends on both sides of the Atlantic 
 to help embellish his estate. "Whenever you conceive 
 the season is proper," he wrote Governor Clinton of 
 
152 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 New York, "and opportunity offers, I shall hope to 
 receive I lie balsam trees, or any others, which you may 
 think curious and exotics with us, as I am endeavoring 
 to improve the grounds about my house in this way. 
 If perchance the sloop Pilgrim is not yet sailed from 
 your port, you would add to the favor you mean to con- 
 fer on me, by causing a number of grape vines, sent to 
 me by an nude of the Chevalier de la Luzerne, brought 
 over by Captain Williams, and deposited by him in 
 the garden of Mr. Beekman near the City of New York, 
 to be forwarded by that vessel. They consist of a 
 variety of (lie most valuable eating grapes in France. 
 A list of the kinds, and the distinctions of them, no 
 doubt accompanied them. I pray you to take some of 
 each sort for your own use, and offer some to Mr. Beek- 
 man." 
 
 The especial pride of his kitchen garden were the 
 fig-trees which were trained on the warm side of the north 
 wall. Amariah Frost, who wrote his account of a visit 
 to Mount Vernon in Washington's lifetime, found the 
 gardens "very elegant," and abounding in many curiosi- 
 ties, among which he enumerated "Fig-trees, raisins, 
 limes, oranges, etc., large English mulberries, artichokes, 
 etc. " The "raisin" is more familiar to-day as the currant 
 bush. 
 
 The unmanageable undergrowth on the faces of the 
 bluff between the mansion and the river gave offense 
 to Washington's sense of order and economy. To be 
 rid of the thicket, without the trouble of keeping it 
 down by labor, and at the same time add a new grace to 
 his estate, he enclosed about one hundred acres with a 
 wooden paling in 1785, and stocked the enclosure with 
 
MOUNT VERNON 153 
 
 deer to beat it down to a park. It may be that his old 
 friend, Colonel Fairfax, suggested this characteristic 
 feature of a country estate, for in writing to him to 
 thank him for offering to secure him "a buck and doe 
 of the best English deer," Washington said: "but if 
 you have not already been at this trouble, I would, my 
 good sir, now wish to relieve you from it, as Mr. Ogle 
 of Maryland has been so obliging as to present me six 
 fawns from his park of English deer at Bellair. With 
 these, and tolerable care, I shall soon have a full stock 
 for my small paddock." 
 
 The brick walls about the two gardens, built during 
 the war, were not merely utilitarian; they were part of 
 the grand plan which united with architectural formal- 
 ity and proportion the big house, the little houses, the 
 gardens, and the bowling green. But as the place took 
 on finish it became exacting. It demanded that the 
 barns and open stable court be screened from the lawns 
 on the east side of the mansion, and Washington met 
 the demand with the stepped wall which descends the 
 hill with a grace that makes it almost imperceptible. 
 Those were days before lawn-mowers when the cattle 
 did the useful office of keeping the grass down. Un- 
 sightly pasture fences were no longer to be tolerated, 
 so he built the English ha-ha walls across the north 
 and south river lawns and beyond the west end of the 
 bowling green. These walls, in effect brick terraces, 
 were invisible from the house, but held the cattle at a 
 distance while admitting them to the landscape. 
 
 Mount Vernon was in reality completed in all its 
 adornments within a few years after the war. This 
 accomplished, Washington continually repaired, but 
 
154 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 he did not materially alter the house or the fundamental 
 plan of t ho grounds and small buildings. Changes in 
 
 the outlying farms, however, were constantly under 
 way. There was always a force of woodmen to cut and 
 hew timber, and of carpenters and joiners to work the 
 lumber up into farm buildings. Washington's pride 
 as a farmer centred at this time on his new barn. It 
 stood in the centre of Union Farm about halfway be- 
 tween the mansion and the mill, and measured one 
 hundred feet long by more than one hundred feet deep. 
 The plan was furnished by the celebrated English 
 tanner, Arthur Young, but Washington modified it for 
 his own emergencies. 
 
 Even at so early a period of the settlement of the 
 country the astute Washington realized the necessity 
 of economy in the use of timber. His thousands of 
 acres were subdivided by miles of fences. The split- 
 rail fence w T as commonly in use. lie had begun several 
 years before to replace these fences with hedges. "At 
 least fill ecu years," he said in 179.5, "have I been urging 
 my managers to substitute live fences in lieu of dead 
 ones — which, if continued upon the extensive scale my 
 farina require, must exhaust all my timber; — and to this 
 moment I have not one that is complete: — nor never 
 shall, unless they are attended to in the manner before 
 mentioned; and if plants die, to replace them the next 
 season; and so on, until the hedge is close, compact, and 
 sufficient to answer the purpose for which it is designed." 
 
 Whatever other interests may have made their de- 
 mands, wherever else he may have been called, neither 
 now nor later did Washington cease to be the planter 
 of, if not at, Mount Vernon. While away he kept in 
 
MOUNT VERNON 155 
 
 touch with his manager through the exchange of weekly 
 reports and letters, and he dictated astonishingly minute 
 details of policy and procedure. In exercising this 
 genius for detail he did not always escape humorous 
 results, as in the contract with a gardener; wherein, in 
 consideration of his attending faithfully to his work and 
 keeping himself from being "disguised with liquor," 
 Washington agrees to allow him, among other emolu- 
 ments, "four dollars at Christmas, with which he may 
 be drunk four days and four nights; two dollars at 
 Easter to effect the same purpose; two dollars at Whit- 
 suntide to be drunk for two days; a dram in the morning 
 and a drink of grog at dinner at noon." 
 
 So when he came back after the war, he complained a 
 little that the farms were shabby and that farming was 
 impoverishing him, but he resumed his old routine, 
 nevertheless, easily and naturally. He was again in the 
 saddle daily, riding his circuit from farm to farm, to 
 reappear at the great front door at fifteen minutes be- 
 fore the dinner hour punctually as the needle on the 
 sundial, with which he now invariably compared his 
 watch. 
 
 Somewhere along the way, however, he compromised 
 with time to allow himself a few extra minutes, for it is 
 said that he now added one final unfailing stop to his 
 daily rounds. It was at the pasture where a tall, ag- 
 ing chestnut, with white face and legs, came at his call 
 to receive the caresses of his master's hand. This was 
 his battle-horse, Nelson, his companion in the war, and 
 "remarkable as the first nicked horse seen in America." 
 He bore Washington on his back when Cornwallis sur- 
 rendered to him at Yorktown. Then he was mustered 
 
156 .MOUNT VERNON 
 
 out of service and a saddle was never put on his back 
 again. 
 
 Nothing else in life seemed to delight Washington as 
 Mount Vernon and its belongings, its development and 
 upkeep. "Agriculture has ever been among the most 
 favored of my amusements," he wrote Arthur Young, 
 "though I have never possessed much skill in the art, 
 and nine years total inattention to it has added nothing 
 to a knowledge, which is best understood from practice; 
 but with the means you have been so obliging as to 
 Furnish me, I shall return to it, though rather late in the 
 day, witli more alacrity than ever." 
 
 When Washington resumed life at Mount Vernon the 
 household was curiously similar to that when he began 
 his married life there twenty-four years before. Then 
 there were himself and Mrs. Washington and her two 
 children, John and Martha, respectively four and two 
 years old. Now there were still himself and Mrs. 
 Washington, and again a little girl and a little boy, but 
 though adopted by Washington, they were her grand- 
 children this lime, Eleanor Parke Custis and George 
 Wa -hin -Ion Parke Custis, respectively four and two 
 year- old. 
 
 Washington's marriage was childless, but his paternal 
 a licet ions spent themselves without reserve first on 
 Mrs. Washington's children and then on her grand- 
 children. They found themselves as much at home at 
 Mount Vernon as if it were their own father's house. Of 
 the evidences of his petting of the children none perhaps 
 is more charming than his thought of tiny Nellie and 
 \\ ashington when, in the confusion of settling the public 
 business in Philadelphia, he took time to shop for toys 
 
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MOUNT VERNON 157 
 
 for them, in anticipation of that Christmas Eve return 
 from the war. The items are recorded in his note-book 
 with his customary precision: 
 
 By Sundries bo 1 , in PhiK 
 
 A Locket 5 5 
 
 3 Small Pock 1 . Books 1 10 
 
 3 Sashes 150 
 
 Dress Cap 2 8 
 
 Hatt 3 10 
 
 Handkerchief 1 
 
 Childrens Books 4 6 
 
 Whirligig 16 
 
 Fiddle 2 6 
 
 Quadrille Boxes 1 17 6 
 
 Washington had twenty-two nephews and nieces who 
 survived infancy. His wife had almost as many. They 
 were a humanly uneven group. But their uncle was 
 generous and devoted to them according to their de- 
 serts. He found commissions for several nephews in the 
 army. It is said, though on what authority it does not 
 appear, that ''he did not hesitate to give them posts of 
 danger, and their pay came out of his pocket." Some 
 of the boys he sent to school at his own expense, and he 
 was glad to have the girls come to Mount Vernon and 
 meet the distinguished visitors with an eye to desirable 
 husbands for them. 
 
 When Lund Washington left Mount Vernon in 1785 
 and retired to his own estate, Hayfield, about four miles 
 back from the river, he was succeeded as manager by 
 George Augustine Washington, son of the General's 
 youngest brother, Charles. While a member of his 
 uncle's family and in his house George met Frances 
 
158 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Bassett, Mrs. Washington's niece, and the second union 
 of the Washington and Dandridge families followed in 
 their marriage, on October 15, 17S5. This appears to 
 have been the first wedding ever solemnized at Mount 
 Vernon. Before retiring that night the General noted 
 in his diary with a quaint simplicity: 
 
 "The Reverend M r . Grayson, and Doct r Griffith; 
 Lund Washington, his wife, & Miss Stuart came to 
 Dinner — all of them remained the Evening except L. W. 
 —After the Candles were lighted George Aug*' Washing- 
 ton and Frances Bassett were married by M r Grayson." 
 
 Bushrod, son of John Augustine Washington, became 
 his favorite nephew, even as his father was the General's 
 favorite brother; and to him his uncle bequeathed Mount 
 Vernon. There is something more to be told of him in 
 its place in this story. 
 
 There is a tradition of another nephew, whose name is 
 not given, who discovered his distinguished uncle's 
 ownership of a plantation which the young man fancied. 
 His desire for the place was so much on his mind thai he 
 one night dreamed his uncle had given it to him. The 
 next lime he was at Mount Vernon he called the Gen- 
 eral's attention to the piece of land which he had for- 
 gotten that he owned. The young man told of the 
 dream. The General laughed outright and remarked: 
 "You didn't dream Mount Vernon away from me, did 
 you, sir?" The subject was then forgotten. The next 
 morning as the young relative was leaving Washington 
 placed a folded paper in his hand to be examined at his 
 leisure. When he found the opportunity he discovered 
 
MOUNT VERNON 159 
 
 it was a deed, made out after his uncle had retired for 
 the night, conveying to him the property they had 
 talked about, "for the consideration of natural affec- 
 tion." 
 
 As the boys and girls file by, none seizes the atten- 
 tion with more amusement than Harriott, the incorri- 
 gible daughter of much-married Samuel. She came to 
 her uncle's house in 1785, and made her home there for 
 seven years. Her uncle gives her portrait in a few 
 phrases, indicating at the same time what a trial she 
 must have been to one of his fine sense of order and 
 economy: "Harriott has sense enough but no disposition 
 to industry, nor to be careful of her cloathes. 
 Direct her in their use and application of them, for with- 
 out this they will be (I am told) dabbed about in every 
 hole and corner, and her best things always in use." 
 Then he adds with kindly justice: "But she is young 
 and, with good advice, may yet make a fine woman." 
 Surely there is apology for her in the inevitable neglect 
 of a father who could scarcely have found time with his 
 five wives to care properly for his five children. 
 
 These were, however, only the intimate details in the 
 domestic background after the war before which a new 
 and other phase of Washington's home life stood boldly 
 forth. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 Burdens of Greatness — Secretaries in the Home — David Hum- 
 phreys and William Smith — Anecdote of Old Bishop and His 
 Daughter — Gideon Snow — William Shaw — Tobias I^ear — 
 New Associations with Alexandria — Visitors' Descriptions 
 of Life at Mount Vernon — Sitting for the Portrait Painters — 
 Arrival of Iloudon — He Models the Bust — LaFayette's Visit 
 — Gifts from Abroad — French Hounds — The Vaughan Man- 
 tel — Mules from Malta — Asses from the King of Spain. 
 
 RELIEF that it was to have sheathed his sword 
 and retired to the quiet of his home, Washing- 
 ton was no longer wholly free there and in the 
 enjoyment of the privacy lie desired. He now belonged 
 to the country, for although there was no actual 
 national entity, the pride and national aspirations of 
 all the independent slates in the confederation focussed 
 (»n their recent military leader. Mount Vernon as the 
 residence of such a figure typified the capital of the 
 embryonic nation. 
 
 The first token of this new order invaded his house- 
 hold itself, the very privacy of his family. Henceforth, 
 while Jie was there, the house was never without secre- 
 taries and clerks whose assistance was made necessary 
 by the increasing volume of public and private corre- 
 spondence an<l accounts. With added work he had less 
 lime, for a second evidence of the new order was the 
 flow of visitors, no longer the casual neighbors riding 
 in for dinner and a fox hunt, lnit dignitaries whose 
 
 100 
 
MOUNT VERNON 161 
 
 presence made demands, and amiable and often im- 
 portant strangers who came with the homage of curi- 
 osity. 
 
 In altering his house Washington made storage space 
 for his letters and papers in recesses built on each side of 
 his library. Eventually these became inadequate and 
 he felt the necessity of building a separate house for this 
 purpose. The bases of the archives of Mount Vernon 
 were of course the copies of all his personal, business, and 
 agricultural letters which he kept scrupulously in his 
 own hand, his journals, and his account-books. To 
 these were added, at the close of the war, the transcripts 
 made by Colonel Richard Varick of the entire mass of 
 his correspondence, public and private, from the begin- 
 ning to the end of the Revolution. They filled thirty- 
 seven volumes. After his death they passed by pur- 
 chase into the archives of the national government. 
 This mass was soon increased, in addition to his enor- 
 mous personal correspondence, by the requests which 
 came from all sources for his assistance and counte- 
 nance; for he was asked "to write endorsements and 
 recommendations, stand sponsor to books on every 
 topic, subscribe money to all manner of undertakings 
 and loan it to the needy." 
 
 The succeeding years brought to the Mount Vernon 
 archives his vast correspondence on bounty lands in the 
 West, on the development of waterways, on the organi- 
 zation of a stable national government, and on other 
 public matters of which there was no end. 
 
 The first secretaries accompanied him home from 
 the war. They were Colonels David Humphreys and 
 William Smith. They remained long enough for 
 
162 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Colonel Smith to furnish an exploit which became one 
 of the traditional stories of the estate. 
 
 Humphreys, it seems, was of a poetic turn and 
 dreamed away his leisure hours in communion with the 
 lovely views which at Mount Vernon stretch in all 
 directions. Smith spent his recreation in more sociable 
 walks. On one occasion he came upon the house of 
 the petted old autocrat, Bishop, Washington's former 
 body-servant, whose daughter was returning from the 
 milking with a brimming pail. Smith made some 
 kindly offer of assistance which the frightened girl took 
 for the flirtatious license of a kind with that of the 
 wantonly reputed British officers. She dropped the 
 pail and ran into the house. The young colonel fol- 
 lowed, muttering apologies and explanations, when he 
 came face to face with her father. The ancient Bishop 
 seems to have been a spoiled favorite who allowed him- 
 self all kinds of temper and temperament. He at once 
 flew into a state of outraged wrath. The secretary's 
 explanations did not make matters any better. "I 
 know what you dashing young officers are," Bishop is 
 said to have replied, folding his weeping daughter in his 
 arms, feeling he was the hero of a sound dramatic situa- 
 tion and intending to do his full duty by it. "I am an 
 old soldier and have seen some things in my day. I am 
 sure his honor, after my services, will not permit my 
 child to be insulted; and, as to the Madam, why the 
 Madam as good as brought up my girl." And so he 
 brought the curtain down on the first scene, or at least 
 says I he chronicle, "he retired into his house and closed 
 the door." 
 
 Smith suspected Bishop to be as good as his threat 
 
.M 
 
 1 
 
 _ 
 
 
 
 
 V 
 
 _ 
 
 
 
 ij 
 
 
 J. 
 
 . "z 
 
MOUNT VERNON 163 
 
 and sought cut Billy Lee, a no less important figure at 
 Mount Ver on than Bishop himself. Billy seemed to 
 sense a part for himself in this little drama, and first 
 fed the colonel on the ruthlessness of Bishop and then 
 offered himself as ambassador to plead with him. 
 
 "Meantime," says the chronicler, who lived at 
 Mount Vernon at the time and heard the story at first 
 hand, "the old body-servant ransacked a large worm- 
 eaten trunk, and brought forth a coat that had not seen 
 the light for many long years (it was of the cut and 
 fashion of the days of George II), then a vest, and 
 lastly a hat, Cumberland cocked, with a huge ribbon 
 cockade, that had seen service in the seven years' war. 
 His shoes underwent a polish, and were covered by 
 large silver buckles. All these accoutrements being 
 carefully dusted and brushed, the veteran flourished his 
 staff and took up his line of march for the mansion house. 
 
 "Billy met the old soldier in full march, and a parley 
 ensued. Billy harangued with great force upon the 
 impropriety of the veteran's conduct in not receiving the 
 colonel's apology; 'for,' continued the ambassador, 
 'my friend Colonel Smith is both an officer and a gentle- 
 man; and then, old man, you have no business to have 
 such a handsome daughter (a grim smile passing over 
 the veteran's countenance at this compliment to the 
 beauty of his child), for you know young fellows will be 
 young fellows.' . . . 
 
 "The old body-servant, fully accoutred for his expedi- 
 tion, had cooled off a little during his march ^ A sol- 
 dierly respect for an officer of Colonel Smith's rank and 
 standing, and a fear that he might carry the matter a 
 little too far, determined him to accept the colonel's as- 
 
104 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 surance that there could be no harm where 'no harm 
 was intended,' came to a right-about and retraced his 
 steps to his home. 
 
 "The ambassador returned to the anxious colonel, 
 and informed him that he had met the old fellow, en 
 (j rand costume, and in full march for the mansion house, 
 l)ii t that by a powerful display of eloquence he had 
 brought him to a halt, and induced him to listen to 
 reason, and drop the affair altogether. The ready 
 guinea was quickly in the ambassador's pouch, while 
 the gallant colonel, happy in his escape from what 
 might have resulted in a very unpleasant affair, was 
 careful to give the homestead of the old body-servant a 
 good wide berth in all future rambles." 
 
 The first tutor for the children was Gideon Snow, 
 who probably first used the quaint little octagon house 
 in the garden wall as a schoolroom. His duties were so 
 light that Washington decided to combine the offices 
 of tutpr and secretary, and he thus described the obliga- 
 tions and privileges attaching to the position: "To write 
 letters agreably to what shall be dictated. Do all other 
 writing which shall be entrusted to him. Keep Accts. 
 — examine, arrange, and properly methodize my Pa- 
 pers, which are in great disorder. — Ride, at my expense, 
 to such other States, if I should find it more convenient 
 to send than to attend myself, to the execution thereof. 
 And, .... to initiate two little children (a girl of 
 six and a boy of 4 years of age, descendants of the de- 
 ceased Mr. Custis, who live with me and are very prom- 
 ising) in the firsl rudiments of education." To which 
 he shortly added that the secretary "will sit at my 
 table, will live as I live, will mix with the company who 
 
•**&&**£= 
 
 >%** 
 
 
 
 The School House 
 
 !n the wall about the flower garden. The walk curves between beds of 
 peonies and iris and is bordered with violets 
 
MOUNT VERNON 165 
 
 resort to my house, and will be treated In every respect 
 with civility and proper attention. He will have his 
 washing done in the family, and may have his linen and 
 stockings mended by the maids of it." 
 
 William Shaw came to fulfil those demands in July, 
 1785. He remained a year and seems to have had an 
 easy time, for he hunted with the General, and went to 
 the races, assemblies, and dances roundabout. 
 
 His successor was Tobias Lear, a native of Ports- 
 mouth, New Hampshire, and a Harvard graduate of 
 1783, who remained with Washington till the great man 
 died. His second wife was Mrs. Washington's niece, the 
 widow of George Augustine Washington. He lived at 
 Wellington, an estate on the Virginia shore of the Poto- 
 mac, about four miles north of Mount Vernon mansion, 
 which Washington placed at his disposal, without charge, 
 for his lifetime. After his chief's death Lear went into 
 the consular service and died in Washington City, 
 October 16, 1816. 
 
 During the Presidency Washington's secretaries often 
 accompanied him from the seat of government to Mount 
 Vernon, and he referred to them as "members of my 
 family." 
 
 Though the hero was now merged in the planter, he 
 found, as formerly, genuine satisfaction in the com- 
 panionship of his friends. Nine years had made compar- 
 atively few changes in the neighborhood. The Fairfaxes 
 were gone, to be sure, and Belvoir was no more, but 
 a link with that treasured association remained in the 
 person of Bryan Fairfax, younger half-brother of Colonel 
 George William Fairfax. Later he was rector of Christ 
 Church, Alexandria. His home, Mount Eagle, was and 
 
166 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 remains to-day on the heights across Great Hunting 
 (reck From Alexandria. He was a picturesque figure, 
 indeed, it' he came to Mount Vernon dressed as he was 
 when he went to England, "in a full suit of purple," 
 which abroad was supposed to be "the custom of the 
 clergy in Virginia." 
 
 The family now went to Christ Church much oftener 
 than to Pohick. The latter church was practically 
 abandoned. It suffered severely in the reaction against 
 the established church, and all other things English, dur- 
 ing the Revolution, and only at infrequent intervals 
 were the doors open to itinerant preachers. Christ 
 Church had been built about the same time as the 
 second Pohick Church, and from the beginning Wash- 
 ington had owned a pew there. The family and their 
 guests drove up when the roads and the weather en- 
 couraged a round trip drive of eighteen miles. But he 
 never gave up his pew at Pohick, and went there occa- 
 sionally when it was open. 
 
 Another link between Mount Vernon and Alexandria 
 was forged as early as 1784, when the General and Mrs. 
 Washington drove up to attend the first of the Birth 
 Night Balls. These were the predecessors of the later 
 holiday, Washington's Birthday, and succeeded to the 
 colonial custom of celebrating the sovereign's birthday. 
 
 His exalted position now attracted a constant stream 
 of visitors. Among them were his recent French and 
 American companions in arms, and even English offi- 
 cers; leaders of political thought from all over the 
 country; a variety of strangers, curious, speculative, 
 petitioning; and distinguished foreigners from many 
 European countries. It is to some of these foreigners. 
 
MOUNT VERNON 167 
 
 who afterward published the journals of their travels^ 
 that the story of Mount Vernon owes many valuable 
 sketches of the life there at this time. 
 
 Among the first to come and write his impressions 
 was John Hunter, merchant of London. He spent a 
 day and a night there in 1785. In his diary is found: 
 
 "Wednesday 16 th . of Nov 'r— When Colonel Fitz- 
 gerald introduced me to the General I was struck with 
 his noble and venerable appearance. . \ . The 
 General is about six feet high, perfectly straight and 
 well made; rather inclined to be lusty. His eyes are 
 full and blue and seem to express an air of gravity. His 
 nose inclines to the aquiline; his mouth small; his teeth 
 are yet good and his cheeks indicate perfect health. 
 His forehead is a noble one and he wears his hair turned 
 back, without curls and quite in the officer's style, and 
 tyed in a long queue behind. Altogether he makes a 
 most noble, respectable appearance, and I really think 
 him the first man in the world. After having had the 
 management and care of the whole Continental army, 
 he has now retired without receiving any pay for his 
 trouble, and though solicited by the King of France 
 and some of the first characters in the world to visit 
 Europe, he has denied them all and knows how to pre- 
 fer solid happiness in his retirement to all the luxuries 
 and flattering speeches of European Courts. . . . 
 
 "People come to see him here from all parts of the 
 world — hardly a day passes without; but the General 
 seldom makes his appearance before dinner; employing 
 the morning to write his letters and superintend his 
 farm, and allotting the afternoon to company; but even 
 
108 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 then he generally retires for two hours between tea and 
 supper to his study to write. 
 
 "He is one of the most regular men in the world. 
 When no particular Company is at his house, he goes to 
 bed always at nine and gets up with the sun. It's 
 astonishing the packets of letters that daily come for 
 him, from all parts of the world, which employ him most 
 of the morning to answer, and his Secretary Mr. Shaw 
 . . . to copy and arrange. The General has all the 
 accounts of the war yet to settle. Shaw tells me he 
 keeps as regular Books as any Merchant whatever, and 
 a daily Journal of all his transactions. 
 
 "When I was first introduced to him he was neatly 
 dressed in a plain blue coat, while cassimer waistcoat, 
 and black breeches and Boots, as he came from his farm. 
 After having sat with us some time lie retired and sent 
 in his lady, a most agreeable woman about 50, and 
 Major Washington his nephew, married about three 
 weeks ago to a Miss Bessot. . . . After chatting 
 with them for half an hour, the General came in again, 
 with his hair neatly powdered, a clean shirt on, a new 
 plain drab coat, white waistcoat and white silk stock- 
 ings. At three, dinner was on table, and we were shewn 
 by the General into another room, where everything 
 was set off with a peculiar taste, and at the same time 
 very neat and plain. The General sent the bottle about 
 pretty freely after dinner, and gave success to the navi- 
 gation of the Potomac for his toasts, which he has very 
 much at heart. 
 
 "After tea General Washington retired to his study 
 and left us with the President, his lady and the rest of 
 the Company. If he had not been anxious to hear tli 
 
MOUNT VERNON 169 
 
 news of Congress from Mr. Lee, most probably he would 
 not have returned to supper, but gone to bed at his usual 
 hour, nine o'clock, for he seldom makes any ceremony. 
 We had a very elegant supper about that time. The 
 General with a few glasses of champagne got quite 
 merry, and being with his intimate friends laughed and 
 talked a good deal. Before strangers he is generally 
 very reserved, and seldom says a word. . . . At 12 
 I had the honor of being lighted up to my bedroom by 
 the General himself. 
 
 "Thursday 17th. November.— I rose early and took 
 a walk about the General's grounds — which are really 
 beautifully laid out. . . . Indeed his greatest pride 
 now is, to be thought the first farmer in America. He is 
 quite a Cincinnatus, and often works with his men him- 
 self — strips off his coat and labors like a common man. 
 . . . It's astonishing with what niceness he directs 
 everything in the building way, condescending even to 
 measure the things himself, that all may be perfectly 
 uniform. The style of his house is very elegant, some- 
 thing like the Prince de Conde's at Chantille, near Paris, 
 only not quite so large. . . . The situation is a 
 heavenly one, upon one of the finest rivers in the world. 
 I suppose I saw thousands of ducks upon it, all within 
 gun shot. There are also plenty of blackbirds and wild 
 geese and turkies. 
 
 "After breakfast I went with Shaw to see his famous 
 race-horse Magnolia — a most beautiful creature. . . . 
 He also showed me an elegant State Carriage, with 
 beautiful emblematical figures on it, made him a pres- 
 ent by the State of Pennsylvania. I afterwards went 
 into his stables, where among an amazing number of 
 
170 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 horses, I saw <>1<1 Nelson, now 22 years of age, that 
 carried the General almost always during the war: 
 Blueskin, another fine old horse next to him, now and 
 then had that honor. . . . They have heard the 
 roaring of many a cannon in their time. Blueskin was 
 not the favorite, on account of his not standing fire so 
 well as venerable old Nelson. . . . 
 
 "When the General takes his coach out he always 
 drives six horses; to his chariot he only puts four. . . . 
 I fancy he is worth 100,000 Pounds sterling and lives at 
 the rate of 3 or 4000 a year; . . . There is a fine 
 family picture in the Drawing room of the Marquis de 
 La Fayette, his lady and three children — another of the 
 General with his marching orders, when he was Colonel 
 Washington in the British Army against the French in 
 the last war; and two of Mrs. Washington's children: 
 her son was reckoned one of the handsomest men liv- 
 ing, also a picture of Mrs. Washington when a young 
 woman." 
 
 Watson, formerly a merchant of Nantes, came one 
 hitter January evening, suffering with a severe cough, 
 which increased dining the night; when his door opened 
 gently, the bed curtains were parted and there stood 
 "Washington himself with a howl of hot tea in his 
 hand." J. B. Brissot de Warville appeared in the 
 course of his travels in North America and noted the 
 simplicity in the house, and declared that Washington's 
 "modesty is astonishing to a Frenchman; he speaks of 
 the American war, and of his victories, as of things in 
 which he had no direct ion." 
 
 Koherl Edge Pine, "a pretty eminent Portrait & His- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 171 
 
 torical-Painter," spent three March weeks at Mount 
 Vernon in 1785 to make studies of Washington for his- 
 torical canvases. These were never painted, but he did 
 portraits of the General and the Custis children. It 
 was while Pine was at Mount Vernon that Washington 
 wrote : 
 
 " In for a penny, in for a pound, is an old adage. I 
 am so hackneyed to the touches of the painter's pencil, 
 that I am now altogether at their beck; and sit, 'like 
 Patience on a monument,' while they are delineating the 
 lines of my face. It is a proof, among many others, of 
 what habit and custom can accomplish. At first I was 
 as impatient at the request, and as restive under the 
 operation, as a colt is of the saddle. The next time I 
 submitted very reluctantly, but with less flouncing. 
 Now, no dray-horse moves more readily to his thill than 
 I to the painter's chair." 
 
 The imagination responds readily to the suggestion of 
 astonishment and confusion produced by the event 
 noted as of Sunday the 2d of October following: 
 
 "Went with Fanny Bassett, Burwell Bassett, Doct r 
 Stuart, G. A. Washington, M r Shaw & Nelly Custis to 
 Pohick Church; to hear a M r Thompson preach, who 
 returned home with us to Dinner, where I found the 
 Rev. M r Jones, formerly a Chaplin in one of the Pennsyl- 
 rania Regiments. — After we were in Bed (about Eleven 
 oclock in the Evening) M r Houdon, sent from Paris 
 by Doct r Franklin and M r Jefferson to take My Bust, 
 in behalf of the State of Virginia, with three young men 
 assistants, introduced by a M r Perin a French Gentle- 
 
17 > MOUNT VERNON 
 
 man of Alexandria arrived here by water from the latter 
 place." 
 
 During nearly three weeks spent at Mount Vernon, 
 Iloudon made a life mask and modelled a bust which has 
 remained in the mansion ever since. With this life 
 mask and measurements of the person of the General, 
 and memoranda concerning his dress, he returned to 
 Paris. There Gouverneur Morris posed for the figure 
 and Houdon modelled the head from the mask and 
 memory, and thus completed the exquisite statue in 
 marble which stands m the rotunda of the Capitol at Rich- 
 mond. The clay bust at Mount Vernon remains unique 
 as the only bust of Washington made from life. 
 
 So the procession filed on. It included among others 
 Charles Vallo, who contributed to the descriptive litera- 
 ture of the place; Chevalier de la Luzerne, who found 
 nothing to recall "the important part he [Washington] 
 has played except the great number of foreigners who 
 come to see him"; two English visitors perpetuated in 
 the significant entry in the diary, "Mrs. Maeauley 
 Graham and Mr. Graham"; the French Minister, the 
 Comte de Moustier, and his sister the "Marquise de 
 Brehan," and, though Washington did not appreciate 
 Madame's penchant for fondling negro babies, he ad- 
 mired a miniature profile of him which she painted; 
 Jno. Fitch with "a draft «\ model of a machine for 
 promoting navigation, by means of steam," and Robert 
 Fulton, then only twenty years of age; Xoah Webster, 
 on a copyright errand, not yet busy with his dictionary; 
 Captain Littlepage, of Virginia, who had been "Aid de 
 Camp to the Duke de Crillen was at the Seiges of Fort 
 
MOUNT VERNON 173 
 
 St. Phillip (on the Island of Minorca) and Gibralter; and 
 is an extraordinary Character"; Andre Michaux, sent 
 by the French Government to establish in America 
 nurseries of plants to be naturalized in France; "a 
 Gentleman calling himself the Count de Cheiza D'art- 
 eignan officer of the French Guards" presented himself 
 for dinner and spent the night, "bringing no letters of 
 introduction, nor any authentic testimonials for his being 
 either; I was at a loss how to receive or treat him — "; 
 Parson Weems, meditating the hatchet story for his life 
 of Washington, which was to be more widely known and 
 read than any other; and Jedediah Morse, author of the 
 first American geography. "My house," wrote Wash- 
 ington at about this time, "may be compared to a well 
 resorted tavern." 
 
 With uniform hospitality for all who came under his 
 roof, there was, however, no one else who received a wel- 
 come equal to that of General the Marquis de LaFay- 
 ette, "the French boy," as Mrs. Washington called him, 
 who made two visits to Mount Vernon on his return to 
 America in 1784. He came first in August for twelve 
 days and returned in November for a week. Washing- 
 ton's attachment for LaFayette was one of the unique 
 affections of his life. On the occasion of his second visit 
 Washington travelled all the way to Richmond to meet 
 him and accompany him to Mount Vernon. And when 
 the precious seven days had passed he was so loath to 
 give up his friend that he journeyed on with him to 
 Annapolis. Washington returned home and dis- 
 patched thence these lines of farewell which are more 
 nearly sentimental than any others of his which are 
 preserved : 
 
L74 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 "In the moment of our separation, upon the road as I 
 travelled, and every hour since, I have felt all that love, 
 respect and attachment for you, with which length of 
 years, close connection, and your merits have inspired 
 me. I often asked myself, as our carriages separated, 
 whether thai was the last sighl I ever should have of 
 you? And though I wished to answer No, my fears an- 
 swered Yes. I called lo mind the days of my youth, 
 and found they had long since fled to return no more; 
 thai I was now decending the hill I had been fifty two 
 years in climbing, and that, though I was Messed with a 
 good constitution, I was of a short lived family, and 
 might soon expect to be entombed in the mansion of my 
 fathers. These thoughts darkened the shade's, and gave 
 a gloom to tin 1 picture, and consequently, to my pros- 
 peel of ever seeing you again." 
 
 His premonition was correct. They did not see each 
 oilier again. LaFayette, however, came to Mount 
 Vernon forty years later lo pay homage at the tomb of 
 his chief and friend. 
 
 Washington was also reminded of the enlarged sphere 
 of his fame by the numerous and sometimes extraordi- 
 nary gifts which now reached Mount Vernon. Most 
 interesting of these were the Italian mantel, the French 
 hunting hounds, and the Maltese and Spanish asses. 
 
 The mantel, which at once found an ideal position in 
 the 1 banquet room, opposite the large ornamental win- 
 dow, came in February, 1785, from Samuel Vaughan, 
 of London. lie was ;i stranger to Washington but had a 
 passionate admiration for his character and achieve- 
 ments. The mantel is of "white and Sienite marbles." 
 
MOUNT VERNON 175 
 
 Its most striking feature, aside from its simplicity and 
 symmetry, are the three panels, sculptured in high relief, 
 celebrating agricultural life. It has never been removed 
 from its original position and, with the white marble 
 hearth, the grate, clock, vases, candlesticks, and flank- 
 ing pedestals, it forms the one complete original group 
 assembled in the mansion to-day exactly as in the life- 
 time of its owner. 
 
 The hounds were sent by LaFayette on his return to 
 France after his visit to Mount Vernon. They were in 
 favor until one day the family sat down to dinner to dis- 
 cover that Vulcan had stolen the ham about which the 
 meal was to have been assembled. They were a na- 
 tively fierce pack and Mrs. Washington is suspected of 
 having used the stolen ham as an excuse to get rid of 
 them. At any rate the French hounds soon followed the 
 ham. Washington's adopted son says apropos of this 
 that the General gave up hunting in 1785, but he did 
 in fact hunt until 1788. Then for eight years his ab- 
 sence at the seat of government kept him away from 
 Mount Vernon during the hunting season. When he 
 returned in 1797 he was somewhat advanced in years 
 for the vigorous sport he had followed until his fifty- 
 sixth year. 
 
 There were few and only inferior mules in America 
 at this time and Washington desired to improve the 
 breed. This became known abroad, and in 1788 he re- 
 ceived from LaFayette a jack called Knight of Malta 
 and two Maltese she asses; also a jack called Royal 
 Gift and two jennies from the King of Spain. "From 
 these altogether," he said, "I hope to secure a race of 
 extraordinary goodness, which will stock the country." 
 
176 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 The presents did not all move in one direction by any 
 means. In 1785 Washington was making an effort to 
 gel seeds in "Kentucke" for the French King's Gar- 
 dens at Versailles, and three years later he was hunting a 
 healthy family of opossums to send an English friend, 
 Sir Edward Newenham. 
 
 Such were some of the conspicuous details at Mount 
 Vernon of the early days of Washington's military fame. 
 If it robbed the home of some of its privacy, there were 
 compensations. It has been said Mount Vernon typi- 
 fied the capital of the embryonic nation. There now 
 centred the ideas, the discussions, and the initiative 
 which finally prevailed in giving birth to the nation. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 Mount Vernon the Cradle of Constitutional Agitation — Union 
 of States First Effected at Mount Vernon Conference — Off 
 to the Constitutional Convention — Washington's Passion for 
 the Constitution — Virginia in a Turmoil — Ratification — 
 Dreading the Interruption of His Home Life — Elected First 
 President of the United States — The Formal Notification at 
 Mount Vernon — Breaking Home Ties — End of His Furlough 
 — Departure for the Inauguration. 
 
 IT HAS been said that Washington left Mount Ver- 
 non a distinguished Virginian and returned after 
 the war one of the most famous men in the world. 
 More significant is Henry Cabot Lodge's other remark 
 that Washington passed at a single step from being a 
 Virginian to being an American. 
 
 In the midst of his domestic, social, and agricultural 
 activities by the Potomac his mind dwelt continually 
 on the conditions which his military success had im- 
 posed on the disunited states. His vision revealed to 
 him the ruin ahead under the Articles of Confederation 
 and the opportunity and salvation which lay only in a 
 nation united with a firm, centralized government. 
 
 He realized the truth of the British taunt that if the 
 now independent states were left to themselves they 
 would soon dissolve. And so, while he wrote LaFayette 
 and Knox and others of his complete retirement, his in- 
 tention to confine his activities to the cultivation of the 
 friendship of good men and to the practise of the do- 
 mestic virtues, the enigma of his country's future was 
 
 177 
 
178 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 never wholly out of his mind. To his perception he 
 added a patriotism which embraced all the states, and 
 at Mount Vernon was conceived and developed, urged, 
 and in a measure consummated, the idea of union and 
 of the means to national strength and life. 
 
 In the library were written the constant stream of 
 letters which carried the constitutional idea into every 
 other state. During hours and days of consultation 
 and discussion with thoughtful leaders, in walks be- 
 neath the trees, seated about his hospitable board, or 
 during long sessions under the canopy of his riverside 
 piazza, he argued and persuaded for the firm union of 
 the states. 
 
 The common enemy had drawn the colonies together 
 during the war, but once peace was declared the units 
 flew asunder. Jealousy displaced fraternal confidence. 
 The states discredited each other's currency. They 
 set up import taxes against each other. Under these 
 menacing conditions the representatives of Maryland 
 and Virginia met at Mount Vernon in March, 1785, to 
 devise some means of securing uniform action between 
 the two states on the problem of the commerce and 
 fishing of the Chesapeake and the Potomac. It was 
 then and there decided that the two states should adopt 
 uniform laws on imports, currency, and commercial 
 regulations; that a naval force should be maintained at 
 the expense <>)' both states and for the protection of 
 both; that the commissioners should propose to their 
 respective slate governments the establishment of 
 conjoint laws under the assent of Congress. Here ap- 
 pear* d the first evidence of union. It was the union of 
 only two states, Virginia and Maryland, but it was 
 
MOUNT VERNON 179 
 
 union, and it submitted itself to the Congress of all the 
 states. Mount Vernon was the scene of this first step 
 toward national union. 
 
 The following January, 1786, Virginia joined Mary- 
 land in a proposal that every state should send dele- 
 gates to a convention at Annapolis in September, to 
 regulate the commerce of all the states. From the 
 x\nnapolis convention emanated the call for the conven- 
 tion to be held in Philadelphia, in the spring of 1787, to 
 frame a constitution for the union of all the states. 
 
 Washington was unanimously elected to head Vir- 
 ginia's delegation. He pleaded his retirement, rheu- 
 matism, and other reasons for declining to serve. But 
 when there was question of his republicanism he 
 brushed all considerations aside, began an exhaustive 
 study of constitutional governments, of which he left 
 lengthy autograph evidence in his library, and on Wed- 
 nesday, May 9, 1787, "crossed from Mount Vernon to 
 Mr. Digges a little after sunrise," and was one of the 
 first delegates to reach Philadelphia. He was made the 
 president of the Constitutional Convention, remained 
 in the city throughout the fatiguing summer, and 
 reached home September 22d, after an absence of four 
 months and fourteen days. 
 
 He at once dispatched riders from Mount Vernon 
 with copies of the Constitution to Thomas Nelson, 
 Benjamin Harrison, and Patrick Henry, former gover- 
 nors of Virginia, and to other prominent men, stating 
 his wish that it had been more perfect and his belief 
 that it was the best that could be obtained at the time, 
 and urging their support. A storm of discussion broke 
 over the state. Among those arrayed against the Con- 
 
180 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 stitution were Patrick Henry, Benjamin Harrison, 
 ( reorge Mason, Richard Henry Lee, and James Monroe. 
 Among I hose in its defense were James Madison, John 
 Marshall, Edmund Pendleton, and General Henry Lee 
 ("Light Horse Harry"). 
 
 Washington remained at home and somewhat in the 
 background of the "passionate agitation." But he 
 stood committed to the Constitution as drawn, with a 
 door open tor subsequent amendments, and gave it the 
 full force of his support. A visitor to Mount Vernon 
 shortly after his return from Philadelphia wrote Thomas 
 Jefferson in November: 
 
 "I stayed two days with General AYashington at 
 Mount Vernon about six weeks ago. ... I never 
 saw him so keen for anything in my life as he is for the 
 adoption of tin- new scheme of government. As the 
 eyes of .ill America are turned towards this truly great 
 and good man for the first President, I took the liberty 
 of sounding him upon it. He appears to be earnestly 
 against going into public lite again; pleads in excuse for 
 himself his love of retirement and his advanced age, but 
 notwithstanding of these, I am fully of opinion that he 
 may be induced to appear once more on the public 
 
 .stage of life." 
 
 lie subscribed for ;i number of copies of the Federalist, 
 in which Madison, Jay, and Hamilton defended the 
 Constitution. One set he had hound and placed in his 
 
 library. The others he sent broadcast on their propa- 
 ganda. Another and more unique addition to Mount 
 Vernon at this time was the good ship Federalist, a pres- 
 ent to Washington from the merchants and shipowners 
 
— U 
 
MOUNT VERNON 181 
 
 of Baltimore. That city celebrated the adoption of the 
 Constitution by Maryland with a procession in which a 
 conspicuous feature was a full-rigged ship, named the 
 Federalist, fifteen feet long, mounted on wheels and 
 drawn by four horses. After the celebration it was 
 launched in the Chesapeake and navigated down the 
 bay by Captain Barney and up the Potomac to Mount 
 Vernon wharf. It remained there an amusing curiosity 
 for nearly two months, when it was torn from its moor- 
 ings by a high wind and was sunk. 
 
 The bitter fight for the Constitution in Virginia was 
 waged for nearly a year. During that time Washing- 
 ton was more active than ever with his correspondence. 
 He saw an increasing number of people and spent him- 
 self in persuasion. It was his conviction that the alter- 
 native to the adoption of the Constitution was the total 
 dissolution of the uniting states. Without his influence 
 Virginia would not have ratified, and it is probable that 
 without Virginia the great experiment would not have 
 succeeded. Hence it was with relief and exultation 
 that news came telling of Virginia's ratification on June 
 25th. Three days later the citizens of Alexandria pre- 
 pared a public dinner as part of the celebration of the 
 event, which the General, Colonel Humphreys, and 
 George Augustine Washington attended from Mount 
 Vernon. Returning home, he noted with neighborly 
 pride, in a letter to Charles Cotesworth Pinckney: 
 "Thus the citizens of Alexandria, when convened, con- 
 stituted the first public company in America, which had 
 the pleasure of pouring [a] libation to the prosperity of 
 the ten States that had actually adopted the general 
 government." 
 
18-2 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 When Congress received the testimonials of ratifica- 
 tion it appointed a day for the choice of electors of a 
 President, who, being chosen, unanimously elected 
 George Washington first President of the United States. 
 So little was this unexpected that from the time of the 
 General's return home from the Constitutional Con- 
 vention requests poured in upon him to accept the office. 
 It was the fixed idea that Washington should be the 
 first executive of the new nation not only in every mind 
 in America at all times, but Europe likewise accepted 
 his choice as inevitable. In answer to LaFayette's 
 letter on this subject, the General wrote him: 
 
 "Knowing me as you do, I need only say, that it 
 has no enticing charms and no facinating allurements for 
 me. However, it might not be decent for me to say I 
 would refuse to accept, or even to speak much about an 
 appointment, which may never take place; for, in so 
 doing, one might possibly incur the application of the 
 moral resulting from that fable, in which the fox is 
 represented as inveighing against the sourness of the 
 grapes, because he could not reach them. All that it 
 will be necessary to add, my dear Marquis, in order 
 to show my decided predehctions is, that, (at my time 
 of life and under my circumstances,) the increasing 
 infirmaties of nature and the growing love of retirement 
 do not permit me to entertain a wish beyond that of 
 living and dying an honest man on my own farm." 
 
 Later, a-- the time drew near for the counting of the 
 electoral votes, there was some delay, and Washington 
 wrote Henry Knox: 
 
MOUNT VERNON 183 
 
 "For myself the delay may be compared to a reprieve; 
 for in confidence I tell you, (with the world it would 
 obtain little credit,) that my movements to the chair of 
 government will be accompanied by feelings not unlike 
 those of a culprit, who is going to the place of his execu- 
 tion; so unwilling am I, in the evening of a life nearly 
 consumed in public cares, to quit a peaceful abode for 
 an ocean of difficulties, without that competency of 
 political skill, abilities, and inclination, which are nec- 
 essary to manage the helm." 
 
 Mrs. Washington shared their regret to tear away 
 again from the peace and retirement of their riverside 
 home. "I little thought when the war was finished 
 that any circumstances could possibly happen which 
 would call the general into public life again," she wrote 
 a friend. "I had anticipated that from that moment 
 we should be suffered to grow old together, in solitude 
 and tranquility. . . . When I was much younger 
 I should probably have enjoyed the innocent gayeties of 
 life as much as most persons of my age; but I had long 
 since placed all the prospects of my future worldly 
 happiness in the still enjoyments of the fireside at Mount 
 Vernon." 
 
 A notable scene was acted at Mount Vernon on the 
 14th of April, this year of 1789. Shortly after noon 
 there arrived from New York the Secretary of Congress, 
 Mr. Charles Thompson, who had been appointed to 
 notify Washington of his election to the office of Presi- 
 dent. He was an old friend of the General's and had 
 been Secretary of Congress for nearly fifteen years. 
 He delivered the certificate of election and added a few 
 
184 .MOUNT VERNON 
 
 words of personal address. Washington's reply is pre- 
 served. Ho said: 
 
 "I am so much affected by this fresh proof of my 
 country's esteem and confidence that silence can best 
 express my gratitude. AYhile I realize the arduous 
 nature of the task which is imposed upon me and feel 
 my own inability to perform it, I wish that there may 
 not be reason for regretting the choice; for indeed all I 
 can promise is to accomplish that which can be done 
 by an honest zeal. Upon considering how long time 
 some of the Gentlemen of both Houses of Congress have 
 been at New York, how anxiously desirous they must 
 be to proceed to business, and how deeply the public 
 mind appears to be impressed with the necessity of doing 
 it speedily, I cannot find myself at liberty to delay my 
 journey. I shall therefore be in readiness to set out the 
 day after tomorrow; and shall be happy in the pleasure 
 of your company; for you will permit me to say thai it 
 is a peculiar gratification to have received this communi- 
 cation from you." 
 
 In anticipation of an early departure he had paid a 
 visit of farewell to his mother at Fredericksburg, when 
 he then saw her for the last time, and in Alexandria 
 borrowed five hundred pounds to discharge his personal 
 debts and another one hundred pounds to defray his 
 expenses to the scat of government at New York City, 
 lb- set out on his journey Thursday morning, April 
 Kith. "About ten o'clock," he wrote in his diary, 
 " I l>adr adieu to Mount Vernon, to private life, and to 
 domestic felicity, and with a mind oppressed with more 
 
MOUNT VERNON 185 
 
 anxious and painful sensations than I have words to 
 express, set out for New York in company with M r 
 Thomson and Col° Humphreys, with the best disposi- 
 tion to render service to my country in obedience to its 
 calls, but with less hope of answering its expectations." 
 When he reached the West Lodge gates he found a 
 mounted escort of neighbors and friends from Alexan- 
 dria, who accompanied him up to town. They said 
 their mutual farewells at a dinner in his honor, when, 
 suggestive of the number of units of the union, the 
 toasts were thirteen. "Farewell," said the mayor on 
 behalf of his fellow-townsmen: "Go and make a 
 grateful people happy — a people who will be doubly 
 grateful when they contemplate the recent sacrifice for 
 their interests." Washington's emotions could with 
 difficulty be concealed. "Unutterable sensations," 
 said he, in closing his reply, "must then be left to more 
 expressive silence, while from an aching heart I bid you 
 all, my affectionate friends and kind neighbors, fare- 
 well."' 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 Mount Vernon During the Presidency — Visits Home — Arrival of 
 the Key of the Bastille — Mode of Travel — The Hard Riding 
 Aide and the General's Anger — Directions for Hospitality al 
 Mount Vernon in His Absence — Managers of the Estate: 
 George Augustine Washington, Anthony Whiting, Howell 
 Lewis, William Pearce, and James Anderson — Keeping in 
 Touch with His Estate When Absent — New Barns — Mrs. 
 Washington Homesick in Philadelphia — The General's Love 
 for His Home — Retires from Public Life — Returns to Mount 
 Vernon. 
 
 THE six years' respite from official life at Mount 
 Vernon after the war Washington called his 
 "furlough." During the next eight years his 
 home saw him only by glimpses.* He found opportuni- 
 ties during his two terms as President to journey fifteen 
 times to Mount Vernon, an average of about twice a 
 year. These visits were always made between the first 
 of April and the first of November. Once only he re- 
 mained later by three weeks. Winter was the period 
 of the sittings of Congress, and the season when the 
 roads were less passable and when the city offered the 
 greater comfort, which accounts for his presence at the 
 seat of government during the colder months. 
 
 His stays on the Potomac were generally brief. 
 Five times lie remained only from seven to twelve days. 
 Once he remained a part of four months. The other 
 visits covered four to eight weeks. To be exact, of the 
 
 *5ce Appendii B. 
 
 18C 
 
MOUNT VERNON 187 
 
 eight years of the Presidency he allowed himself in all 
 less than fifteen months at his home. 
 
 His first absence was his longest. He did not come 
 back to Mount Vernon until a year and a half after his 
 inauguration, September, 1790. On this trip he proba- 
 bly brought with him the main key of the Bastille and 
 the drawing of the fortress which LaFayette sent him 
 "as a missionary of Liberty to its patriarch." The key 
 hung in a glass cabinet on the south wall of the main hall 
 and it has not left Mount Vernon since. The Bust of 
 Necker, French Revolutionary Minister of Finance, also 
 came at this time, and for many years after occupied a 
 position in the library. Mrs. Washington and her 
 grandchildren, Nellie and George Washington Parke 
 Custis, did not accompany the General to the inaugura- 
 tion, but they soon followed, and spent the period of his 
 Presidency in New York with him. In the fall of 1790 
 Philadelphia succeeded New York as the seat of gov- 
 ernment, and thither Washington returned at the end 
 of November. 
 
 He was at home three periods in 1791: the first for 
 three days early in April, "visiting my Plantations every 
 day," on his way to make the grand tour of the South; 
 the second to rest for a fortnight on his way north in 
 June, and the third for three weeks in September and 
 October. 
 
 The next year he came twice: for nine days in May, 
 and in July for the longest vacation he spent at his home 
 while President, when he was so far disposed not to 
 accept a second term that he wrote Madison asking his 
 suggestions about a farewell address. A unique souve- 
 nir of this summer on the Potomac survives to-day 
 
188 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 scratched in one of the panes of glass in the sleeping- 
 room known as the Green Room. The frail but pre- 
 cious window pane is heavily reinforced with putty, 
 for it bears the autograph of Eliza P. Custis, and the 
 date of its etching, August 2, 179 c 2. 
 
 After the ceremonies of his second inauguration, in 
 1793, the President rode away as soon as he could for a 
 spring visit to Mount Vernon, but the outbreak of the 
 war between France and England drew him back to 
 Philadelphia after a rest of less than three weeks. The 
 death of the manager of his estate made it necessary for 
 him to return southward early in the summer. He re- 
 mained nine days and was the guest of honor of his 
 friends and neighbors at Alexandria at a Fourth of July 
 celebration, when "mighty twelve pounders" thundered 
 salutes and a company of one hundred and ten "sat 
 down to an elegant dinner in Mr. Wise's long room." 
 His real vacation came in September and October, love- 
 liest time of the year in Fairfax. It was an unexpected 
 and unwilling flight from Philadelphia, but the yellow 
 fever had broken out in the city, and every one who 
 could deserted it. Although Washington expressed a 
 wish to remain in the north longer than the 10th of 
 September, it is difficult to see how that could have been 
 possible in view of an important engagement for the 
 1 Slh of that month in Washington City. On that day 
 he came up from Mount Vernon to "The Federal City," 
 as he was accustomed to call it, and assisted at the 
 laying of the cornerstone of the Capitol of the United 
 
 St ;t Ics. 
 
 I laving accepted a second term in the chair of govern- 
 ment, Washington at this time began to think of re- 
 
A^^^ t e*^~CJ2^C^ />Ctf2_- &^>'s*&-<£c- ^t^rTf»rrf=Xl. ~o_ X, r^f^ \ 
 
 
 
 t5 £2^T°.S-<^*>J*. 
 
 £*? <2hu&o-4>~ yC&_^*^/ tz^xsz^Z, St>g£L£zJZL-*) /X^*-s?~ /vCL-^ — 
 
 Sot? 2**y^jfiZZ ^Lj^k^ ^_^x^-> 
 
 
 
 '€y 
 
 Facsimile of the Original Autograph 
 
 Draft of a letter dated December 12, 1793, from George Washington to Arthur Young. 
 The last paragraph above contains the beginning of Washington's description of 
 Mount Vernon, quoted page vii. From the original draft in the Library of ( Congress 
 
MOUNT VERNON 189 
 
 ducing his responsibilities as a planter by renting all his 
 land except the farm on which the mansion house stood. 
 It was the passing whim of a tired man. His farms 
 were the great plaything of his life. Nothing came of it 
 except an advertisement in a local paper and an elabo- 
 rate letter to his English friend, Arthur Young, in which 
 is preserved a detailed account of the physical features of 
 his lands and their improvements and stock. 
 
 Twelve days in June and July were the sum of the next 
 year's time spent at Mount Vernon. In 1795 he came 
 for seven days in April, in July for seventeen, and on 
 September thirteen for a full month lacking only a day. 
 It was on the last visit that he found two old friends of 
 the Mount Vernon household married and at home in 
 Alexandria. They were his secretary, Tobias Lear, and 
 Frances Bassett Washington, widow of George Augus- 
 tine Washington. Her husband and Lear's wife both 
 died in 1793. The young widow and the widower were 
 married in August, 1795, and in September the President 
 and Mrs. Washington drove up to Alexandria and dined 
 with them. This was the first time in over thirty years 
 that the master and mistress of Mount Vernon had 
 driven through its gates and missed the welcome of 
 ancient Bishop. He died in his cottage on the mansion 
 house farm, in his eightieth year, in January, 1795, 
 mourned by the master he had served as long as 
 strength permitted and by whose bounty he enjoyed a 
 green old age of ease and plenty. 
 
 Every morning saw the President on horseback, riding 
 over his farms. The house was never free of company 
 and usually the guests packed it. He often entertained 
 the foreign ministers, the members of his cabinet, and 
 
100 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 other high governmental officials, ranking veterans of 
 the army, and natives and foreigners of various dis- 
 tinctions. Time for work on his letters and papers was 
 made possible only by his custom of rising hours before 
 others of the household and closeting himself in the 
 library. 
 
 During the final year of the Presidency Washington 
 was at home for nearly two months, from June 20th to 
 August 17th, and returned in September to take Mrs. 
 Washington and the children back to Philadelphia for 
 the winter. On the latter occasion he remained thirty- 
 three days. Much of his time while at home this sum- 
 mer was spent in his library over his Farewell Address. 
 He had by him Alexander Hamilton's extensive sug- 
 gestions, and to him he wrote after some work on it: 
 k All the columns, of a large gazette would scarcely, I be- 
 lieve, contain the present draught." 
 
 He left Mount Vernon for Philadelphia for the last 
 period of his term in office at the end of October, 1790. 
 He arrived at the seat of government on the last day 
 of the month. In general the trip between Mount 
 Vernon and Philadelphia, with fair roads and no delays, 
 occupied four or five days. When his horses were fat or 
 "out of exercise" he allowed for an extra day of rest on 
 the route somewhere. If the trip w r ere made without 
 Mrs. Washington or her grandchildren he generally 
 pushed forward with secretary and servants and five 
 horses, or at most with the light coachee and outriders. 
 But with his family he travelled with chariot and four or 
 six horses, coachman and postilions, secretaries on 
 horseback, a light baggage wagon, perhaps a two-horse 
 phaeton, and from six to twelve servants. There were 
 
MOUNT VERNON 191 
 
 often as many as sixteen horses in the train. The heavy 
 luggage was usually sent from Philadelphia to Mount 
 Vernon by vessel. Washington rode in the coach only a 
 fraction of the time, often mounting a horse and resting 
 himself with a ride by the side of Mrs. Washington's 
 chariot. 
 
 One of the rare scenes reported of these journeys con- 
 firms the belief that behind Washington's placid mask 
 he had a very human nature capable of being stirred to 
 high anger and, moreover, it glimpses his concern for his 
 horses. 
 
 "I never saw him angry but once in my life," said a 
 relative of the General's whom a writer in the Demo- 
 cratic Review for March, 1843, merely styles "Captain 
 L"; "and this was considered so remarkable . . . 
 we looked upon it as quite an anomaly in the General's 
 life. It happened while he was President and travelling 
 in his carriage, with a small retinue of outriders, from 
 Mount Vernon to Philadelphia. It was during the first 
 day of our journey, and we were passing through the 
 barrens of Maryland, where, at intervals of a few miles, 
 the solitude of the road was relieved at that time by a set 
 of low taverns or groggeries, at which we did not think 
 of stopping. But we had a thoughtless young man in 
 our train, who by favour had been admitted into the 
 family as a sort of gentleman attendant, and who 
 seemed much more inclined to patronize these places. 
 The General, at his request, had permitted him to ride a 
 favorite young mare which he had raised on his planta- 
 tion, and of which he was exceedingly careful, the ani- 
 mal being almost as slight as a roebuck and very high 
 spirited. But the young fellow, notwithstanding the 
 
192 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 intimations he had received at starting to deal gently 
 with her, appeared bent on testing her speed and other 
 qualities, and that too in a manner little likely to meet 
 with favour in a man of Washington's high sense of 
 propriety. IK" would leave the train, and riding up to 
 one of the liquoring establishments, there remain until 
 we were out of sight; when he would come up upon the 
 run, ride with us awhile, and gallop on forward to the 
 next. This he repeated three times, the last of which 
 brought the mettlesome creature to a foam and evi- 
 dently much fretted her. At the first transgression 
 thus commit led against the General's orders respecting 
 the mare, as well as against his known sense of pro- 
 priety, he seemed surprised, looking as if he wondered at 
 the young man's temerity, and contented himself with 
 throwing after the young man a glance of displeasure. 
 At the second he appeared highly incensed although he 
 said nothing, and repressed his indignation, acting as if 
 he thought this must be the last offense, for the punish- 
 ment of which he chose a private occasion. But as the 
 offender rode up the third time, Washington hastily 
 threw open the carriage window, and asking the driver 
 to halt, sharply ordered the former alongside; when with 
 uplifted cane, and a tone and emphasis which startled 
 us all, and made the culprit shrink and tremble like a 
 leaf, he exclaimed, 'Look you, sir! Your conduct is in- 
 sufferable! Fall in behind there, sir; and as sure as you 
 leave us again, I will break every bone in your skin!'" 
 In the absence of the family Mount Vernon was fre- 
 quented by travellers eager to see the home of the re- 
 nowned Washington, and he maintained a generous hos- 
 pitality for ail who presented themselves. It was taken 
 
o 
 
MOUNT VERNON 193 
 
 advantage of, however, not merely by the guests but by 
 the servants, and the President felt obliged to write his 
 manager defining the treatment he wished the visitors to 
 receive : 
 
 "Speaking of Gentlemens Serv ts it calls to my mind, 
 that in a letter from Mrs. Fanny Washington to Mrs. 
 Washington (her Aunt) she mentions, that since I left 
 Mount Vernon she has given out four doz n and eight 
 bottles of wine. — Whether they are used, or not, she does 
 not say; — but I am led by it to observe, that it is not my 
 intention that it should be given to every one who may 
 incline to to make a convenience of the house, in travel- 
 ing; or who may be induced to visit it from motives of 
 curiosity. — There are but three descriptions of people to 
 whom I think it ought to be given: — first, my particular 
 and intimate acquaintances, in case business should call 
 them there, such for instance as Doct r Craik. — 2 d 'y 
 some of the most respectable foreigners who may, per- 
 chance, be in Alexandria or the federal city; and be 
 either brought down, or introduced by letter, from some 
 of my particular acquaintances as before mentioned; — 
 or, thirdly, to persons of some distinction (such as mem- 
 bers of Congress &c l ) who may be traveling through the 
 Country from North to South , or from South to North ; 
 — to the first of which, I should not fail to give letters, 
 where I conceive them entitled. — Unless some caution 
 of this sort governs, I should be run to an expence as im- 
 proper, as it would be considerable. ... I have no 
 objection to any sober, or orderly person's gratifying 
 their curiosity in viewing the buildings, Gardens &c l 
 about Mount Vernon ; — but it is only to such persons as 
 
194 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 T have described, that I ought to be run to any expence 
 on account of these visits of curiosity, beyond common 
 civility and hospitality." 
 
 The above directions were sent his manager, William 
 Pearce. 
 
 During the first sixteen years of his married life, 
 which he spent at home, Washington managed the 
 estate himself with overseers on each of the farms. At 
 the outbreak of the Revolution he engaged a distant rela- 
 tive, Lund Washington, as manager, and left the charge 
 of Mount Vernon in his hands for ten years. At the end 
 of this term the General had then been at home two 
 years and recovered his grasp on the place. His 
 nephew, George Augustine Washington, was at Mount 
 Vernon at this time, and to the affections of his uncle he 
 added his confidence to such a degree that when called 
 to the Presidency Washington placed the estate under 
 the management of this nephew. The young man 
 seems not to have been without ability, but his health 
 failed him and in the winter of 1791-2 he was succeeded 
 by Anthony Whiting, a man who, it w r as reported to 
 Washington, "drank freely — kept bad company at my 
 house and in Alexandria — and was a very debauched 
 person." His habits probably hastened the relief his 
 employer had of him for he died in July, 1793. Wash- 
 ington's nephew, Betty's son, Howell Lewis, took 
 charge during the few months pending the arrival of 
 William Pearce, in December. There may be a hint to 
 the curious in Washington's remark when he heard that 
 Howell's brother Lawrence was available at the time of 
 the former's engagement: "But after all is not Law- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 195 
 
 rence Lewis on the point of matrimony? Report says 
 so, and if truly, it would be an effectual bar to a per- 
 manent establishment in my business, as I never again 
 will have two women in my house when I am there my- 
 self." 
 
 Pearce's stewardship covered three full years. He 
 was succeeded by James Anderson in the last year the 
 President was absent in Philadelphia. Both these men 
 gave their chief great satisfaction. Anderson was man- 
 ager during the remaining years of Washington's life and 
 to him was addressed the last letter the great man wrote. 
 
 During the first five years of the General and Mrs. 
 Washington's absence at the seat of government the 
 mansion was under the personal control of Fanny Wash- 
 ington. Both her uncle and aunt were very fond of 
 her and Mrs. Washington was constantly sending her 
 presents. In forwarding a newly imported watch on 
 one occasion, her Aunt Martha closed the letter with 
 this remembrance of her little girl: "Kiss Marie I send 
 her two little handkerchiefs to wipe her nose. Adue." 
 
 Mount Vernon never lost the direct influence of its 
 master even during his long absences. He exacted a 
 weekly report from his manager by the post leaving 
 Alexandria each Thursday, and he, on his part, wrote 
 every week, usually devoting Sunday afternoon to the 
 preparation of the long letters which covered two or 
 three and even four large, closely written pages. Such 
 was the importance which he attached to these letters 
 that he first made a rough draft of them, then copied 
 them out in full in his own handwriting, and finally 
 preserved a letter-press copy. They directed the plant- 
 ing, cultivating, and harvesting of crops; building and 
 
196 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 repairs; the engaging, discharge, discipline, and comfort 
 of his servants and slaves; all with the same intimate 
 acquaintance he might have shown in his library in a 
 talk with his manager after a morning ride of inspection 
 over his farms. 
 
 He referred to the hundreds of slaves by name, and 
 knew each of their children's; he knew exactly where 
 windows and doors were to be placed and their dimen- 
 sions; what was boarded and what was free; what car- 
 pel iters were available and best suited to the various 
 jobs; what money he owed and what money was owed 
 him; the condition of his growing crops, the potentiality 
 of each field, the stage of the foaled mares; and seem- 
 ingly every other imaginable detail. 
 
 That an absent proprietor with no other concerns 
 should exhibit such a grasp would be remarkable; that it 
 was the concurrent if not the secondary interest at first 
 of a general conducting a great war and later of a presi- 
 dent organizing an infant nation, excites a truly natural 
 wonder. 
 
 One of the new and important works put under way 
 during the early years of the Presidency was the circu- 
 lar or sixteen-sided barn, of his own invention, on Dogue 
 Hun Farm. It was two stories high and sixty feet in 
 diameter, and was so arranged thai when rain drove the 
 farm help out of the fields they could here under shelter, 
 in lh<> second story, thresh out the grain on a ten-foot 
 floor of open slats which entirely surrounded the central 
 mows. Another feature of this barn, in which he took 
 so much pride, and which was the wonder of the 
 neighbors, was an} inclined runway which admitted the 
 oxen or horses up to the circular treading floor. 
 
MOUNT VERNON 197 
 
 When Pearce arrived in 1793 the President wrote him 
 a characteristic letter giving a schedule of work for the 
 carpenters. They were to begin at once the com- 
 pletion of the circular barn and the stables attached 
 thereto for horses and cattle. After that "the work 
 essentially necessary to be done," he wrote, was "build- 
 ing the house for Crow — Repairing my house in Alex- 
 andria for Mrs. Fanny Washington — which must be 
 done before the first of May — Inclosing the lot on which 
 it stands for a Garden or Yard. — Repairing the Mil- 
 lers house. — Removing the larger kind of Negro quar- 
 ters (the smaller ones or cabbins, I presume the people 
 with a little assistance of Carts can do themselves) to 
 the ground marked out for them opposite to Crow's 
 New house. — Repairing at a proper time those he will 
 remove from. — Lending aid in drawing the houses at 
 River farm into some uniform shape, in a convenient 
 place. — Repairing the Barn and Stables at Muddy- 
 hole. — Compleating the Dormant Windows in the back 
 of the Stable at Mansion house and putting two in the 
 front of it agreeably to directions already given to 
 Thomas Green — after which, and perhaps doing some 
 other things which do not occur to me at this moment, 
 my intention is to build a large Barn, and sheds for 
 Stables upon the plan of that at Dogue Run (if, on trial 
 it should be found to answer to the expectation w ch is 
 formed of it) at River Farm." 
 
 In another letter he enclosed a schedule of the bricks 
 needed for the barn on the River Farm. They were 
 139,980 in number. In view of these extensive im- 
 provements something had to be neglected, and it ap- 
 pears to have been the palings of the deer park. When 
 
198 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Pearce forwarded the gardener's complaint of the in- 
 jury the roving animals did the shrubbery, the General 
 did not consider new palings, rather he was "at a loss 
 whether to give up the Shrubbery or the 
 Deer!" The only new feature of the mansion at this 
 time seems to have been the "Venetian blinds . 
 painted green, for all the windows on the West side of 
 the House." 
 
 Whenever away from Mount Vernon not only a por- 
 tion of his mind but all his heart seems to have been 
 there. He had better control of his emotions in this 
 respect, however, than Mrs. Washington; with greater 
 need. She was downright homesick. When the war 
 ended they had hoped to pass the remainder of their 
 days at their river home in peace and tranquillity. 
 The renewed absences during the Presidency fretted 
 Mrs. Washington, she longed for home and said so. She 
 found official life dull and went about little. "Indeed 
 I think I am more like a State prisoner than anything 
 else," she said; " there is certain bounds set for me which 
 I must not depart from — and as I cannot doe as I like, 
 I am obstinate and stay at home a great deal." 
 
 Her husband's love for Mount Vernon was even more 
 passionate. It breathes forth in letter after letter in 
 spite of his excellent self-control. It was his "goal of 
 domestic enjoyment"; his "vine and fig-tree" over and 
 over again; and he dwelt caressingly on its "tranquil 
 scenes" whether absent or among them. It was his 
 pride to be thought the first farmer in America. He 
 declared no estate to be so pleasantly situated as his. 
 "I can truly say," he exclaimed, "I had rather be at 
 Mount Vernon with a friend or two about me, than to be 
 
MOUNT VERNON 199 
 
 attended at the seat of government by the officers of 
 state and the representatives of every power in Europe." 
 As the time approached to relinquish office and return 
 to his plantation, he looked forward to this last journey 
 with the eagerness of a freed schoolboy, declaring, "No 
 consideration under heaven, that I can foresee, shall 
 again withdraw me from the walks of private life." 
 
 John Adams was inaugurated March 4, 1797. Wash- 
 ington thus once more became a private citizen. Mr. 
 Adams, writing his wife, said: "A solemn scene it was 
 indeed, and it was made more affecting to me by the 
 presence of the General, whose countenence was as se- 
 rene and unclouded as the day. He seemed to me to 
 enjoy a triumph over me. Methought I heard him say, 
 'Ay! I am fairly out and you fairly in! See which of 
 us will be the happiest!'" 
 
 The citizens of Philadelphia gave Washington a fare- 
 well dinner under the great roof of Rickett's Circus. 
 As the extensive company marched in to the tables, 
 said a journal of the day, "Washington's march re- 
 sounded through the place, and a curtain drew up which 
 presented to view a transparent full length painting of 
 the late President, whom Fame is crowning with a 
 Wreath of Laurel, taking leave after delivering to her 
 his valedictory address, of the Genius of America, who 
 is represented by a Female Figure holding the Cap of 
 Liberty in her hand, with an Altar before her, inscribed 
 PUBLIC GRATITUDE. In the painting are intro- 
 duced several emblematic devices of the honours he had 
 acquired by his public services, and a distant view of 
 Mount Vernon the seat of retirement." 
 
 On March 9th Washington left Philadelphia. A 
 
200 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Baltimore paper reported the party made up of "His 
 Excellency . . . his lady and Miss Custis, the 
 son of the Unfortunate LaFayette and his preceptor." 
 But Washington in a postscript to a letter, written on the 
 way, to Lear, indicated others: "On one side I am called 
 upon to remember the Parrot, and on the other to re- 
 member the dog. For my own part I should not pine 
 much if both were forgot." 
 
 Everywhere along the route the illustrious traveller 
 was met by escorts of military, by processions, salutes, 
 entertainments, and ovations from the assembled 
 crowds. An escort of mounted troops from Alexandria 
 finally accompanied him to the gates of Mount Vernon, 
 where he arrived on Saturday, April 1, 1797. 
 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 Planter Once More — Repairing the Neglect of Years of Absence — 
 Refurnishing the Mansion — Joking About Death — Renewed 
 Social Gayety — A Letter to Mrs. Fairfax — George Wash- 
 ington LaFayette — Distinguished Visitors — Bushrod Wash- 
 ington and John Marshall Bring a Peddler's Pack — General 
 Henry Lee and His Liberties — The Polish Gentleman's 
 Visit — Washington's Own Account of How He Spent His 
 Time. 
 
 WASHINGTON left the pageantry of public 
 life outside the gates of Mount Vernon. As 
 he turned in and they closed behind him, it 
 was with a profound relief and a tranquil delight that he 
 beheld, across the rolling green lands, centred through 
 the opening in the wall of woods, his tabernacle of 
 peace. Just one-half of all the years of his ownership of 
 Mount Vernon were given to the public service. 
 
 He had come home to stay. He sensed it and, though 
 a man's sixty -fifth year would be late for him to resume 
 the interests of youth, he began where he left off when 
 his country called him thence, nearly a quarter of a cen- 
 tury before, to lead her armies. 
 
 He acknowledged that he felt himself a permanent 
 resident of Mount Vernon now for the first time in 
 twenty-five years. During that period he had been the 
 public's servant, an exile from his much-desired retire- 
 ment, save for his brief "furlough" between the end of 
 his military service and his call to the Presidency, an 
 interval crowded with the penalties of fame and the 
 
 201 
 
202 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 anxieties of the prophetic patriot who foresaw the ne- 
 cessity of a coherent union and worked unceasingly to 
 effect it. 
 
 The house and the lands and "his people" retained a 
 hold over him which he had never relinquished. In his 
 letters he defers a little to the current literary fashion 
 for sentimental melancholy — "To the wearied traveller, 
 who sees a resting-place, and is bending his body to 
 rest thereon, I now compare myself" — but for the most 
 part they teem with his interest in the renewed activity. 
 
 "For myself," he wrote Oliver Wolcott, "having 
 turned aside from the broad walks of political, into the 
 narrow paths of private life, I shall leave it with those, 
 whose duty it is to consider subjects of this sort, and, 
 (as every good citizen ought to do,) conform to whatever 
 the ruling powers shall decide. To make and sell a 
 little flour annually, to repair houses (going fast to 
 ruin), to build one for the security of my papers of a 
 public nature, and to amuse myself in agricultural and 
 rural pursuits, will constitute employment for the few 
 years I have to remain on this terrestrial globe. If, to 
 these, I could now and then meet the friends I esteem, 
 it would fill the measure and add zest to my enjoyments; 
 but, if ever this happens, it must be under my own vine 
 and fig-tree, as I do not think it probable that I shall 
 go beyond twenty miles from them." 
 
 "Rural employments. . . . will now take place 
 of toil, — responsibility — and the solicitudes of attend- 
 ing the walks of public life," he wrote another, and 
 Nellie Custis wrote Mrs. Wolcott of how much pleased 
 her "Grandpapa," as she called him, was "with being 
 once more Farmer Washington" 
 
MOUNT VERNON 203 
 
 Every aspect of the place now reminded him of his 
 absence, for it had let down perceptibly at all points. 
 He pushed repairs on his barns, overseers' houses, slave 
 quarters and fences. This was all done with such thor- 
 oughness that "the expense was almost as great and the 
 employment of attending to the workmen almost as 
 much" as if he had "commenced an entire new estab- 
 lishment." 
 
 In spite of all the outlying work, however, his first 
 and most cherished interest was to put his house in or- 
 der. " I find myself in the situation nearly of a young 
 beginner," he wrote McHenry, "for, although I have 
 not houses to build (except one, which I must erect for 
 the accomodation and security of my Military, Civil, 
 and private Papers, which are voluminous and may be 
 interesting), yet I have not one, or scarcely anything 
 else about me that does not require considerable repairs. 
 In a word, I am already surrounded by Joiners, Masons, 
 Painters, &c, &c; and such is my anxiety to get out of 
 their hands, that I have scarcely a room to put a friend 
 into, or to sit in myself, without the music of hammers, 
 or the odoriferous smell of paint." 
 
 The exact nature of the work on the mansion he re- 
 vealed in a letter to his faithful and much-appreciated 
 Lear, who remained behind in Philadelphia to close the 
 house the President had occupied, pack and ship such 
 furnishings as were wanted at Mount Vernon, and sell 
 the balance: 
 
 "The work immediately foreseen and which must be 
 done without delay, is to refix the marble Chimney 
 piece in the parlour, which is almost falling out, to fix 
 
204 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 the new one (expected from Philadelphia) in the small 
 dining Room; to remove the one now there, into what 
 is called the School room, — to fix the grate which is 
 coming round in the large dining room; — and to give 
 some repairs to the steps; which (like most things else 
 I have looked into since I have been home) are sadly 
 out of repair." 
 
 That twelve busy months were exacted for this work 
 is learned from a letter written a year later to his old 
 neighbor, Sarah Fairfax, the widow of Colonel George 
 William Fairfax, a letter which confirms again the time 
 when he made the last former repairs to the mansion: 
 
 "Before the war, and even while it existed, although 
 I was eight years from home at one stretch, (except the 
 en passant visits made to it on my marches to and from 
 the seige of Yorktown,) I made considerable additions 
 to my dwelling-houses, and alterations in my offices and 
 gardens; but the delapidation occasioned by time, and 
 those neglects, which are coextensive with the absence 
 of proprieters, have occupied as much of my time within 
 the last twelve months in repairing them, as at any 
 former period in the same space; and it is matter of sore 
 regret, when I cast my eyes towards Bel voir, which I 
 often do, to reflect, the former inhabitants of it, with 
 whom we lived in such harmony and friendship, no 
 longer reside there, and that the ruins can only be 
 viewed as the memento of former pleasures." 
 
 The interior of the mansion took on a more elaborate 
 effect at this time by reason of the addition of much of 
 the fine furniture, silver, china, glass, and other fur- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 205 
 
 nishings which the General and his wife had accumu- 
 lated at the Presidential Mansion in Philadelphia, and 
 of numerous curious and elegant presents admirers 
 had sent Washington. Among them were the harpsi- 
 chord which he imported from London for Nellie 
 Custis, and over which she spent so many many hours 
 of practice under the disciplinary eye of her grand- 
 mother; the small (twenty by thirty inches) Trum- 
 bull portrait of the General standing by the side of his 
 horse; the shaving stand which was presented to him 
 by the first French Minister to this country; and the 
 oak box made from the tree which sheltered the great 
 Sir William Wallace after the battle of Falkirk, and 
 sent to Washington by the Earl of Buchan. 
 
 As the General had ridden home amid the applause 
 of the crowds which saluted him on every hand, his 
 thoughts seem to have been well fastened on the re- 
 furnishing of his house, for directions for the choice 
 and packing of what he desired filled letters which he 
 posted to Lear at each principal stop after they left 
 Philadelphia. The large looking glasses, "the grate 
 (from Mr. Morris's)," the "bedstead which Nellie 
 Custis slept on," and "the trundle under it" were all to 
 be packed carefully against tossing in the vessel's hold. 
 He desires "new Carpeting as will cover the floor of my 
 blue Parlour," Wilton if it is "not much dearer than 
 Scotch Carpeting." ... "a suitable border if to 
 be had, should accompany the Carpeting" . . . 
 "all the Carpeting belonging to me I would have sent; — 
 and Mrs. Washington requests that you would add the 
 Bellows and the Vessels (Iron & Tin) in which the 
 ashes are carried out." . . . "Desire Peter Por- 
 
20G MOUNT VERNON 
 
 cwpine's Gazette to be sent to me (as a subscriber)." 
 . . . "Pray get me of those Thermometers that 
 tell the state of the Mercury within the 24 hours — 
 Doctor Priestly or Mr. Madison can tell where it is 
 to be had." . . . "Let me request the favour of 
 you to purchase for me half a dozen pair of the best 
 kind of White Silk stockings (not those with gores but) 
 to be large, and with small clocks (I think they are 
 called) I want the same number of raw silk, for boot 
 stockings; large and strong." 
 
 In connection with these attentions to refurnishing, 
 there are traditions that he kept certain curtain cor- 
 nices and the painting of Vernon's fleet riding before 
 Carthagena, both of which were in the house when he 
 first came there to live, and have been there ever since, 
 accredited veterans of the chat tels of the mansion. 
 
 Life appeared very full and very sweet, in spite 
 of minor occasional complaints. As Christmas ap- 
 proached the General made a draft of a letter to Mrs. 
 Powell for Martha, who seems not to have been willing 
 to compose her own letters in later life, and it reflected 
 their gay mood: 
 
 "I am now, by desire of the General to add a few 
 words on his behalf; which he desires may be ex- 
 pressed in the terms following, that is to say, — that 
 despairing of hearing what may be said of him, if he 
 should really go off in an apoplectic, or any other fit 
 (for he thinks that all fits that issue in death are worse 
 than a love fit, a fit of laughter, and many other kinds 
 that he could name) — he is glad to hear beforehand 
 what will be said of him on that occasion ; — conceiving 
 
MOUNT VERNON 207 
 
 that nothing extra: will happen between this and then 
 to make a change in his character for better, or for 
 worse. — And besides, as he has entered into an engage- 
 ment with M r . Morris, and several other Gentlemen, 
 not to quit the theatre of this world before the year 
 1800, it may be relied upon that no breach of contract 
 shall be laid to him on that account, unless dire neces- 
 sity should bring it about, maugre all his exertions to the 
 contrary. — In that case, he shall hope they would do by 
 him as he would do by them — excuse it. At present 
 there seems no danger of his giving them the slip, as 
 neither his health nor spirits, were ever in greater flow, 
 notwithstanding, he adds, he is descending, and has 
 almost reached, the bottom of the hill; — or in other 
 words, the shades below." 
 
 Life in the mansion was never gayer than now. 
 Young Custis was away part of the time, to be sure, 
 pursuing his studies at college, but his sister Nellie 
 was now a beautiful young woman of nearly twenty 
 and enlivened the house with her girlish spirit, her 
 troops of friends, and not least with the piquancy of 
 an inevitable romance. Her elder sisters, Mrs. Law 
 and Mrs. Peter, with their husbands and children 
 drove down frequently from their homes in George- 
 town and Washington; so did their mother, now Mrs. 
 Doctor Stuart, from her new home, Hope Park, west- 
 ward, near Ravens worth. The Lewis boys, sons of 
 Betty Washington Lewis, were frequent visitors; as 
 were other nephews and nieces of both the General 
 and Mrs. Washington. 
 
 Mount Vernon was the rallying point as formerly for 
 
208 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 the extended neighborhood, though there were changes 
 enough since the days of hunts and dinners and dances 
 at Belvoir and Gunston Hall, the sprightly racing sea- 
 sons at Annapolis, and the frequent balls at Alexandria. 
 In another letter which the General wrote for his wife 
 to copy and send to their friend Mrs. Fairfax in Eng- 
 land, he reviews the neighborhood changes: 
 
 "It is among my greatest regrets, now I am again 
 fixed ( I hope for life) at this place, at not having you as 
 a neighbor and companion. This loss was not sensibly 
 felt by me while I was a kind of perambulator, during 
 eight or nine years of the war, and during other eight 
 years which I resided a I the seal of the general govern- 
 ment, occupied in scenes more busy, tho' not more 
 happy, than in the tranquil employment of rural life 
 with which my days will close. 
 
 "The changes which have taken place in this coun- 
 try, since you left it (and it is pretty much the same in 
 all other parts of this State) are, in one word, total. 
 In Alexandria, I do not believe there lives at this day 
 a single family with which you had the smallest ac- 
 quaintance. In our neighborhood Colo. Mason, Colo. 
 McCarty and wife, Mr. Chichestor, Mr. Lund Wash- 
 ington and all the Wageners, have left the stage of 
 human life; and our visitors on the Maryland side 
 are none and going likewise. . . . AYith respect 
 to my own family, it will not I presume, be new to you 
 to hear that my son died in the fall of 1781. He left 
 four fine children, three daughters and a son; the two 
 eldest of the former are married, and have three chil- 
 dren between them, all girls. . . . Both live in the 
 
MOUNT VERNON 209 
 
 federal city. The youngest daughter, Eleanor, is yet 
 single, and lives with me, having done so from an 
 infant; as has my grandson George Washington, now 
 turned seventeen, except when at college; to three of 
 which he has been — viz — Philadelphia, New Jersey 
 and Annapolis, at the last of which he now is." 
 
 To Mrs. Knox she wrote: 
 
 "The General and I feel like children just released 
 from school or from a hard taskmaster, and we believe 
 that nothing can tempt us to leave the sacred roof tree 
 again, except on private business or pleasure. We are 
 so penurious with our enjoyment that we are loth to 
 share it with any one but dear friends, yet almost 
 every day some stranger claims a portion of it, and we 
 cannot refuse. . . . Our furniture and other things 
 sent us from Philadelphia arrived safely, our plate we 
 brought with us in the carriage. ... I am again 
 fairly settled down to the pleasant duties of an old- 
 fashioned Virginia house-keeper, steady as a clock, busy 
 as a bee, and cheerful as a cricket." 
 
 When returning from Philadelphia the General 
 brought home with him George Washington LaFayette, 
 son of his dear Marquis, who was accompanied by his 
 tutor, M. Frestel. The young man had been in Amer- 
 ica nearly two years, but so long as Washington held an 
 official position reasons of state made it inexpedient to 
 invite him into his own family, but when he was again 
 a private citizen he at once welcomed the young man 
 to his home with the tenderness of a father. A report 
 
210 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 of LaFayette's release from prison reached America 
 in the autumn and his son sailed for France October 
 2(>th. It was not his last visit to American or to Mount 
 Vernon. 
 
 Other distinguished emigres who had not been re- 
 ceived by the President in Philadelphia, but were later 
 welcomed at his home on the Potomac, included the 
 Due d'Orleans, afterward Louis Philippe, and his 
 brothers, Montpensier and Beaujolais. 
 
 During '97 and '98 came Volney, the freethinker, for 
 a recommendation, and received the equivocal "C. 
 Volney needs no recommendation from Geo. Wash- 
 ington"; Benjamin II. Latrobe, Amariah Frost, and 
 Mr. Niemcewitz, "the companion of General Kosci- 
 aski," all of whom wrote valued descriptions of Mount 
 Vernon and of Washington; young Charles Carroll 
 of Carrollton, suspected of sentimental intentions in 
 regard to Nellie Custis; and once, on the same day, 
 "M r Law e Washington of Chotanck & M r Law Wash- 
 ington of Belmont came to dinner." 
 
 The arrival 'one autumn day of Bushrod Washington 
 and his friend John Marshall, later Chief Justice of the 
 United States, afforded one of the most amusing tradi- 
 tions of the place. They came, as the story runs, on 
 horseback, "attended by a black servant, who had 
 charge of a large black portmanteau containing their 
 clothes. As I hoy passed through a wood on the skirts 
 of the Mount Vernon grounds they were tempted to 
 make a hasty toilet beneath its shade; being covered 
 with dust from the state of the roads. Dismounting, 
 they threw off their dusty garments, while the servant 
 took down the portmanteau. As he opened it, out 
 
MOUNT VERNON 211 
 
 flew cakes of windsor soap and fancy articles of all 
 kinds. The man by mistake had changed their port- 
 manteau at the last stopping place for one which re- 
 sembled it, belonging to a Scotch pedlar. The con- 
 sternation of the negro, and their own dismantled state, 
 struck them so ludicrously as to produce loud and re- 
 peated bursts of laughter. Washington, who happened 
 to be out upon his grounds, was attracted by the noise, 
 and was so overcome by the strange plight of his friends, 
 and the whimsicality of the whole scene, that he is said 
 to have actually rolled on the grass with laughter." 
 
 More frequently than many others came General 
 Henry Lee who, of all of them, stood least in awe of the 
 majestic Washington. Tradition has floated down nu- 
 merous anecdotes of his table talk at Mount Vernon. 
 
 On one occasion Lee quoted Gilbert Stuart, the por- 
 trait painter, as having said that the General had a 
 tremendous temper. Mrs. Washington colored and 
 said that "Mr. Stuart took a great deal on himself." 
 Lee then said that Stuart had added that the General 
 had his temper under wonderful control. After a 
 thoughtful pause the General himself smiled and re- 
 marked, "Mr. Stuart is right." 
 
 On another occasion General Lee expressed the wide- 
 spread amazement at the vast amount of work Wash- 
 ington did. "Sir," he replied, "I rise at four o'clock 
 and a great deal of my work is done while others sleep." 
 
 Lee's great impertinence was committed at table one 
 day when Washington remarked that he wanted new 
 carriage horses and asked Lee if he could get him a pair. 
 "I have a fine pair, General," answered Lee, "but you 
 cannot get them." " Why not? " asked his host. " Be- 
 
212 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 cause," Lee replied, "y° u will never pay more than half 
 price for anything; and I must have full price for my 
 horses." At this Mrs. Washington laughed and was 
 joined by her parrot, perched near her, doubtless the 
 same one the General had the care of on his way home. 
 Washington yielded to the situation and said with good 
 humor: "Ah, Lee, you are a funny fellow, see that bird 
 is laughing at you." 
 
 The General and Mrs. Washington defended them- 
 selves from the overrunning visitors, who would have 
 left them no life of their own, by a well-understood for- 
 mality which restricted certain time for their own. It 
 was at the dinner hour after his ride over the farms that 
 Washington's visitors saw him first. After dinner he 
 spent an interval talking with them, "with a glass of 
 Madeira by his side," and then withdrew to his library 
 again where he made a hasty survey of the newspapers, 
 of which he received a great many, and retired for the 
 night at nine o'clock, if possible without appearing at 
 supper. 
 
 Mrs. Washington's first appearance in the morning 
 seems to have been "precisely at eleven," when she 
 spent an hour with her guests, who were expected to be 
 waiting her at that time. When the clock struck twelve 
 she would bid them good-morning and ascend to her 
 chamber, to reappear punctually on the stroke of one. 
 At this time she was followed by a servant with a bowl 
 of punch which was served. She presided at the supper 
 table and spent the evening with her guests. 
 
 It was Kosciuszko's friend who left one of the most 
 graphic sketches of life and conditions at Mount Vernon 
 at this time which survives. He journeyed thither with 
 
Eleanor ("Nellie") Parke Custis 
 Granddaughter of Martha Washington from a painting by Gilbert Stuart 
 
MOUNT VERNON 21S 
 
 Mr. Law. When they arrived the General was absent 
 on his morning tour of his estate, but "his lady ap- 
 peared in a few minutes, welcomed us most agreeably, 
 and hastened to serve punch. At two o'clock the Gen- 
 eral arrived on the back of a grey horse. He descended, 
 shook hands, and gave a lash to his horse, which went 
 alone to the stable. After a short conversation he re- 
 tired in order to change his dress." 
 
 The visitor then inspected the house. In the hall he 
 found "a kind of crystal lantern contains the true key of 
 the Bastille " and underneath it hung " a picture represent- 
 ing the destruction of that formidable castle." The 
 model of the Bastille carved from one of its stones stood 
 on the piazza, "it is a pity that children have spoiled it 
 a little." At this time, from the Polish gentleman's 
 account, Washington's bedroom seems to have been on 
 the ground floor; probably a temporary arrangement. 
 The views from the portico excited his liveliest enthu- 
 siasm. "This gallery is the place where the General and 
 his family spend their afternoons with their guests, en- 
 joying fresh air and the beautiful scenery. "... 
 
 He gives this glimpse of the spirit of youth which 
 Nellie Custis brought into the picture: "About three 
 o'clock a carriage drawn by two horses, accompanied by 
 a young man on horseback, stopped before the door. A 
 young lady of the most wonderful beauty, closely fol- 
 lowed by an elderly attendant, descended. She was one 
 of those celestial beings so rarely produced by nature, 
 sometimes dreamt of by poets and painters, which one 
 cannot see without a feeling of ecstacy. Her sweetness 
 equals her beauty, and that is perfect. She has many 
 accomplishments. She plays on the piano, she sings 
 
214 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 and designs better than the usual woman of America or 
 even of Europe." 
 
 The deer-park palings had now rotted and the deer 
 were scattered. 15ut when a group of bucks came 
 browsing in sight of the mansion, "the General pro- 
 posed to me to go to see them nearer. We went. He 
 walks very quickly. I could scarcely follow him." 
 But the bucks observed their approach and disappeared 
 •in the woods. 
 
 How the time passed with Washington himself, he 
 told, when he became the historian of one of his days, 
 "which will serve for a year," in a letter to his friend 
 James Mcllenry: 
 
 "You are at the source of information, and can find 
 many things to relate; while I have nothing to say, that 
 could either inform or amuse a Secretary at War in 
 Philadelphia. I might tell him, that I begin my 
 diurnal course with the sun; that, if my hirelings are not 
 in their places al thai time I send them messages ex- 
 pressive of my sorrow at their indisposition; that, hav- 
 ing put these wheels in motion, 1 examine the slate of 
 things further; and the more they are probed, the deeper 
 1 hud the wounds are which my buildings have sustained 
 by an absence and neglect of eight years; by the time I 
 have accomplished these matters, breakfast (a little 
 after seven o'clock, about the time I presume you are 
 taking leave of Mrs. Mcllenry), is ready; that, this 
 being over, 1 mount my horse and ride round my farms, 
 which employs me until it is time to dress for dinner, at 
 which I rarely miss seeing strange faces, conic as they 
 say out of respect f..r me. Pray, would qoI the word 
 
MOUNT VERNON 215 
 
 curiosity answer as well? And how different this from 
 having a few social friends at a cheerful board! The 
 usual time of sitting at table, a walk, and tea, brings me 
 within the dawn of candlelight; previous to which, if not 
 prevented by company, I resolve, that, as soon as the 
 glimmering taper supplies the place of the great lumi- 
 nary, I will retire to my writing-table and acknowledge 
 the letters I have received; but when the lights are 
 brought, I feel tired and disinclined to engage in this 
 work, conceiving that the next night will do as well. 
 The next comes, and with it the same causes for post- 
 ponement, and effect, and so on. 
 
 "This will account for your letter remaining so long 
 unacknowledged; and, having given you the history of a 
 day, it will serve for a year, and I am persuaded you will 
 not require a second edition of it. But it may strike 
 you, that in this detail no mention is made of any por- 
 tion of time alloted for reading. The remark would be 
 just, for I have not looked into a book since I came home 
 nor shall I be able to do it until I have discharged 
 my workmen, probably not before the nights grow 
 longer, when possibly I may be looking in Doomsday- 
 Book." 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 The Year 1709 — Washington's Fortieth Wedding Anniversary 
 — Two Birthday Celebrations — Wedding of Nellie Custis 
 and Lawrence Lewis — A Gay Summer— First Dinner Alone 
 with Mrs. Washington in Twenty Years— Bankruptcy by 
 Hospitality — Mount Vernon Washington's Consuming In- 
 terest — A Luxury — The Rickety Stairway at the Polls — A 
 Birth in the Mansion Washington Survives His Sister and 
 All His Brothers — Last Dinner Parties at Mount Eagle and 
 Mount Vernon — Caught in a Storm — Last Illness — Death 
 — Funeral. 
 
 THE year of 1799 was one of singular range and 
 variety at Mount Vernon. It found the 
 estate in its highest stage of development. 
 The mansion was in perfect condition and was adorned 
 with the taste and the trophies of Washington's 
 matured career. From without the admiration and ap- 
 plause of the world centred here on its illustrious master. 
 As month after month slipped by the round of gayety, 
 the number of visitors, and the events of significance 
 were, perhaps, more numerous than in any other year 
 of its long life. It saw the culmination of a romance in 
 marriage, the fruition of that union in birth and, in its 
 last month, transpired the final scene in the immortal 
 career of which Mount Vernon was the principal set- 
 ting. 
 
 The sixth day of the first month brought the fortieth 
 anniversary of the General's marriage to Martha Custis. 
 If it was not celebrated, the day did not pass unnoticed 
 
 £10 
 
MOUNT VERNON 217 
 
 by them, for Washington was not without sentiment. 
 On a gold chain about his neck, for many years, until 
 the end of his life and beyond, he wore a miniature por- 
 trait of his wife. 
 
 In February he was the guest of the citizens of Alex- 
 andria for their customary celebration of his birthday. 
 "Many Manoeuvres were performed by the Uniform 
 Corps — and an elegant Ball & supper at Night." This 
 was the entry in the diary for the 11th of the month. 
 Washington was born February 11th, old style. The 
 new calendar was in vogue shortly after, which moved 
 his birthday up to the 22d, but the old friends clung to 
 the old fashion, and so as long as he was with them his 
 neighbors in the little city up river celebrated on the 
 11th. 
 
 His birthday was celebrated twice this year of 1799, 
 the second time on the 22d, within the walls of his own 
 home. There "Miss Custis was married ab l Candle 
 Light to M r Law e Lewis." Washington chronicled 
 events in deceptively few words. The wedding was in 
 fact a brilliant occasion and was the culmination of a 
 romance which enlisted the General's most interested 
 solicitude, for Nellie Custis was the object, next to his 
 wife, of his tenderest affection. She came into his life at 
 a time when it was apparent that his union would not be 
 blessed with a child of his own. He adopted her and 
 brought her to Mount Vernon, and she never knew any 
 other father or any other home than his. 
 
 She was known and loved by every servant and slave 
 on the place. To them as to all who came to Mount 
 Vernon in the later years of Washington's life, she rep- 
 resented the youth of the place. They had seen her 
 
218 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 grow up and watched her romance, and sensed it and 
 gossiped it possibly before she realized it herself; for it 
 was wholly of Mount Vernon. 
 
 Lawrence Lewis was the General's nephew, son of 
 his sister Hetty, and a member of the household. He 
 had, some time before, become a member of the family 
 at the mansion for the purpose of assisting in the enter- 
 tainment of the visitors, "particularly of nights," his 
 uncle said, "as it is my inclination to retire (and unless 
 prevented by very particular company, I always do 
 retire) either to bed or to my study soon after candle 
 light." 
 
 It was in the gardens, along the walks, and in the 
 quiet corners of the old mansion that Lawrence and 
 Nellie were drawn together, and love held them. He 
 was offered another commission in the military service 
 just before his marriage but he declined it, which caused 
 the Genera] to remark that his nephew had relinquished 
 " the lapp of Mars for the Sports of Venus."' 
 
 With the arrival of spring visiting abroad began. 
 There were the races, dinners, and Independence Day 
 celebration in Alexandria; visits to the homes of Mrs. 
 Washington's granddaughters, Mrs. Law and Mrs. 
 Peter, in Washington City and its suburb, George- 
 town; tours afield to run surveys of his land about 
 Four Mile Run between Alexandria and Washington 
 City; and once faring forth as far as Difficult Run, 
 some twenty miles northwest of his home — with one 
 exception, farther than he had ventured from Mount 
 Vernon after he retired from the public service. That 
 exception was his visit to Philadelphia during the 
 previous November and December, when war threat- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 219 
 
 ened with France and he was again called to command 
 the armies of his country. 
 
 It was a gay summer at the mansion, if possible with 
 more guests than ever. Though when had it been 
 without guests ? A short time before this the General had 
 written Lear that "Mrs. Washington & myself will 
 do what I believe has not been done within the last 
 twenty years by us, — that is set down to dinner by our- 
 selves." 
 
 Small wonder he compared his house to "a well re- 
 sorted tavern" and to the end of his life complained of 
 being poor. Hospitality did its share to beget many 
 a pinched pocketbook. Much less sought-after Vir- 
 ginians than Washington bent under the strain of 
 Virginia hospitality, the unending procession of visitors, 
 singly, by coach loads, and by whole families. It is 
 said of Henry Fitzhugh of Eagle's Nest, in Stafford 
 County, that he found his whole substance was going 
 to the support of the public, and in sheer economy he 
 built Ravensworth in Fairfax County, some ten miles 
 northwest of Mount Vernon, to be away from the well- 
 travelled highways. Hospitality bankrupted General 
 Henry Lee. 
 
 Washington's wealth was never the production of 
 his Mount Vernon farms. A luxury they remained 
 to the end, a toy of his thoughts and plans and experi- 
 ments. This year of '99 he completed an elaborate 
 system for the cultivation of his plantations, with 
 tables to govern his overseers in the rotation of the 
 crops. It covered thirty large pages closely written 
 by his own hand, and it remains one of the testimonials 
 to his genius for organization and detail, and the sound- 
 
220 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 ness of his mind and the clearness of his perceptions in 
 the sixty-seventh year of his life. 
 
 Mount Vernon now absorbed Washington more and 
 more, to the exclusion of other interests, and the public 
 life receded farther into the background of memory. 
 Though to the neighbors he was by name "the old 
 General," neighborly feeling eclipsed the significance 
 of the title and to them he became merely a planter, 
 "a clear-headed, sensible man, whose opinion was worth 
 having, and who was well worth consulting in farming 
 matters or on common business." 
 
 Their traditional picture of him was a rugged old 
 gentleman, dressed in gray clothes, a broad-brimmed 
 hat on his head, and an umbrella under his arm, sitting 
 his horse like a centaur, and riding afield to the extremi- 
 ties of his estate, slipping out of the saddle on occasion 
 to chat with his old legionaries — Jack of Jack's Mill, 
 the Mill at Epsewasson of his third year above three- 
 score years before, and Gray of Gray's Hill, on that 
 ridge which includes Woodlawn, the land for which was 
 his wedding present to Nellie and Lawrence, and was 
 called by him "a most beautiful site for a Gentlemans 
 seat. 
 
 When the Gentlemen of the Alexandria Assemblies 
 sent their polite invitation to the General and his wife 
 for their winter dances, he replied that his dancing 
 days were over. But he drove up to town frequently 
 for visits that included a duck dinner at mine host 
 (Jadsby's City Hotel, a review of Captain Piercy's 
 Independent Blues, and the easting of his last vote. 
 The polling place was up a flight of outside steps, so 
 rickety that, when the huge form of the General ap- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 221 
 
 proached their foot, the bystanders, apprehending 
 danger to him, with silent and spontaneous accord 
 braced the stairway with their shoulders as he mounted, 
 and waited there until he descended. 
 
 November was a month of expectation and great 
 preparation in the mansion. Nellie and Lawrence had 
 been back some time since from their honeymoon. 
 Finally their old friend Doctor Craik was summoned 
 on the 27th, "came to Breakfast & stayed dinner," and 
 during the forenoon Nellie's first child, a daughter, was 
 born. 
 
 In the early autumn had come word of the General's 
 brother Charles Washington's death. "I was the first, 
 and am, now, the last of my father's children by the 
 second marriage who remain," he said. " When I shall be 
 called upon to follow them, is known only to the Giver of 
 Life. When the summons comes I shall endeavor to 
 obey it with a good grace." With that time in view 
 he pointed out to Lawrence Lewis, in early December, 
 where he intended to build a new burial vault to replace 
 the old vault which had begun to weaken under the 
 ferreting roots of the trees growing above it. He de- 
 clared this would be the next improvement he would 
 make, adding "for after all, I may require it before the 
 rest." 
 
 On Saturday, the 7th of December, Washington 
 drove up to Mount Eagle on Great Hunting Creek and 
 dined with Bryan Fairfax and his family. When he 
 returned home he did not leave Mount Vernon again. 
 There was something of a family party over Sunday, 
 the 8th, but on Monday Lawrence Lewis and Washing- 
 ton Custis set off for New Kent on the York, and an- 
 
222 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 other nephew, Howell Lewis, and his wife, departed 
 for their home. On Wednesday he had quite a dinner 
 party about him, including Bryan Fairfax, his son and 
 daughter, Mrs. Warner Washington and her son Whit- 
 ing, and Mr. John Herbert. 
 
 Washington was apparently in his usual health. 
 Following his daily custom of riding over his farms be- 
 tween breakfasl and dinner, he was, on Thursday, 
 caught out in a storm of snow, hail, and sleet, and re- 
 turned to the mansion through a settled cold rain. He 
 believed his greatcoat had given him sufficent protec- 
 tion and sat down to dinner without changing his 
 clothes. 
 
 lie seemed none the worse for his experience on 
 Friday, and during the afternoon he tramped through 
 three inches of snow, marking trees which were to be 
 cut down to improve the grounds between the house 
 and the river. In the course of the day he wrote a 
 letter of instructions to his manager, the last letter he 
 is known to have written. And it is interesting to this 
 chronicle that his last activities and his last written 
 words should have been devoted, even as was his whole 
 life, to I he care of Mount Vernon. 
 
 He spent the evening with the family and appeared 
 to be in a cheerful mood, though somewhat hoarse. 
 The papers had been brought from the post-office and 
 he read them aloud and commented on items of peculiar 
 interest. Lear suggested a remedy for his cold as the 
 General retired, but he refused it, as he never took 
 anything for a cold, and preferred to "let it go as it 
 came." And so upstairs to his bedroom at the south 
 end of the house over the library. 
 
MOUNT VERNON 223 
 
 Between two and three o'clock in the morning (Satur- 
 day, December 14th) he wakened Mrs. Washington 
 and confessed that he was very unwell. He would 
 not let her get up to call assistance lest she take cold. 
 When a servant appeared, however, Doctor Craik and 
 Doctor Dick of Alexandria and Doctor Brown of Port 
 Tobacco were sent for, and all arrived before four 
 o'clock in the afternoon. They found the General 
 suffering with a well-defined case of what was then 
 called quinsy. Their ministrations gave no relief. 
 
 The General several times during the day expressed 
 his belief that his end was near. "It is a debt we all 
 must pay," he said, and faced the inevitable with 
 perfect resignation. His wife, his old friend Doctor 
 Craik, his faithful secretary Lear, and the domestic 
 servants remained in the room with him continuously. 
 
 The day dragged itself into darkness. A fire flick- 
 ered on the hearth opposite the foot of his bed. Candles 
 spread a soft light. About ten o'clock he whispered 
 some directions to Lear, and when assured he was 
 understood, added: " 'Tis well." He did not speak 
 again. Shortly afterward it was noticed that his 
 breathing became much easier, and presently he felt 
 his own pulse. In a few minutes, without struggle 
 or pain, he breathed his last. 
 
 Riders were dispatched from Mount Vernon to the 
 north and to the south, to notify the President of the 
 United States, other officials, relatives and friends, of the 
 death of General Washington. 
 
 The brick wall across the opening of the old vault 
 above the river was torn away and the interior made 
 ready. Mrs. Washington directed that a wooden door 
 
224 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 be built, for she said, "It will soon be necessary to 
 open it again." Wednesday, December 18th, was fixed 
 for the funeral. 
 
 The ceremonial was simple. His Masonic and mili- 
 tary friends of Alexandria and his neighbors and rel- 
 atives of the countryside nearby were the only ones 
 present. The casket rested in the portico. A schooner 
 in the river fired minute guns, beginning about three 
 o'clock, as the procession moved down the slope toward 
 the tomb. 
 
 The military led the way, the musicians playing a dirge 
 with muffled drums, followed by the clergy; then the 
 General's horse with his saddle, holsters, and pistols, led 
 by two of his grooms; the body borne by Masonic and 
 military officers; the relatives and intimate friends, 
 Masons, the Corporation of Alexandria, and the people 
 of the estate. 
 
 The Rev. Mr. Davis, rector of Christ Church, Alex- 
 andria, read the service and spoke briefly. The Masons 
 then performed their ritual, after which the body was 
 deposited in the tomb. 
 
 So with the simplicity he would have preferred, sur- 
 rounded only by his friends and his neighbors, he was 
 laid to rest where he had lived with the fullest happiness. 
 Mount Vernon was his home ; it now became the nation's 
 shrine. 
 
CHAPTER XVni 
 
 Death Chamber Sealed — Washington's Will — Mount Vernon 
 Bequeathed to Bushrod Washington — Other Bequests — The 
 Inventory — The Slave Problem — Martha Washington's Last 
 Days — Death — Family Matters — Pictures, Plate, Furnish- 
 ings, and Souvenirs Dispersed — Sale of 1802 — Bushrod 
 Washington Takes Possession of Mount Vernon. 
 
 4 FTER the General's death Mrs. Washington, fol- 
 /\ lowing a custom then prevalent, closed his bed- 
 X ^ chamber and moved into another. She chose 
 the room at the south end of the third floor, directly 
 over the one she had occupied with the General, because 
 from its solitary dormer window she could see her hus- 
 band's tomb. She continued to occupy this room as 
 long as she lived. 
 
 In the afternoon of his last day the General called his 
 wife to his bedside and asked her to go below to his 
 library and from his desk there bring his two wills. This 
 she did. He examined them, declared one of them to be 
 superseded by the other, and requested her to burn the 
 earlier, which she did. 
 
 The destroyed will was probably the one drawn for 
 Washington by his attorney, Edmund Pendleton, in 
 Philadelphia, when he was commissioned Commander- 
 in-Chief of the Revolutionary Army. In his letter to 
 Mrs. Washington, telling her of the new military career 
 he had then entered upon, he said: 
 
 225 
 
226 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 "As life Is always uncertain, and common prudence 
 dictates to every man the necessity of settling his tem- 
 poral concerns, while it is in his power, and while the 
 mind is calm and undisturbed, I have, since I came to 
 this place (for I had not time to do it before I left home; 
 got Colonel Pendleton to draft a will for me, by the di- 
 rections I gave him, which will I now enclose. The pro- 
 vision made for you in case of my death, will, I hope, be 
 agreeable." 
 
 This was, in fact, probably the second will Washington 
 had made at the time he caused it to be drawn. When 
 in the late fifties he left for the western campaign and 
 put John Augustine Washington in charge of his estate, 
 he told his brother that if he fell in the war he would 
 leave Mount Vernon to him. Washington was too 
 methodical and thorough a man not to have embodied 
 such a promise in a will, and no doubl he made his first 
 will at this time. 
 
 The document which he finally ordered preserved, and 
 by which the future proprietorship of Mount Vernon and 
 of its furnishings and belongings was determined, was com- 
 pleted by him July 9, 1799. The concluding paragraph 
 discloses four points of interest: he prepared the will 
 without legal advice, he provided for arbitration in case 
 of dispute, he omitted the final " 9 " in the dating, and he 
 signed it without witnesses. 
 
 He bequeathed the whole of his Mount Vernon estate, 
 real and personal, to his wife "for the term of her natural 
 life. " lie gave her and her heirs " forever" all the house- 
 hold furniture of every kind, except that otherwise dis- 
 posed of. To his nephew Bushrod Washington, who had 
 
MOUNT VERNON 227 
 
 risen to the distinction of a seat on the bench of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States, he gave his library 
 and all his papers relating to his civil and military ad- 
 ministration of the affairs of the country. He directed 
 the return of the Wallace Oak Box to the Earl of 
 Buchan. The crab tree walking-stick with the gold 
 head, which Benjamin Franklin bequeathed to him, he 
 gave to his brother Charles Washington. Two other 
 gold-headed canes engraved with the Washington arms, 
 and two spyglasses used during the war, he gave "the 
 friends and acquaintances of my juvenile years, Law- 
 rence Washington and Robert Washington of Cho- 
 tanck," to his "compatriot in arms and old and intimate 
 friend," Doctor Craik, he gave his writing desk and 
 chair; to Doctor David Stuart, his telescope and large 
 shaving and dressing table; to Bryan Fairfax, a Bible 
 in three large volumes; to General de LaFayette, "a pair 
 of finely wrought steel pistols taken from the enemy in 
 the Revolutionary war"; to Tobias Lear, the use, rent 
 free, during the remainder of his life, of the farm where 
 he lived about four miles east of Mount Vernon 
 mansion; and, finally, "To each of my nephews William 
 Augustine Washington, George Lewis, George Steptoe 
 Washington, Bushrod Washington and Samuel Wash- 
 ington, I give one of the swords or cuttcaux of which I 
 may die possessed, and they are to chuse in the order 
 they are named. — These swords are accompanied with 
 an injunction not to unsheath them for the purpose of 
 shedding blood except it be for self-defence, or in de- 
 fence of their Country and it's rights, and in the latter 
 case to keep them unsheathed, and prefer falling with 
 them in their hands to the relinquishment thereof." 
 
228 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 A natural pendant to the will of General Washington 
 and of the most valued evidence in realizing the char- 
 acter of the furnishings of the mansion during his life- 
 time, is the inventory of his personal effects made by 
 those charged with their final appraisement. If it 
 makes no mention of some objects otherwise known to 
 have been in the house, it does place many valuable and 
 curious things in the rooms where Washington and his 
 guests were accustomed to see them. 
 
 In the large room in the north end, variously styled 
 the New Room, the New Dining Room and the Banquet 
 Room — were tw T enty-seven mahogany chairs, two side- 
 boards, and large looking-glasses, four silver-plated 
 lamps, on each sideboard, "an Image and China flower 
 Pot," two "Elegant Lustres," two candlestands, and 
 two "Fire Skreens." On the walls hung the ornately 
 framed engraving of Louis XVI sent by that monarch 
 to the General, "2 large Gilt frame Pictures represent- 
 ing falls of Rivers, 4 do. representing water Courses, 1 
 
 do. Small 'Likeness of Gen. W n,' 4 Small Prints (1 
 
 under each lamp), 1 Painting 'Moonlight,' 2 Prints 
 'Death of Montgomery,' 2 do. 'Battles of Bunker Hill,' 
 2 do 'Dead Soldier,' 1 likeness 'Saint John, and 1 do 
 Virgin Mary." 
 
 In the little parlor on the east front were a looking- 
 glass, a tea table, a settee, ten Windsor chairs, a "Like- 
 ness of Gen 1 . Washington in an Ovolo frame, do. 
 La Fayette, do. Dr. Franklin"; prints representing 
 Storms at Sea, the naval battle between the Bon 
 Hwnme Richard and the Seraphis, "the distressed situa- 
 tion of the Quebec &c.," the whale fishery at Davies 
 Streights, another of the Greenland Streights, and nine 
 

 
MOUNT VERNON 229 
 
 gilt frames containing "the likenesses of a Deer," 
 "Painted likeness of an Alloe," "wrought work conte. 
 chickens in a basket," and six other different paintings. 
 
 In the front or west parlor were eleven mahogany 
 chairs, a tea table, a "Sopha, 1 Elegant looking-glass," 
 three lamps and two mirrors, five china flower pots, 
 three portraits of the General, two of Mrs. Washington, 
 other portraits of Mr. Law, Mrs. Lear, George Washing- 
 ton LaFayette, Nellie Custis, John and Martha Custis as 
 children, Martha when grown, and one of I^aFayette and 
 his family, all in gilt frames. 
 
 Apart from the tea table, "2 dining tables," a mahog- 
 any sideboard, an Ovolo looking-glass, " 1 large case " and 
 "2 knife cases," and ten mahogany chairs, the Dining 
 Room contained " 1 large gilt frame print the death of 
 the Earl of Chatham, 1 do. Gen 1 . Woolfe, 1 do. Penns 
 Treaty with Indians, 1 do. David Rittenhouse, 1 do D r 
 Franklin, 1 do Gen 1 Washington, 1 do Gen'l Greene, 1 
 do America, 1 do Gen 1 . Fayette on Closusion [Con- 
 clusion?] of the late war, 1 do Gen 1 . Wayne, 1 do the 
 Washington family of Mount Vernon, 1 do Alfred visit- 
 ing his noblemen, and 1 do do dividing his loaf with the 
 Pilgrim." 
 
 The room opposite the East Parlor was furnished as a 
 bedroom with bedstead, small table, looking-glass, and 
 four mahogany or walnut chairs. In a gilt frame on the 
 wall hung "a battle fought *by Cavalry." 
 
 There were fourteen mahogany chairs in the Passage, 
 or Central Hall, an "Image" over the door into each of 
 the four adjoining rooms, a "Spye Glass" through which 
 the General and his guests observed the life on the 
 Potomac, a thermometer which may have been the one 
 
230 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 recommended l>y "Doctor Priestly or Mr. Madison," 
 the "Key of the Bastille with its Representation," and 
 prints of Diana deceived by Venus, Dancing Shepherds, 
 Morning, Evening, the River Po, Constantine's Arch, 
 and the General himself. Along the wall of the stairway 
 ascending to the second floor were other prints of 
 Musical Shepherds, Moonlight, Thunderstorm, the 
 Battle of Bunker Hill, and the Death of Montgomery. 
 In the upper passage a looking-glass is the sole object 
 enumerated. 
 
 The details of one bedroom, the General's, will serve 
 for all: "Bed, Bedstead & Curtains," a looking-glass 
 which was the least expensive in the house, dressing 
 table, one writing' table and chair, an easy chair, two 
 other mahogany chairs, the only clock listed in the in- 
 ventory, a chest' of drawers, six paintings of the members 
 of Mrs. Washington's family, five small drawings, 
 pictures of the Countess of Huntington, General Knox, 
 "A Parson," and five other small pictures. In the 
 adjoining "closet" were one mahogany and two leather 
 trunks and a washbasin valued at fifty cents. 
 
 There were carpets in all the rooms, likewise "Irons, 
 Shovel, Tongs and Fender." In the passage outside 
 the General's room there were "3 Pictures nailed In the 
 house" In the "Garret" the inventory accounts for 
 "two furnished bedrooms and the Lumber Rooms," in 
 which were furniture, trunks, chests, pictures, fire 
 screens, a side saddle, hooks, a wanning pan, "2 
 Surveyors Machines," and "2 sets Platteaux" valued 
 at one hundred dollars, probably the mirrors for the 
 -late dining table. 
 
 Among the interesting objects in the Study or Li- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 231 
 
 brary were the General's Tambour secretary and its 
 circular desk chair, two copying presses, numerous 
 pistols, "7 Swords & 1 blade, 4 canes, 7 guns, 11 Spye 
 Glasses, Trumbuls Prints, 1 Case Surveyors In- 
 strum ts ., 1 Traveling Ink Case, 1 Globe, 1 Chest of 
 Tools, 1 Compass staff, 1 Case Dentists Instrum ts ., 2 
 Setts money weights, 1 Telescope, 1 Box Paints," 
 Houdon's bust of the General, a plaster profile, two 
 seals with ivory handles, his Masonic emblems, addi- 
 tional surveying instruments, some Indian presents, 
 and an iron chest containing securities, jewelry, medals, 
 and a variety of other things, including a portrait of 
 Lawrence Washington. 
 
 The inventory contains a list of the books in Wash- 
 ington's library, but it is full of inaccuracies. More- 
 over, it does not furnish satisfactory material for a 
 study of Washington's taste in reading, for the books 
 represent his selection only in part. Many were gifts, 
 and some he subscribed to for various motives other 
 than original interest in the subject matter. The list 
 includes about eight hundred titles. It is interesting to 
 observe that the books on all other than agricultural 
 topics were in the cases behind glass. The books on farm- 
 ing, however, were "on the table," where the General 
 could reach them handily. This subject formed the 
 principal and almost the only topic of his reading. 
 
 Washington's letters to Lear disclosed the parlor as 
 having been furnished in blue. An investigation* of the 
 walls and woodwork of the passage and the upper 
 rooms, made in 1897, revealed other interesting facts 
 about the interior color scheme of the house. The side- 
 
 *Report of C. Mellon Rogers, Architect, of Philadelphia. 
 
232 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 wall panels, the ceiling, and the stair-skirting were a 
 delicate French gray, almost a robin-egg blue. The 
 doors, trim, door-heads, chair rail, washboard, win- 
 dows, stair-skirting battons, and cornice were painted 
 ivory white with a china gloss finish. 
 
 The wall of the stairway leading to the second floor 
 was made of "a buff or yellow mortar," in some places 
 white coated. The walls of the river bedroom on the 
 north side of the upper hall were originally gray with 
 mantel and other woodwork in white, which was also 
 the color treatment of the bedroom over the family 
 dining-room. The walls of the General's bedroom were 
 gray, the mantel was white, the washboard was stained 
 and varnished. 
 
 After the General's death Mrs. Washington found 
 herself confronted with a problem in the slaves on the 
 estate. They gave the gravest concern. Washington 
 would gladly have freed his slaves, but the situation 
 was complicated by their intermarriage with the dower 
 slaves whom he could not free. They came to Mount 
 Vernon by his marriage with the widow of Daniel 
 Parke Custis, to whose heirs they reverted by law. Re- 
 garding his slaves his will said : 
 
 "Upon the decease of wife it is my will and desire, 
 that all the slaves which I hold in my own rigid shall 
 receive their freedom — To emancipate them during her 
 life, would tho earnestly wished by me, be attended with 
 such insuperable difficulties, on account of their inter- 
 mixture by marriages with the Dower negroes as to 
 excite the most painful sensations, — if not disagree- 
 able consequences from the latter while both descrip- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 233 
 
 tions are in the occupancy of the same proprietor, it 
 not being in my power under the tenure by which the 
 
 dower Negroes are held to manumit them And 
 
 whereas among those who will receive freedom accord- 
 ing to this devise there may be some who from old age, 
 or bodily infirmities & others who on account of their 
 infancy, that will be unable to support themselves, it is 
 my will and desire that all who come under the first 
 and second description shall be comfortably clothed 
 and fed by my heirs while they live and that such of the 
 latter description as have no parents living, or if living 
 are unable, or unwilling to provide for them, shall be 
 bound by the Court . . . taught to read and write 
 and to be brought up to some useful occupation." 
 
 Mrs. Washington's grandson, and a member of the 
 family at the time, says in his memoirs that "the slaves 
 were left to be emancipated at the death of Mrs. Wash- 
 ington; but it was found necessary (for prudential 
 reasons) to give them their freedom in one year after 
 the General's decease." Some light may be thrown on 
 this statement by the remarks of Edward Everett Hale, 
 who in his eightieth year, in 1902, said: 
 
 "I have been assured by gentlemen who lived in 
 northern Virginia that the universal impression there 
 was that the slaves of the Washington plantation hur- 
 ried Martha Washington's death because their own 
 liberty was secured by Washington's will after her 
 death. I do not believe that this bad statement can 
 be authenticated, but there is no doubt, I believe, that 
 Madison made a similar will liberating his slaves after 
 
234 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Mrs. Madison's death and that he changed his will on 
 account of this rumor with regard to the Washington 
 slaves." 
 
 Martha Washington spent the remaining days of 
 her life quietly at the mansion surrounded by her grand- 
 children and great-grandchildren. Among the latter 
 was a second daughter, christened Angela, born to 
 Lawrence and Nellie Lewis at Mount Vernon in 1801. 
 The days of gayety had passed. There was, however, 
 a constant stream of visitors who came to view the 
 scenes of Washington's domestic life and to lay their 
 homage at his tomb; among them President Adams 
 himself, who journeyed thither from Philadelphia. 
 
 When Mrs. Washington, who sat at the foot of her 
 husband's bed, was told that he was no more, she said in 
 a plain voice: ' 'Tis well. All is over now. I have no 
 more trials to pass through. I shall soon follow him." 
 These prophetic words were realized a little more than 
 two years later. In the early days of May, 1802, she 
 was prostrated by a fever. She soon anticipated her 
 end, took the sacrament from Mr. Davis, "sent for a 
 white gown, which she had previously laid by for her 
 last dress," and passed away on the L l"ld day of the 
 month. The wooden door she had ordered for the tomb 
 now swung aside for her, and she was laid to rest by 
 the side of the great man whose partner she had been 
 for forty years. 
 
 Martha's death terminated her life interest in Mount 
 Vernon. There now came into effect the clause in the 
 General's will which bequeathed the main tract of 
 more than four thousand acres between Dogue Creek 
 
-- 
 
 MOUNT VERNON 235 
 
 and Little Hunting Creek, "together with the Mansion 
 House and all other buildings and improvements 
 thereon," to his nephew, Bushrod Washington, son of 
 John Augustine Washington, "partly in consideration 
 of an intimation to his deceased father, while we were 
 bachelors and he had kindly undertaken to superintend 
 my estate, during my military services in the former 
 war between Great Britain and France, that if I should 
 fall therein, Mount Vernon . . . should become 
 his property." 
 
 The River Farm, that tract of two thousand and 
 twenty-seven acres lying east of Little Hunting Creek, 
 Washington bequeathed to the two sons of George 
 Augustine Washington. The land included the farm 
 of three hundred and sixty acres the use of which the 
 General gave Tobias Lear for the latter's lifetime. To 
 Lawrence Lewis he gave two thousand acres on the 
 northwest side of the estate. 
 
 There is a tradition that this disposition of Mount 
 Vernon was a disappointment to Mrs. Washington, 
 Nellie Custis, and her husband, Lawrence Lewis. 
 Nellie had more than once indicated to him, the General 
 said, that she and her husband would like "to settle 
 in this neighborhood." Accordingly he wrote the 
 newly married Lawrence that the two thousand acres 
 off the northwest portion of his estate would become 
 his under the will. It may be tradition errs in ascrib- 
 ing disappointment to Mrs. Washington and her grand- 
 daughter at the bequest of the Mount Vernon mansion. 
 It may be that there was normal harmony between 
 the General's relatives and his wife's relatives, but in 
 the light of this tradition an apparent significance 
 
236 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 attaches to the noticeable infrequency of the visits of 
 Washington's next of kin to Mount Vernon, except on 
 business, during Mrs. Washington's lifetime, and to 
 the fact that not a single blood relative of Washington 
 stood at his tomb when lie was placed within. 
 
 By Lear's own account Mr. Law, Mr. Peter, and Dr. 
 Stuart were notified by courier the evening the General 
 died. Next day Lear enclosed notices to Judge Bush- 
 rod Washington and Colonel William Washington, 
 under cover to Colonel Blackburn, "desiring him to 
 forward them by express." A slave, Caesar, was dis- 
 patched to New Kent to notify G. W. P. Custis and 
 Lawrence Lewis. A letter was sent to the post-office 
 to John Lewis, "desiring him to give information to his 
 brothers George, Robert & Howell, & to Capt. Sam'l 
 Washington." No other relatives were notified. The 
 information sent in this way could not have found any 
 of these except the first three in time for them to reach 
 Mount Vernon for the funeral, which was fixed for the 
 fourth day after the General's death. 
 
 Judge Bushrod Washington came to Mrs. Wash- 
 ington's funeral, but tradition says that Lawrence and 
 Nellie Lewis did not invite him to remain for refresh- 
 ment, and before leaving his estate he asked a slave to 
 prepare dinner for him, which he ate in a cabin. It 
 has long been said in the neighborhood that when 
 Lawrence Lewis settled at Woodlawn, the mansion he 
 built on the tract his uncle bequeathed him, the re- 
 lations between that house and Mount Vernon were 
 visibly strained. 
 
 The General, by his will, gave his widow a life interest 
 in Mount Vernon and in everything that pertained to 
 
- z 
 
MOUNT VERNON 237 
 
 it. The only bequest that he made to "her and her 
 heirs forever" was that of "the household and kitchen 
 furniture of every sort and kind with the liquors and 
 groceries which may be on hand at the time of my de- 
 cease, to be used and disposed of as she may think 
 proper." Mrs. Washington, during her widowhood, 
 made frequent gifts to her relatives of objects from 
 the mansion. 
 
 By her will she gave to her grandson, G. W. P. 
 Custis, "all the silver plate of every kind, . . . to- 
 gether with the two large plated coolers, the four small 
 plated coolers with the bottle castors, a pipe of wine if 
 there be one in the house at the time of my death — also 
 the set of Cincinnati tea and table china, the bowl that 
 has a ship in it, the fine old china jars which usually 
 stand on the'chimney piece in the new room : also all the 
 family pictures of every sort and the pictures painted by 
 his sister, and two small skreens worked by his sister and 
 the other a present from Miss Kitty Brown — also his 
 
 choice of prints — also the two girandoles and 
 
 lustres that stand on them — also the new bedstead which 
 I caused to be made in Philadelphia together with the 
 bed, matrass bolsters and pillows and the white dimity 
 curtains belonging thereto: also two other beds with 
 bolsters and pillows and the white dimity window cur- 
 tains in the new room — also the iron chest and the desk 
 in my closet which belonged to my first husband ; also all 
 my books of every kind except the large bible and prayer 
 book, also the set of tea china that was given me by Mr. 
 Van Braam every piece having M W on it." 
 
 To Nellie Custis Lewis she gave "the large looking 
 glass in the front Parlour and any other looking glass 
 
238 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 which she may choose — Also one of the new side board 
 laities in the new room — also twelve chairs with green 
 boi toms to be selected by herself also the marble table in 
 the garret, also the two prints of the dead soldier, a print 
 of the Washington family in a 1><>\ in the (land and the 
 great chair standing in my chamber; also all the plated 
 ware not herein otherwise bequeathed- — "and many other 
 domestic articles. 
 
 To her two other grandchildren she gave,— "my 
 writing table and the seat to it standing in my chamber, 
 also the print of Gen 1 . Washington that hangs in the 
 passage" to Mrs. Peter, — "the dressing table and glass 
 that stands in the chamber called the yellow room, and 
 Gen 1 . Washington's picture painted by Trumbull" to 
 Mrs. Law. "All the wine in bottles in the vaults" was 
 ordered "equally divided between" her granddaughters 
 and her grandson. 
 
 Everything else in the mansion not specified in her 
 will was ordered to be sold by the executors "for ready 
 money" for the education of three of her nephews. 
 This sale took place July 20, 1S(K>. Relatives of Gen- 
 eral Washington were extensive purchasers, and it was 
 in this way that they obtained such relics of Mount 
 Vernon as they afterward possessed. 
 
 When Bushrod Washington moved into the mansion 
 he found it dismantled of all its objects which he did not 
 buy in at the sale. No, there was one object which es- 
 caped bequesl as well as sale. It had excited no one's 
 interesl . By some irony of fate this object was the sole 
 and only portrait of the man who, in the uncertainty 
 which surrounds the fad, is generally believed l<> have 
 built Mount Vernon house, who bequeathed it to his 
 
MOUNT VERNON 239 
 
 much-loved young brother George, and was thereby the 
 indirect instrument of its great fame. It is not a great 
 work of art, but it has found appreciation since, and is 
 now treasured by another Lawrence Washington, great- 
 great-grandnephew of this one. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 Career of Bushrod Washington — Justice of the Supreme Court 
 of the United States — Estimates by Contemporaries — Mount 
 Vernon and the English Fleet in 1814 — Battle off Bel voir 
 — Rev. Charles O'Neill — Return of LaFayette — Death of 
 Justice Washington — The Two John Augustine Washingtons 
 — New Tomb — Reentombment of the General and Mrs. 
 Washington — Other Burials — The Key Thrown into the 
 Potomac. 
 
 BUSHROD WASHINGTON, third Washington 
 to own and to live in Mount Vernon Mansion, 
 was the second child of John Augustine Wash- 
 ington, who was a second younger brother of the 
 General. He was born in Westmoreland County, Vir- 
 ginia, June 5, 17G2. 
 
 He graduated from the College of William and Mary 
 in 1778, later joined the army, and was a private soldier 
 under Mercer at Yorktown. In his twenty-second year 
 he accompanied the General on his tour of western 
 Pennsylvania, when they rode six hundred and eighty 
 miles in thirty-four days, and he afterward received sub- 
 stantial evidence that he was his Uncle George's favorite 
 nephew. Bushrod chose the law as his profession and 
 by the influence of his uncle he was admitted to study in 
 the office of James Wilson of Philadelphia, later one of 
 the Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States. 
 He began to practise in his native Westmoreland, which 
 he represented in the Virginia Assembly and also in the 
 Virginia Convention which ratified the Constitution. 
 
 no 
 
MOUNT VERNON 241 
 
 Bushrod married Anne, daughter of Colonel Thomas 
 Blackburn of Rippon Lodge, Prince William County, 
 about twelve miles from Mount Vernon. There was no 
 issue. As his country practice did not thrive, he moved to 
 Alexandria; perhaps also to be nearer the Mount Vernon 
 influence. Indeed he wrote the General asking to be 
 appointed an attorney in the Federal Court, but learned 
 that "nepotism was not one of his uncle's redeeming 
 vices." He next established himself in Richmond and 
 almost immediately became one of the leading members 
 of the Virginia bar. His wife was an invalid, however, 
 and he led a retired life, devoting his leisure to editing 
 the Reports of the Virginia Court of Appeals between 
 1790 and 1796. 
 
 When Justice Wilson died President Adams reduced 
 his choice of a successor to John Marshall and Bushrod 
 Washington. "Marshall is first in age, rank and public 
 service, probably not second in talents," the President 
 wrote Mr. Pickering, his Secretary of State. "The 
 character, the merits and abilities of Mr. Washington 
 are greatly respected, but I think General Marshall 
 ought to be preferred; of the three envoys [to France] 
 the conduct of Marshall alone has been entirely satis- 
 factory, and ought to be marked by the most decided 
 approbation of the public. He has raised the American 
 people in their own esteem, and if the influence of truth 
 and justice, reason and argument is not lost in Europe, 
 he had raised the consideration of the United States in 
 that quarter of the world. If. Mr. Marshall should de- 
 cline, I should next think of Mr. Washington." Mar- 
 shall did decline, and Bushrod Washington became an 
 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, December 20, 
 
242 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 1798, in his thirty-sixth year, succeeding his own learned 
 preceptor. 
 
 Justice Washington is described as a small man, with 
 an emaciated frame and a countenance like marble. 
 Though his fame was overshadowed by his illustrious 
 uncle, he was undoubtedly a man of parts. He 
 specialized in commercial and Nisi Prius law, and Jus- 
 tice Binney said of him that he was "as accomplished a 
 Nisi Prius judge as ever lived. I cannot conceive a 
 better. ... I do not believe that even he [Lord 
 Mansfield] surpassed him." Judge Hopkinson and 
 David ^Paul Brown made equal estimates of his abil- 
 ities. 
 
 Justice Story reviewing the partiality shown Bush- 
 rod Washington by his uncle in bequeathing him Mount 
 Vernon, his private and public letters and papers and 
 his library, and in making him executor of his will, 
 said: "Such marks of respect from such a man, — the 
 wonder of his own age, and the model of all future ages, — 
 would alone stamp a character of high merit, and solid 
 distinction, upon any person. They would constitute 
 a passport to public favour, and confer an enviable rank, 
 far beyond the records of the herald's office, or the 
 fugitive honors of a title. ... He was as worthy 
 an heir as ever claimed kindred with a worthy ances- 
 tor. . . . Few men indeed have possessed higher 
 qualifications for the office, either natural or acquired. 
 . . . His mind was solid, rather than brilliant; 
 sagacious and searching, rather than quick or eager; 
 steady, but not unyielding; comprehensive, and at the 
 same time cautious; patient in inquiry, forcible in con- 
 ception, clear in reasoning. He was, by original tern- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 243 
 
 perament, mild, conciliating, and candid; and yet he 
 was remarkable for his uncompromising firmness." 
 
 He was a man of few activities apart from his atten- 
 tion to his duties on the Supreme Bench. He was, how- 
 ever, the first President of the American Colonization 
 Society, which sought to transfer negroes from the 
 United States to colonize the little Republic of Liberia, 
 and in his later years he edited the Reports of the 
 United States Circuit Court of the Third District, 1803 
 to 1827. 
 
 Justice Washington'senforced presencein Philadelphia, 
 during many of the years of his ownership of Mount 
 Vernon, afforded him brief intervals to retire to his estate. 
 Whenever he was there he dispensed a modest and 
 graceful hospitality to the great number of visitors who 
 came to view the home and tomb of his uncle. Among the 
 happy incidents of his occupancy of the mansion were 
 the occasional dinners which he and his wife gave to 
 the Chief Justice and his Associate Justices of the 
 Supreme Court. 
 
 Apprehension for Mount Vernon again seized the 
 people during the second war with Great Britain, 
 when, on August 24, 1814, the British fleet sailed up the 
 Potomac. Instead of attacking and destroying Mount 
 Vernon, as anticipated, it is said Captain Gordon of the 
 Royal Navy caused the seven vessels of his fleet to fire 
 salutes as they came abreast. Almost immediately 
 thereafter, and in sight of the mansion, Fort Washington, 
 on the site of Mr. Digges' Warburton Manor lands, 
 surrendered without a shot to the astonished Eng- 
 lish. 
 
 When the enemy returned from the plunder of Alex- 
 
244 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 andria, however, they bore away a different tale of 
 Mount Vernon neighborhood. Two batteries under 
 Commodore David Porter and Commodore Oliver II. 
 Perry engaged the retreating ships from the Virginia 
 shore, following their passage down river. They 
 crossed the western end of Mount Vernon estate and 
 took up a position on Belvoir heights. As the English 
 ships passed there was a spirited engagement. But 
 this naval battle fought in sight of Mount Vernon was 
 overwhelmingly onesided. The land batteries were of 
 small calibre and the guns were outnumbered many 
 times over by those on the ships. 
 
 Of a more peaceful nature were the visits to Mount 
 Vernon of the Rev. Charles O'Neill, rector of rejuve- 
 nated Pohick Church, recounted by Bishop Meade, then 
 rector of Christ Church, Alexandria, where Justice 
 and Mrs. Washington worshipped: "The families at 
 Mount Vernon and Rippon Lodge were fond of him. 
 He always spent his Christmas at Mount Vernon, and 
 on these occasions was dressed in a full suit of velvet, 
 which General Washington left behind, and which 
 had been given to Mr. O'Neill. But as General Wash- 
 ington was tall and well proportioned in all his parts, 
 and Mr. O'Neill was peculiarly formed, being of un- 
 common length of body and brevity of legs, it was 
 difficult to make the clothes of one even though altered 
 sit well upon the other." 
 
 General the Marquis de LaFayette, accompanied by 
 his son, George Washington LaFayette, crossed the 
 Atlantic once more, in 1824, for a tour of America as 
 the nation's guest, and he came again to Mount Vernon 
 to refresh his souvenirs and lay his homage at the tomb 
 
MOUNT VERNON 245 
 
 of his chief and friend. It was a pilgrimage of much 
 state though of simple ceremonial. 
 
 Bushrod Washington possessed Mount Vernon for 
 twenty-seven years. The only impress of his owner- 
 ship which survives on the mansion is the porch which 
 he built on the southwest end outside the library win- 
 dows. In erecting this porch he tore away the shelter 
 over the steps descending into the cellar, similar to the 
 shelter which survives at the northeast cellar door. 
 
 Justice Washington's health began to fail in the 
 autumn of 1829, and he died while attending court in 
 Philadelphia, November 26th, of that year. His wife 
 died a few days later, of grief it is said. They were 
 buried side by side in the family vault at Mount Vernon. 
 
 In his will Justice Washington divided that portion 
 of the original estate which he had inherited from his 
 uncle, the General, among his own nephews and a niece, 
 Mary Lee Washington, daughter of his brother Corbin, 
 who was married to Noblet Herbert in the mansion in 
 1819, and is buried within the vault. The mansion and 
 a large tract surrounding, including the river front, he be- 
 queathed to John Augustine Washington, third child of 
 his brother Corbin. 
 
 This John Augustine Washington was born at Walnut 
 Farm, in Westmoreland County, Virginia, about 1792. 
 He married Jane Charlotte, daughter of Major Richard 
 Scott Blackburn, of the United States Army, in 1814, 
 and they lived at Blakeley, in Jefferson County, then 
 Virginia, now West Virginia. There five children were 
 born to them, of whom two died in infancy. On the 
 death of his Uncle Bushrod, John Augustine moved with 
 his family to Mount Vernon and proposed to make the 
 
246 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 cultivation and improvement of the estate his chief 
 business in life. He died in 1832, however, and was 
 buried in the vault, after only a little more than two 
 years' ownership of the estate, which he bequeathed 
 to his widow. 
 
 Jane Washington seems to have been a woman of 
 character and resources. With such aid as she could 
 command she kept her young family about her — her 
 eldest son was only eleven years old — and applied her- 
 self to carry on her husband's work. What a burden 
 it must have been to her can be little realized by those 
 who have not staggered under the tax, in time and 
 entertainment, of the proprietorship of one of the most- 
 frequented patriotic shrines in the world. 
 
 John Augustine, Jane's eldest boy, was his mother's 
 main dependence, and within a few years he is found 
 shouldering responsibilities in the management of the 
 place. Soon after Bushrod Washington's death the green- 
 house next the flower gardens burned, which explains an 
 allusion in a letter of November 10, 1837, to John Au- 
 gustine from his mother: 'The portico and pavement 
 round the House at Mount Vernon should be immedi- 
 ately laid — many of the flagstones are broken and much 
 defaced there are more than eno' to replace them in the 
 Burnt Hot house, the rubbish must be removed & have 
 them carefully taken up." 
 
 Jane "Washington lived at Mount Vernon until 1843. 
 In February of that year John Augustine was married 
 to Eleanor Love Selden of Exeter, Loudoun County, 
 Virginia. His mother then retired to her other estate, 
 Blakeley, in Jefferson County. She transferred Mount 
 Vernon Mansion and about twelve hundred acres of 
 
Jane Washington and Members of Her Family 
 
 From left to right: her daughter Anna Maria Washington; her son, Richard Black- 
 burn Washington; her husband's nephew, Noblet Herbert; and her son John 
 Augustine Washington, last private owner of Mount Vernon. From a paint- 
 ing by John Gadsby Chapman in the possession of Lawrence Washington 
 
MOUNT VERNON 247 
 
 surrounding land to him by deed of gift in 1850, which 
 gift she confirmed in her will. 
 
 To this John Augustine, last Washington to own 
 Mount Vernon, and Eleanor his wife, were born seven 
 children: Louisa Fontaine, 19 February, 1844; Jane 
 Charlotte, 26 May, 1846; Eliza Selden, 17 July, 1848; 
 Anna Maria, 17 November, 1851; Lawrence, 14 Janu- 
 ary, 1854; Eleanor Love, 14 March, 1856; and George, 
 22 July, 1858. All were born in Mount Vernon Man- 
 sion except Eliza, and they were the last children born 
 there. 
 
 The years of Jane Washington's residence at Mount 
 Vernon made little history for the estate apart from 
 the notable events of 1831 and 1837, the years which 
 saw the realization of the General's wish expressed in 
 this item of his will : 
 
 "The family Vault at Mount Vernon requiring re- 
 pairs, and being improperly situated besides, I desire 
 that a new one of Brick, and upon a larger scale, may 
 be built at the foot of what is commonly called the 
 vineyard enclosure, — on the ground which is marked 
 out. — In which my remains, with those of my deceased 
 relatives (now in the Old Vault) and such others of 
 my family as may chuse to be entombed there, may be 
 deposited." 
 
 In the thirty-odd years since his death, the proposal 
 to move his remains from Mount Vernon to Wash- 
 ington City was twice agitated. During Martha Wash- 
 ington's widowhood President Adams requested that 
 her husband's ashes might be brought to the national 
 Capital. She consented, but the project was not pur- 
 sued. Again in 1832, when the nation celebrated the 
 
248 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 centennial of Washington's birth, Congress renewed 
 the request to the Washington family and a platform 
 was prepared for his sarcophagus in the crypt under- 
 neath the centre of the dome of the Capitol of the 
 United States. lint it remains untenanted to-day, 
 and the General reposes in the quiet of his beloved 
 Mount Vernon, as his relatives refused to give a per- 
 mission contrary to the desire expressed in his will. 
 
 It was a vandal's effort, happily futile, to steal the 
 body of Washington from the old tomb, which stirred 
 Lawrence Lewis and G. W. P. Custis, surviving exec- 
 utors under the General's will, to fulfil his desire. 
 This was about 1830. Already the damp condition 
 of the old tomb, smothered under the dense foliage of 
 trees which grew above it and shot their destructive 
 roots through its roof and walls, had three times de- 
 stroyed the wooden casings of the General's leaden 
 casket. In 1831 the new tomb was completed and 
 into it all the remains of the deceased members of the 
 Washington family in the old vault were at once moved. 
 
 When, the next year, the proposal to remove Wash- 
 ington and his wife to the United States Capitol was 
 agitated, John Struthers, of Philadelphia, asked and 
 received permission to present sarcophagi for their 
 bodies, which he proceeded to chisel from solid blocks 
 of marble. When the effort was finally abandoned and 
 it became certain that Washington's wish to remain 
 at Mount Vernon would be respected, Mr. Struthers 
 presented the sarcophagi to the Washington family for 
 live in the family vault. 
 
 Attention was called to the fact that the marble 
 would discolor and perhaps decay in the damp and 
 
MOUNT VERNON 249 
 
 darkness behind the iron door of the vault. It was 
 then decided to build the vestibule that the marble 
 caskets might have air and light. This was completed 
 in 1837, when the remains of George and Martha Wash- 
 ington were sealed in the marble sarcophagi in the 
 places where they have since rested in the open vestibule 
 before the vault. 
 
 On this occasion a delegation headed by Henry Clay 
 drove to Mount Vernon from the Capital and joined 
 Lawrence Lewis, his son Lorenzo Lewis, John Augustine 
 Washington, his mother Jane Washington, the Rev- 
 erend Mr. Johnson and his wife, and others in the 
 informal but solemn ceremonial of reentombment. 
 
 A circumstantial story has been published that the 
 leaden casket was opened, that Washington's face was 
 looked upon by those present, and that his features 
 were little changed. "I believe this to be untrue," 
 said Mr. Lawrence Washington to the writer. "The 
 late Mr. Richard B. Washington told me that the 
 leaden casket was not opened. He was present and 
 about fifteen years old. He said there was a small 
 circular hole immediately over the face, through which 
 several persons attempted to look on Washington's 
 face, and some of them claimed that they saw it, but 
 that he on attempting to look through the hole could 
 see nothing. I am aware that Strickland's account is 
 very circumstantial, but my uncle did not hesitate to 
 denounce it as false." 
 
 The marble receptacles are severely plain. That of 
 Washington has on its upper surface a sculptured 
 device in high relief representing the eagle above the 
 American shield against a drapery of the Flag of the 
 
250 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Union. Beneath tins is the single word " Washington." 
 Martha's has carved on its upper surface the words, 
 - * Martha, Consort of Washington," and, on the up- 
 right surface at the end, "Died May 21, 1801, aged 
 71 years." This is obviously erroneous. Martha 
 Washington died the 22d day of May, in the year 1802.* 
 After the entombment in 1837 there were seven other 
 burials at Mount Vernon — four within the vault and 
 three in the ground on the southeast side. The first of 
 these was Lawrence Lewis. After Martha Washington's 
 death, Lawrence and Nellie built Woodlawn Mansion, 
 three miles northwest of Mount Vernon house, on the su- 
 perb site which the General bequeathed his nephew. It is 
 one of the stateliest houses in Virginia, built of brick 
 throughout, in the Georgian style, and its pillared 
 portico overlooks the Potomac down the length of 
 Dogue Creek, all of the original acres of Mount Vernon, 
 and a long stretch of lovely valley to the north. The 
 Lewises continued to live at W r oodlawn until the early 
 thirties, when they moved to Audley, another estate of 
 theirs in Clarke County, near the Shenandoah. Law- 
 rence died November 20, 1839, and is buried in the 
 vault at Mount Vernon. Their daughter Angela, Mrs. 
 Conrad, died at Pass Christian, Mississippi, in 1839, 
 according to the shaft above her grave, and John 
 Augustine Washington's diary says that on July 10, 
 L843, her body "and that of her child were buried near 
 the new vault." Mrs. Lewis survived her husband 
 thirteen years. She died at Audley, July 15, 1852, and 
 was brought to Mount Vernon and buried near her 
 
 •Since the t--\t above was written the date on Martha Washington's sarcopha- 
 gus has been corrected. 
 
.2 & 
 
 -u 
 
 - 
 
 X 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 - 
 
 z. 
 
 t. 
 
 , 
 
 «f 
 
 r 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 - 
 
 3 
 
 
 x - ~ _r 
 
 11 
 
MOUNT VERNON 251 
 
 daughter and granddaughter at the side of the 
 vault. Her brother, G. W. P. Custis, died October 10, 
 1857, and is buried at Arlington. Of two of the others to 
 be admitted to the vault at Mount Vernon one was 
 Mary Lee Washington Herbert, who died in 1852. Mr. 
 Washington's diary records the other burial there on 
 April 16, 1842: "Reverend Mr. Johnson had the body 
 of his child placed in the vault." The father of this 
 child was the Rev. W. P. C. Johnson, who married a 
 Miss Washington of Mount Zephyr. 
 
 Jane, mother of the last Washington to own Mount 
 Vernon, passed away at Blakeley, her home in Jefferson 
 County, in the year 1855. She was brought to Mount 
 Vernon and placed near her husband in the vault. 
 
 On that occasion John Augustine Washington entered 
 in his diary, under date of September 10, 1855, these in- 
 valuable memoranda (see next page) of the positions of the 
 persons buried in the vault, omitting unfortunately to in- 
 dicate the bodies marked C, D, E, and F in his diagram, 
 though sequence would seem to determine them: 
 
 "We buried my mother in the vault at Mount Vernon 
 — as she desired, at my father's feet. The bodies buried 
 there lie as follows. The first body inside the door of the 
 inner vault is Major Lawrence Lewis (marked A. in the 
 subjoined diagram). The second B. is my mother. 
 Then at right angles to these with their feet to them are 
 Judge Bushrod Washington marked [blank]. His wife 
 Ann Washington My father John Augustine Washington 
 marked [blank] and his sister Mary Lee Herbert marked 
 [blank]" 
 
 A tradition has lingered about Mount Vernon that, 
 
252 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 <w' #T f^/*~v~ /-**■-<*" * /^***~ *^*' /^^t- sKW ffu-4'L++3~ 
 
 \^wj\A B t=?* 
 
 cn***z\- 1v-<uh 
 
 i\ wtefl]/] 
 
 f b i 
 
 fu**./* fail *+*yU /*»/A*vt. /T*W '»* M^Aj/^h, 
 
 Extract from the Diary of John Augustine Washington, last private owner of 
 Mount Vernon, under dul« of .September 10, 1H.")J 
 
MOUNT VERNON 253 
 
 after the burial of Mrs. Jane Washington, the tomb was 
 locked, the keyhole sealed with the little metal plate 
 which obscures it to-day, and the key was thrown into 
 the Potomac. There seems to be no written history to 
 corroborate this. However, oral confirmation is fur- 
 nished by Thomas W. Buckey, a connection by marriage 
 with John Augustine Washington's brother Richard, 
 from whom he had these facts. 
 
 One evening shortly after the burial of Jane Washing- 
 ton a number of the Washington family were gathered in 
 Mount Vernon Mansion, and talk turned on the crowded 
 condition of the family vault. The discussion of what 
 other members of the family should enjoy the dis- 
 tinction of burial in the historic tomb disclosed so 
 many claims that it was decided then and there that no 
 one else should be buried therein, and to prevent it to 
 throw the key into the river. To avoid responsibility 
 for this radical act it was decided to draw lots. The 
 obligation fell to Richard Washington, who at once took 
 the key, went down the hill in the darkness, and with all 
 his strength hurled the key far out into the Potomac. 
 
 WTien this was repeated to Lawrence Washington, 
 nephew of Richard Washington, he told the writer he 
 had never heard it before, but added: "If Uncle Dick 
 said so you can depend on it." 
 
 John Augustine's ownership was notable in its ter- 
 mination which saw the home of Washington pass from 
 the precarious ownership of an individual to the more 
 comprehensive and efficient care of a zealous national 
 organization which sprang into being for this patriotic 
 purpose. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 Mount Vernon Lands Diminish — Burden of a National Shrine 
 — Neglect and Decay — Speculators — Vain Appeal for Gov- 
 ernment Purchase — Ann Pamela Cunningham Organizes 
 the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union — Con- 
 tract for Purchase — Campaign for Funds — Edward Everett's 
 AVork — Possession Given — Restoration Begun — During the 
 War — Regents, Superintendents, and Other Officials. 
 
 THE maintenance of Mount Vernon on the scale 
 established by General Washington was only 
 possible for a man of his other resources. When 
 he died he owned, besides the eight thousand acres on or 
 near Dogue Creek and Little Hunting Creek, other land 
 and chattels which he estimated to be worth five 
 hundred and thirty thousand dollars. He directed that 
 these possessions be sold and the proceeds be divided in 
 twenty-three parts. His will named twenty-three or 
 more of his sister's and brothers' children, and the four 
 grandchildren of Mrs. Washington, who received each 
 at most one twenty-third part. This bequest, generous 
 as it was, made none of the recipients wealthy. 
 
 When Mount Vernon passed to Bushrod Washington 
 its yielding acres were diminished more than two-thirds. 
 The owner was wholly without the western landed do- 
 main of his uncle from which strip after strip had been 
 sold to realize the capital needed to support his seat on 
 the Potomac. Each subsequent transfer of Mount 
 Vernon saw the boundary lines draw in. The last 
 
 254 
 
MOUNT VERNON 255 
 
 private owner, John Augustine Washington, had about 
 twelve hundred acres. As the owners of the mansion 
 saw their lands diminish, they saw the obligations at- 
 tached to its ownership increase by leaps and bounds. 
 Fifty years after his death Washington's fame and the 
 patriotic curiosity to see his home and tomb had grown 
 to such proportions that it was not possible any longer 
 for the owners to live there with privacy or without 
 bankruptcy. In spite of their devotion to the sacred 
 spot it became a burden they could not any longer bear. 
 
 Year after year saw the place fall farther and farther 
 into neglect and decay. Justice Washington was ab- 
 sent on the bench nearly all the twenty-seven years of 
 his ownership. His nephew and heir, John Augustine, 
 survived him less than three years. The widow of John 
 Augustine struggled bravely with the heavy burden, 
 and finally, when her eldest son, John Augustine, mar- 
 ried in his twenty-second year, she handed the estate 
 over to him and fled with relief to a remote home in the 
 mountains on the western edge of the state. 
 
 In addition to tourists from Europe and all parts of 
 the world, every one in public life in Washington City 
 felt privileged to come and to send his friends and 
 visiting constituents with letters of introduction. 
 Among his father's and grandmother's papers the sur- 
 viving son of the last owner has an astonishing number 
 of letters from members of the antebellum Senate, 
 House, Supreme Court, and Cabinets asking attention 
 for the bearers. Hospitality directed that they have 
 not merely the liberty of the house and grounds, but 
 substantial entertainment as well. It was not then an 
 easy hour's ride on the wings of electricity. The 
 
256 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 journey was made in a primitive slow river steamer or in 
 carriages over precarious roads. 
 
 Bushrod's heir foresaw that Mount Vernon would 
 eventually ruin any member of the family who under- 
 took to wring a living from its well-worn acres and re- 
 mained to meet the tide of visitors with open house 
 and open-handed hospitality, which is the tradition of 
 the planters. In his will he wisely included permission 
 for his heirs to sell to the national government. The 
 mansion and estate reached his son in a depleted and 
 ruined state. Had he the means to restore it to its 
 original condition it would have required an annual 
 fortune to keep it in repair, under the normal wear and 
 tear of pilgrims, and to maintain a corps of guards 
 against the idle, conscienceless visitors who not merely 
 stole but destroyed to bear away souvenirs of the great 
 shrine. 
 
 As early as 1848 speculators were keen to acquire the 
 home and tomb of the first President. His great- 
 grandnephew knew better than any one else how many 
 and how keen they were, and he refused at great sacri- 
 fice to allow the estate to drift into speculative' hands. 
 At one time he was offered three hundred thousand 
 dollars for the house and one thousand acres. At an- 
 other time he refused two hundred and fifty thousand 
 dollars for the house and two hundred and fifty acres. 
 Mr. Washington was not holding Mount Vernon pri- 
 marily for a high price. He had a proper sense of its 
 speculative value but he had also a proper and a higher 
 sense of its patriotic national quality, and for this 
 reason he withheld it that the United States Govern- 
 ment or the State of Virginia might own and care for it. 
 
Ann Pamela Cunningham 
 
 Founder and First Regenl of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union. 
 From a portrait which hung for nearly twenty years in the Family Dining- 
 room at Mount Vernon, and now hangs in the Senate Chambers of 
 the Capitol of South Carolina. From a painting by Stolle 
 
MOUNT VERNON 257 
 
 At one time he offered to let either the state or the 
 national government take Mount Vernon at its own 
 price. Both refused. So far as governmental ap- 
 preciation, national or state, were concerned, the home 
 of the immortal First Citizen went begging. 
 
 Mount Vernon seemed doomed to decay and per- 
 haps to disappear. That fate overtook many of the 
 famed mansions intimately associated with Washing- 
 ton's life, which their builders raised, not as he did in 
 perishable wood, but in enduring brick. Mount Vernon 
 survived Wakefield, where Washington was born; 
 Greenaway Court about which as a young man he made 
 his early surveys under the friendly eye of old Lord 
 Fairfax; the White House, scene of his wedding festivi- 
 ties; Mr. Digges' Warburton Manor, and the Fairfaxs' 
 Bel voir in sight of his own front door; nearby Hollin 
 Hall of another neighbor, Thomson Mason; and Council- 
 lor Carter's Nomini Hall where he was a frequent 
 visitor. 
 
 But, more enduring than the work of man's hand was 
 custom, the work of his heart. By day and by night, as 
 the boats sped along the Potomac past the tomb of 
 Washington, their bells tolled in memory of the de- 
 parted liberator who lay asleep beneath the trees on the 
 hillside. Many heard but only one responded. Jour- 
 neying up the river one night in the year 1853, a South 
 Carolina woman was moved by the solemnity of the toll- 
 ing bell, by the decay she knew of in spite of the softening 
 moonlight and by the tales of the neglect of govern- 
 ment, to a plan for the salvation of Mount Vernon. 
 Her inspiration was to place the work of rescue in the 
 hands of the women of America. This was a bolder proj- 
 
258 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 ect then than now. Feminine activity was undignified 
 not to say unorganized. She confided the idea to her 
 daughter, who seized it and became its standard-bearer. 
 This was Ann Pamela Cunningham, founder and first 
 Regent of the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the 
 Union. 
 
 Miss Cunningham possessed a strong will and in- 
 domitable purpose in a frail body. But even when 
 invalidism kept her off her feet she planned and wrote 
 and exhorted in a truly remarkable manner. She 
 began her crusade for funds to purchase Mount Vernon 
 in December, 1853. For three years, though she was 
 breaking the way, there was little tangible result. The 
 organization was unincorporated and though some 
 money was coming in it was inconsiderable in propor- 
 tioti to the effort or to the whole amount required. 
 
 At first Miss Cunningham reported that Mr. Wash- 
 ington's reception of her plan was not wholly cordial, 
 and this was wholly natural. The day of feminine 
 efficiency had not arrived. Even Miss Cunningham 
 operated under an incognito, as "The Southern Ma- 
 tron," and was horrified when her own name appeared 
 in an obscure journal. Moreover, the fact that she 
 was an invalid did not inspire confidence in her ability 
 to accomplish such a prodigious work. Her prop- 
 osition to Mr. Washington was based on hope, ex- 
 pectation perhaps, and promise; all at the time with- 
 out substance. 
 
 The idea had taken form, however, and the patriotic 
 fervor of Miss Cunningham and her growing group of 
 workers began to achieve results. The Assembly of 
 the State of Virginia granted a charter to the Mount 
 
MOUNT VERNON • 259 
 
 Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union on the seven- 
 teenth day of March, 1856, which it revised by a further 
 act of March, 1858. 
 
 The governing body of the Association thereby con- 
 sists of a Regent and the Grand Council made up of 
 the Vice-Regents, who are appointed from each state 
 in the Union. They serve without pay. By this 
 charter it is provided that, should the Association fail 
 in its work, Mount Vernon Mansion and land shall be 
 taken over by the State of Virginia and held sacred to 
 the purposes for which it was purchased from the Wash- 
 ington family. The work of the ladies is surveyed 
 once a year by a Board of Visitors appointed by the 
 Governor and reporting to him. Mount Vernon is 
 exempt from taxation, and the sum saved thereby is 
 in effect Virginia's annual contribution to the work. 
 
 On the incorporation of the Association Mr. Wash- 
 ington at once entered into a contract with it for the 
 sale of the mansion and two hundred and two acres of 
 land immediately surrounding it for two hundred thou- 
 sand dollars, giving four years during which to complete 
 the payment. 
 
 The agreement with the Washington heirs specified 
 that they "shall at all times have and enjoy the right 
 to inter the remains of such persons whose remains 
 are in the vault at Mount Vernon as are not now in- 
 terred, and to place the said vault in such a secure and 
 permanent condition as he or they shall see fit, and to 
 enclose the same so as not to include more than a half- 
 acre of land, and the said vault, the remains in and 
 around it, and the enclosure shall never be removed or 
 disturbed, and that no other person hereafter shall ever 
 
260 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 be interred or entombed within the said vault or en- 
 closure." 
 
 The campaign for funds was organized on the plan of 
 dollar contributions, and every state responded to the 
 call. The most notable individual assistance given 
 the Association in its campaign for the purchase money 
 came from the Honorable Edward Everett of Mass- 
 achusetts. For four years he travelled from New 
 England to the Mississippi and south into Georgia 
 delivering his oration on the character of Washington 
 and devoting the proceeds to the purchase fund. In 
 addition he accepted the proposal of the editor of the 
 New York Ledger to write one article each week for 
 one year, for which ten thousand dollars was paid to 
 the fund. In all, Mr. Everett, by tongue and pen, 
 earned and donated to the purchase money needed to 
 redeem Mount Vernon the sum of $68,294.54, more 
 than one-third of the whole amount. 
 
 The final payment on the purchase contract was made 
 in December, 1859, and formal possession was given 
 February 22, 1860. On the outbreak of the Civil 
 War John Augustine Washington joined the Confed- 
 erate Army and was given a commission as aide on 
 General Robert E. Lee's staff, with the rank of Colonel. 
 He was killed September 13, 1861, at Cheat Mountain, 
 and was buried in a family burying ground at Charles- 
 town, West Virginia. 
 
 In the mansion at this time the only objects asso- 
 ciated with the General's life there were the Key of the 
 Bastille, the clay bust of Washington which Houdon mod- 
 elled from life, a plaster bust of La Fayette, the old globe 
 in the library, and some camp equipment. The owner 
 
MOUNT VERNON 261 
 
 said that aside from papers, these were the only things 
 which he possessed which had belonged to the General, 
 and he presented them to the Association. 
 
 Upton H. Herbert was the first resident superin- 
 tendent for the Association, and the estate was placed 
 under his care, and he began restorations a few months 
 before possession was given. The mansion received 
 first attention. The crumbling portico, whose roof 
 was at the time supported in places by masts from the 
 sailboats of the river fishermen, offered the most com- 
 pelling opportunity; the tottering colonnades were 
 strengthened and these and the mansion received the 
 needed protection of paint. All the outbuildings near 
 the house had survived but were in bad condition. 
 They were all roofed in 1860. The walks and drives 
 were cleared, the wharf was made practical, and a small 
 steamer, the Thomas Collyer, was purchased and put 
 in commission to carry visitors between Washington 
 City and Mount Vernon. From this source the Asso- 
 ciation received its first revenue. The work began to 
 march, when suddenly the Civil War broke out, the 
 steamer was confiscated for army transport service, in- 
 terest in Washington's home was deflected, and rev- 
 enue was almost totally cut off. 
 
 There followed dark days for the courageous women 
 who had undertaken the salvation of Washington's 
 home, but they did not falter even in the face of war; 
 they maintained the work, and improvements pro- 
 gressed, though only by many individual sacrifices and 
 contributions from the members' private savings, which 
 some of them were little able to give. The pioneers 
 remember with especial gratitude the substantial as- 
 
2G2 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 sistance given in these days by George W. Riggs of 
 Washington, for many years treasurer of the Associa- 
 tion, who financed many an emergency. 
 
 During the Civil War Mount Vernon was by spon- 
 taneous consent of those on both sides of the great 
 contest the only neutral ground in the country. Sol- 
 diers were requested to leave their arms outside the 
 gates, which they did, and men in blue and men in 
 gray met fraternally before the tomb of the Father of 
 their divided country. Mr. Herbert remained on the 
 estate throughout the war and at its end said: "There 
 was no effort to disturb the tomb or the place by 
 troops on either side during that period." Which ad- 
 mits the inference that it was a civilian relic hunter who 
 passed the iron barrier before Washington's sarcoph- 
 agus and broke off one of the talons of the eagle sculp- 
 tured on its top, for this bit of vandalism was committed 
 at this time. 
 
 After the war the Association was so poor that it 
 was unable to pay a superintendent's salary, and Miss 
 Cunningham came in 1868 and lived at Mount Vernon 
 and directed operations until her frail health broke 
 down entirely in 1872. J. M. Hollingsworth then took 
 up the work as resident secretary and superintendent. 
 He remained in charge until May 30, 1885, and was 
 succeeded by Harrison Howell Dodge who has held this 
 same post more than thirty-one years. James Young came 
 to assist Mr. Dodge as clerk in 1880, but he has been 
 assistant superintendent and James Archer has been 
 resident engineer since these offices were created in 
 1890 and 1907, respectively. 
 
 Since the death of the Founder of the Mount Vernon 
 
u 
 
 P5 
 
 « r£ 
 
 ^ B 
 
MOUNT VERNON 263 
 
 Ladies' Association it has had three Regents: Mrs. Lily 
 M. Berghman of Pennsylvania, who presided in council 
 from 1873 until her death in 1891; Mrs. Justine Van 
 Rensselaer Townsend of New York, who held the 
 presiding office until 1909; and Miss Harriet C. Comegys 
 of Delaware, who has held the office since that date. 
 
 Miss Cunningham died May 1, 1875, at her home at 
 Laurens, South Carolina, alittle over one year after resign- 
 ing the office of Regent, which she had held from the birth 
 of the Association. In her letter of resignation to the 
 Council of Vice-Regents she left this declaration of 
 purpose: "Ladies, the Home of Washington is in your 
 charge; see to it that you keep it the Home of Wash- 
 ington. Let no irreverent hand change it; no vandal 
 hands desecrate it with the fingers of progress ! Those 
 who go to the Home where he lived and died, wish to 
 see in what he lived and died! Let one spot in this 
 grand country of ours be saved from change! Upon 
 you rests this duty." 
 
CHAPTER XXr 
 
 Remaking the Home of George Washington— The Summer 
 House — The Old Tomb — Deer Park — Gifts of Protective 
 Lands — North Lodge Gates — Sea Wall — Garden, Screen, 
 and Ha-Ha Walls — A Colonial Ruin Bought to Get Colonial 
 Brick— Tunnelling to Prevent Mount Vernon from Slipping — 
 Earliest Shingles Still Shelter the Mansion — Flagging from 
 St. Bees — Precautions Extraordinary — If Mount Vernon 
 Were Destroyed — Historic Relics — When Naval Vessels 
 Pass the Tomb of the Father of His Country — A Symbol — 
 The End. 
 
 THERE have been two grand divisions in the life 
 of Mount Vernon since the passing of the man 
 who made it and made it famous. For sixty 
 years it declined and decayed. Cedar and scrub pine 
 possessed I lie neglected fields. The unregenerate honey- 
 suckle caressed and then strangled everything its ten- 
 tacles touched. Drives and paths lost their gravelled 
 surface under matted wire grass. The unprotected 
 palings of the garden fences rotted to the core, literally 
 lost their heart, and tottered. Roof and column suc- 
 cumbed to the corrosion of time and the elements; the 
 dampened plaster lost its grasp and fell; and paradoxi- 
 cally the heavy feel and meddling fingers of the thou- 
 sands of pilgrims were hastening the disintegration of 
 the shrine to which they came with worshipful pa- 
 triotism. Once Haines raised their tongues and licked 
 out one of the buildings, mercifully detached. Only 
 by a seeming miracle has the frail old mansion, whose 
 
 261 
 
MOUNT VERNON 265 
 
 timber is tinder, been preserved from the annihilation 
 by fire. 
 
 Then came the patriotic women who took up the 
 work government had repudiated, and the mantle of 
 a new life spread over the place. For another period of 
 almost sixty years restoration has been re-creating the 
 home of Washington as he established and held it and 
 loved it. 
 
 The rooms of the mansion, the various outbuildings, 
 and the special phases of work about the estate were 
 apportioned among the Vice-Regents. Each had her 
 share of the whole work of restoration which became her 
 obligation and for which she gathered the funds. 
 
 The efforts of the pioneer Regents had overmatched 
 their first need, and when Mount Vernon was paid for 
 there remained a balance of above twenty thousand 
 dollars. This enabled them to begin repairs which 
 would forestall disintegration, and to buy the steamer 
 which would furnish further funds. At the end of the 
 war which had deprived them of this revenue they 
 fought for an indemnity, and a cautious Congress 
 allowed them seven thousand dollars and directed its 
 expenditure under army engineers. The sum went into 
 a new wharf and into the digging of a channel for a 
 larger boat. 
 
 For the first twenty years after the war revenue was 
 slight and the improvements were maintained in a large 
 measure by contributions from the private purses of the 
 ladies of the Association or by funds raised by their 
 efforts. Indeed, until 1886, there was a desperate 
 struggle to preserve rather than to restore. At the end 
 of that period the mansion and outbuildings were placed 
 
266 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 beyond the probability of destructive decay, and order 
 was restored in the environing grounds. 
 
 The summer house on the brow of the hill to the south 
 of the mansion was rebuilt in 1886 with contributions 
 from the school children of Louisiana. From this point 
 Washington watched the schooners load and unload at 
 his wharf, and here hung a bell which regulated the hours 
 of labor on the estate. The deep cellar underneath was 
 intended by the General for an ice-house, but it was 
 abandoned for another in a more convenient locality 
 north of the mansion. 
 
 From the time that the bodies of Washington and 
 other members of his family were removed in 1831 the 
 old tomb was abandoned and allowed to decay. This 
 spot so precious in association was reclaimed in 1887, by 
 contributions from the State of Michigan, and restored 
 as nearly as possible to the condition in which Wash- 
 ington put it when he built it in pious fulfillment of 
 his brother Lawrence's will. The capstone, inscribed 
 "Washington Family," had been removed and was lost 
 sight of for many years, It was discovered at Wood- 
 lawn Mansion, worn by service as a carriage block, and 
 was replaced in its ancient position. 
 
 At the same time the smothered bluff before the man- 
 sion was cleared, the rotted palings of the deer-park stock- 
 ade were removed, and an iron fence replaced them and 
 the enclosure was again stocked with deer, by the gener- 
 osity of the sons of Mrs. Robert Cambell of Missouri. 
 
 The amusement speculator was for many years a con- 
 tinual menace to Mount Vernon. The rising ground on 
 the north side of the mansion became the basis of a plan, 
 in anticipatioo of the coining of the electric-car service 
 
P- c 
 
 <j U CD 
 
 a « « 
 
 e "5 -^ 
 
 2= S 
 
MOUNT VERNON 267 
 
 to the estate, to establish a public resort there. In 1887 
 Jay Gould of New York visited the national shrine and 
 heard of this scheme. His sense of propriety as well as 
 his sense of proportion grasped how essential this piece 
 of land was to the ideal of those preserving Washington's 
 home, and he bought thirty-three and a half protective 
 acres and added them to the Association's holdings. 
 Another gift of two acres on the west river front came 
 from Christian Heurich of Washington City, in 1893, 
 when an unhealthy swamp near the wharf was con- 
 verted into a fertile meadow. This brought the landed 
 holdings of the Association up to two hundred and 
 thirty-seven and a half acres. 
 
 The Masons and other patriotic citizens of Texas pro- 
 vided the means to erect the North Lodge Gates when, 
 in 1892, the electric railway established its terminus 
 here. They are wholly new, but in spirit and architect- 
 ural detail repeat bits from the General's own designs for 
 other buildings on his estate. Another new feature, un- 
 known there before, is the sea wall, extending along the 
 river front, provided as "a necessary protection to the 
 wooded shore against the wave wash during storms." 
 It was built in the nineties and was the gift, as was the 
 wharf -house erected in 1891, of Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst 
 of California. The old wharf of pilings after generations 
 of repairs was replaced in 1913 by the present permanent 
 structure of cement. 
 
 When Washington completed his comprehensive 
 scheme of landscape gardening after the Revolution he 
 used brick walls with liberality and with decided effect. 
 They were of three kinds: the garden walls, the screen 
 walls, and the ha-ha walls. The first was a formal part 
 
268 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 of the plan of his buildings and grounds. They have 
 withstood the wear of all the intervening years since. 
 Even the decorative palings of the fences they support 
 are in large part original. 
 
 There is a different story to tell of the screen and 
 ha-ha walls. The former were wholly utilitarian and 
 masked the buildings north and south of the mansion 
 from the lawn. They were in ruins and had in part dis- 
 appeared when the restoration was undertaken in 1910. 
 The ha-ha walls, so intimately a part of the grounds as 
 to be invisible from the mansion, had almost dis- 
 appeared. The north ha-ha wall was replaced in 1896, 
 the south in 1910, and the west in 1915. In these works 
 it was thought wise not to depend on the skill of modern 
 brickmakers to imitate the effect of a century of wear and 
 weather, so the bricks were bought and brought from the 
 ruins of Thatcher Thornton's splendid old colonial man- 
 sion, Society Hill, at the head of Upper Machodac Creek, 
 an inlet on the Westmoreland shore of the Potomac, and 
 they contributed harmoniously to the mellow tones of 
 the original brick. The walls at Mount Vernon are re- 
 produced to-day exactly as Washington planned and 
 left them, except the boundary wall at the North Lodge 
 Gate, which, though harmonious in design, is newly 
 made necessary by conditions which the General did 
 not anticipate. 
 
 Washington declared the old tomb to be "improperly 
 situated." The reasons thereof were the springs which, 
 on an extensive stratum on the Virginia side of the 
 Potomac, render the adjoining banks Liable to slides. 
 Mount VernOD Mansion and the old tomb stand on a 
 height which has been peculiarly susceptible to danger 
 
MOUNT VERNON 269 
 
 from this source. Minor slides occurred at intervals. 
 To forestall further danger the hill was, in 1904, tun- 
 nelled by Mr. Archer's suggestion and under his direc- 
 tion, and is now drained of twenty thousand gallons of 
 water a day, an engineering feat as unique as it was suc- 
 cessful in its preservative effect. 
 
 In another way nature acts in time continually to 
 change the conditions created and intended by Wash- 
 ington. His plans for trees and vistas were precise as 
 they were extensive. He left a mass of information in 
 his diary and letters by which to re-create and preserve 
 the arboreal environment he prepared. These have 
 been followed in discounting the changing aspects of 
 growth, but this problem was less difficult than to re- 
 store the destructive influences of storm, insects, and 
 decay. Washington built and planted with an eye to 
 the vistas with which his estate naturally abounds. The 
 weed trees which grew up and obscured these outlooks 
 have been given the consideration which they merit, for 
 the custodians of Mount Vernon subscribe to the land- 
 scape artist's axiom that a view is more valuable than a 
 tree. The custom of planting memorial trees near the 
 tomb has been discontinued. 
 
 The mansion was reshingled in 1913, for the first 
 time in fifty-two years. This was a great event. The 
 business of the repairs was approached as usual with an 
 eye to preserving the identity of every detail. The old 
 shingles were duplicated in North Carolina cypress 
 from Lake Waccamaw, and hewed to the old samples. 
 Tarpaulins were made to fit the roof, and their safe 
 anchorage planned against high winds. As small a 
 space as possible was opened at one time. Every night, 
 
270 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 and during the day at any sign of "weather," the tar- 
 paulins were battened down tight. AVhen the house 
 was re-covered a stain reproduced the age and original 
 tones of the old roof. 
 
 In prying loose the shingles along the line where the 
 portico's roof reaches up on to the mansion Mr. Dodge 
 discovered that a whole section of shingles had been left 
 in place underneath when the portico was restored in 
 1860, a steeper pitch being given its roof at that time by 
 extending it back on to the roof of the mansion to the 
 sills of the dormer windows. Among these hidden 
 shingles there proved to be valiant survivors of the 
 course laid on when the mansion was first built. The 
 elements had etched evidence on their sides which 
 showed that they had been turned and twice exposed. 
 Some of the original shingles were used when the man- 
 sion was enlarged and re-roofed during the Revolution. 
 It is authentic later tradition that the roof had not been 
 touched since the old General's death until 1860. At 
 that time the old shingles were left before the east dormer 
 windows on that portion of the roof over which the 
 portico roof extended. Hence it is an interesting fact 
 that among the shingles on Mount Vernon to-day there 
 are some which were placed there when the original 
 villa was built. 
 
 Another result of Mr. Dodge's research was the dis- 
 covery of the quarry from which were cut the stone 
 flaggings in the great portico pavement. The originals 
 there have thinned nearly to the vanishing point. Frost 
 destroyed the edging course of the flags first laid there 
 by Lund Washington when the portico was erected 
 during the Revolution, and the General included the re- 
 
MOUNT VERNON 271 
 
 paving of his portico among his repairs after the war. 
 After many disappointments the sandstone blocks 
 which he placed there were matched two years ago in 
 the ancient quarries whence he derived the original on 
 the estate of Lord Lonsdale, at St. Bees Head, on the 
 west coast of England near Whitehaven. A supply has 
 been ordered in excess of that needed to repave the 
 portico, and the reserve stock will be available should 
 the source of these paving stones become exhausted. 
 
 The interior of the mansion has known radical re- 
 pair only in two instances. It is true that the underpin- 
 nings have been made more nearly equal to the increased 
 strain of the growing procession of visitors and that 
 minor visible discrepancies have been corrected with 
 finished skill, but the West Parlor and the Banquet Hall 
 have demanded and received the more ambitious treat- 
 ment. The harmonious condition of the panelling in 
 the former room was the work of repair in 1879. The 
 ceiling in this room remained intact as late as 1878 when 
 it gave signs of loosening the hold it had kept for a full 
 century. The design was drawn to scale, each of the 
 twenty-eight hundred leaves radiating about the great 
 circle were removed, a new ceiling laid on, and the dec- 
 orations were reproduced in the original material. 
 
 Foresight was less acute in the case of the ceiling in 
 the Banquet Hall. It cracked and pieces fell in 1880. 
 At that time it was merely patched. But the accident 
 was repeated in 1884, and the year following saw the 
 entire ceiling made new in detail identical with the 
 original, the devices of husbandry therein being re- 
 peated in the decorative effects of the capitals over the 
 doors. 
 
272 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 No fire, for cither light or heat, is permitted in the 
 mansion. Visitors are admitted only during the hours 
 of daylight. At five o'clock in summer and at four 
 o'clock in winter the house is closed. During the winter 
 months heat is of course necessary for the comfort of 
 visitors. It is furnished by hot water brought from 
 boilers detached and distant from the big house and is 
 introduced in such an adroit manner as to make the 
 means practically invisible. The fireplaces continue 
 to give out heat as in the olden time, but from the un- 
 seen coils in the gratings below the fire baskets. The 
 hall or passage is heated by pipes concealed under the 
 perforated supports of the stair treads. To these and 
 other ingenious extremes does the care of Washington's 
 home extend in the effort to preserve not merely its 
 very existence, but its spirit as well, from modern 
 device. 
 
 There is but one recorded instance that the mansion 
 has been threatened by fire. In his diary Washington 
 wrote on January 5, 1788: "About Eight o'clock in the 
 evening we were alarmed, and the house a good deal 
 endangered by the soot of one of the Chimneys taking 
 fire & burning furiously, discharging great flakes of fire 
 on the Roof but happily by having aid at hand and 
 proper exertion no damage ensued." 
 
 Shortly after the death of Bushrod Washington fire 
 destroyed the greenhouse and "Quarters" on the north 
 side of the formal gardens, and they were restored be- 
 tween 1894 and 189G.* A complete fire department 
 
 * The West Quarters, adjoining the Conservatory, were restored by penny con- 
 trihutions. aggregating over one thousand dollars, from the school children of 
 Kansas. Tlic Kast Quarters were rebuilt with funds raised by the Vice-Regent for 
 the State of New York. 
 
; 
 
MOUNT VERNON 273 
 
 was installed in 1892. Fire drills are frequent and the 
 various apparatus are subject to frequent inspection. 
 In unison with the intention to disturb none of the 
 colonial harmonies, the fire-fighting forces remain out 
 of sight. A steam engine is kept at some distance from 
 the buildings, but the main batteries of hose and the 
 chemical engine are close at hand in a sunken well 
 in the centre of the circle before the great front door. 
 As an added precaution smoking is not allowed on the 
 estate. Watchmen and guards patrol the big house and 
 all the grounds by night as well as by day. 
 
 If, in the last emergency, Mount Vernon were de- 
 stroyed, its replica would rise in its place. Safely stored 
 in fireproof vaults in the National Capital are architect- 
 ural drawings of every building, with every conceivable 
 detail of structure and decoration. With these are a 
 great number of photographs of every aspect, inside 
 and out, of the big house and its nest of buildings. 
 
 It has been seen how General Washington's personal 
 belongings and the contents of his home were dis- 
 persed, first by his will, which removed only a few 
 objects from Mount Vernon, then by Mrs. Washing- 
 ton's gifts, and later her will, by which her grand- 
 children came into possession of most of the furnishings 
 of value, and finally after her death by the sale, in 1802, 
 when the General's kinsmen bought many souvenirs 
 of his home life. In 1848 Bushrod Washington's heirs 
 offered for sale the bulk of their grand-uncle's library. 
 When it appeared probable that this library would 
 find an English purchaser and be removed from the 
 country, a group of patriotic Americans arose in Mass- 
 achusetts and paid a price which insured the sale to 
 
274 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 them. The books were presented to the Boston 
 Atheneum, where nearly all the original Mount Vernon 
 library may l>e found to-day. 
 
 The treasures which Martha Washington gave her 
 grandson, George Washington Parke Custis of Arling- 
 ton, and which adorned that mansion for over half a 
 century, had many vicissitudes on the outbreak of the 
 war. When Arlington was taken by the Federal troops 
 some of the Washington relics had been removed to 
 Ravensworth,tothe northwest in Fairfax County; others, 
 left in the house, were removed to the Capital, where 
 they were placed on exhibition. The national govern- 
 ment after the war restored these articles to Mr. Custis' 
 descendants, who have made some of the most valued 
 contributions to the reassembling of the original furnish- 
 ings of the historic mansion. 
 
 Many other Mount Vernon treasures, in particular 
 those which passed from Mrs. Washington through 
 her granddaughter, Nellie Custis Lewis, to the Lewis 
 family, and valued Washington documents and letters 
 in the hands of the Washington co-lateral descendants 
 of the General, were offered at public sales in Philadel- 
 phia in the early nineties of the last century. It is 
 from th<- purchasers at these sales that the Mount 
 Vernon Ladies' Association obtained by purchase, gift, 
 and loan others of the relics which are again in their 
 original positions. 
 
 The articles already mentioned as left in the house 
 when tin" Washington family sold and gave possession 
 of it were the nucleus of the later collection. Among 
 them the mosl valuable treasure is the Houdon bust of 
 Washington, mad',- in the house and never removed 
 
MOUNT VERNON 275 
 
 therefrom. Perhaps because it is clay instead of 
 marble, it seems to have excited no cupidity during 
 the early distributions. 
 
 Of highest historic interest is the bed on which Wash- 
 ington died, which is in its original position in his bed- 
 room over the library. Here, too, is the mahogany 
 shaving-stand presented to the General by the first 
 French Minister to this country; his military trunk 
 quaintly curved and studded with brass nails, and a 
 chair which stood in the room the night of his death. 
 
 The "tambour desk" and chair which were be- 
 queathed to Dr. Craik are again in the library, with his 
 silver inkstand, snuffers and tray; and here is the Wash- 
 ington family Bible containing the record of George 
 Washington's birth and christening. A few books of 
 the original library are back in place by the sides of 
 many volumes which merely duplicate the originals. 
 
 Four of the General's swords are home again, and 
 after an absence of over a century the old crystal and 
 wrought-iron lantern which Admiral Vernon sent Law- 
 rence Washington hangs once more in the hall. Nearby 
 is the veritable deed given by Lord Culpepper to 
 Nicholas Spencer and John Washington for the tract 
 on which Mount Vernon was later built. 
 
 The one complete group in the mansion is that asso- 
 ciated with the Vaughan mantel in the Banquet Hall. 
 Here are the identical firedogs presented by LaFayette, 
 the original rosewood pedestals, clock, candlesticks, 
 vases, and wall lamps. Elsewhere in this room are 
 the model of the Bastille which the Polish Gentleman 
 found in the portico exposed to the elements and the 
 vandal fingers of playful children; a mirror plateau 
 
276 MOUNT VERNON 
 
 imported by Washington to adorn his dining table; a 
 painting of the Great Falls of the Potomac; his gold 
 watch, knee and shoe buckles, silver toilet articles, 
 silver spectacles, needle book used at Valley Forge, 
 spoons, punch bowl, champagne and other glasses, 
 and additional souvenirs not only of the master of 
 Mount Vernon but of its mistress and of Nellie Custis. 
 In an adjoining parlor is the harpsichord which Wash- 
 ington imported from abroad for Nellie and over which 
 her stern grandmother kept her so many hours at 
 tearful practice. 
 
 In the dining-room are the sideboard, a sixteen- 
 gallon wine chest and four wine decanters, a pair of 
 pitchers, and the portrait of David Rittenhouse, which 
 were all there in the General's day. Elsewhere are 
 tables and chairs which Washington placed in the house 
 and some of the identical pictures. But where the 
 originals either of pictures or furniture could not be 
 found or, being found, could not be secured, duplicates 
 have as far as possible been installed, awaiting the 
 proper means or the generous impulses which will 
 restore the identical articles which Washington knew 
 and used in his home. 
 
 The whole aspect of the house is simple without 
 severity and elegant without ostentation, representa- 
 tive of the taste, dignity, and eminence of the great 
 man whose environment has been reconstructed. The 
 same is true of the exterior of the mansion and of the 
 grounds. There is perhaps a trimness to the walks 
 and a smartness to the cropped lawns and an absence 
 of littered corners which even the old General could 
 not have wrung from his shiftless slave labor. The 
 
><-ii \\ n n "i!S«' N i i L3. 
 
 IWrn'i 
 
 ;; i mmm\ 
 
 HliSf 
 
 krRh 
 
 Skeleton Model of Mount Vernon Mansion 
 
 In the National Museum at Washington 
 Above, the river front. Below, the west front from the north 
 
MOUNT VERNON 277 
 
 young trees he planted and watched are now veteran 
 giants, many with the deep scars of time and storms 
 bound up in sustaining cement. But if the General 
 were to return he would find surprisingly few changes, 
 in the spirit of the place least of all. 
 
 The ideal sought by the zealous patriots who have 
 the custody of Washington's home is to maintain the 
 environment which he created in the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. So the restoration of Mount Vernon may be 
 said to progress backward. But the cycle of fashion 
 has played a paradoxical trick on the old place by mak- 
 ing the new fashions in domestic landscape and archi- 
 tecture those of the days when old Mount Vernon was 
 new. 
 
 Though it is the tomb of Washington, the place is 
 instinct with life. The house is kept with the nice 
 domestic simplicity that suggests the personal pres- 
 ence of the master and mistress. The solemnity of 
 death is only sensed when one stands uncovered be- 
 neath the open sky among the trees before the reli- 
 quary of all that is mortal of the immortal Washington, 
 or not less poignantly when upon the broad Potomac 
 one hears the unfailing requiem of the bell of every 
 passing vessel. 
 
 There is an order in the United States Navy by which, 
 when ships of the service pass Mount Vernon between 
 sunrise and sunset, a full guard and band is paraded, 
 the bell is tolled, the colors are dropped to half-mast, 
 the bugle sounds taps, the guard presents arms, and 
 officers and men on deck stand at attention and salute 
 as the ship passes the hallowed spot. 
 
 This is but a symbol of the emotion which Mount 
 
2?S MOUNT VERNON 
 
 \ ernon raises in the heart of every American, com- 
 manding the attention and the salute of all lovers of 
 liberty. It is not merely the home of Washington, 
 living and dead, but it foeusses our ideals, and our glory 
 as a people, in our one national shrine. 
 
 THE END 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 A— The Title to Mount Vernon. 
 
 B — Table of General Washington's Visits to Mount 
 Vernon While President. 
 
 C — Tables of Those Born, Married, and Buried at 
 Mount Vernon. 
 
 D — Regents and Vice-Regents of the Mount Vernon 
 Ladies' Association of the Union, Since Its Organi- 
 zation. 
 
APPENDIX A 
 
 The Title to Mount Vernon 
 
 I. — Lord Culpepper to John Washington and Nicholas Spencer, 
 1674, 5,000 acres, "in the ffreshes of Pottomeek River and neare 
 opposite to Piscataway, Indian towne of Mariland," in Stafford 
 County, Virginia. Later divisions of Stafford County placed this 
 land in Fairfax County. The original document hangs in the hall 
 at Mount Vernon. 
 
 II. — George H. Jeffers to Nicholas Spencer and John Washington, 
 1679, 5,000 acres. Grant, on record in Richmond. 
 
 III. — John Washington bequeathed his half of the above land 
 to his son, Lawrence Washington, by his will, 1677; recorded in 
 Westmoreland County. 
 
 IV. — A division of the above tract in 1690, recorded in Stafford 
 County, by which Lawrence Washington received 2,500 acres, 
 his half lying to the north and east on the river and Hunting Creek. 
 
 V. — Lawrence Washington to his daughter Mildred, 2,500 acres 
 as above, by his will, 1697; recorded in Westmoreland County. 
 Mildred Washington married Roger Gregory. 
 
 VI. — Mildred and Roger Gregory to her brother Augustine 
 Washington, 2,500 acres as above, by deed, May 26, 1726; recorded 
 in Westmoreland County 
 
 VII. — Augustine Washington to his son Lawrence Washington, 
 2,500 acres as above; deed recorded at a session of the General 
 Court of Virginia, Williamsburg, October 28, 1740. 
 
 VIII. — Augustine Washington confirmed above grant to his 
 son Lawrence Washington in his will, 1743; recorded in King 
 George County. 
 
 IX. — Lawrence Washington to his brother George Washington, 
 all his real estate in Virginia, by his will, 1752; recorded in Fairfax 
 County. Lawrence and George Washington both added lands to 
 the tract devised by their father, but Mount Vernon Mansion 
 and present surrounding land is included in the 2,500 acres above. 
 
 X. — George Washington to his nephew Bushrod Washington, 
 Mount Vernon Mansion and 4,000 acres, by his will, 1799; re- 
 corded in Fairfax County. 
 
 XL— Bushrod Washington to his nephew John Augustine Wash- 
 
 281 
 
282 APPENDIX 
 
 ington, Mount Vernon Mansion and 1,225 acres, by his will, 1829; 
 recorded in Fairfax County. 
 
 XII. — John Augustine Washington to his wife Jane C. Wash- 
 ington, all his property, with power to devise it as she pleased 
 among her children, by his will, 1832; recorded in Jefferson 
 County, West Virginia. 
 
 XIII. — Jane C. Washington to her oldest son, John Augustine 
 Washington, Mount Vernon Mansion and 1,225 acres, deed, 1850; 
 recorded in Fairfax County. 
 
 XIV. — Jane C. Washington to John Augustine Washington, 
 by her will, 1855, confirms above deed; recorded in Jefferson 
 County, West Virginia. 
 
 XV. — A Contract between John Augustine Washington and 
 the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, for the pur« 
 chase of Mount Vernon Mansion and surrounding buildings and 
 the tomb and 202 acres of land; recorded in Fairfax County, April 
 6, 1858. 
 
 XVI. — W T . A. Taylor, Commissioner, and the heirs of John 
 Augustine Washington to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association 
 of the Union, deed confirming above contract, November 12, 18G8, 
 recorded in Fairfax County. 
 
 XVII. — Two simultaneous deeds, Lawrence Washington and 
 wife to Jay Gould, and Jay Gould and wife to the Mount Vernon 
 Ladies' Association of the Union, thirty-three and one-halt' acres 
 northeast of the mansion, July 23, 1887; recorded in Fairfax 
 ( lounty. 
 
 XVIII. — Christian Heurich and wife to the Mount Vernon 
 Ladies' Association of the Union, deed for two acres on the south- 
 west side of their original tract, November 13, 1893; recorded in 
 Fairfax County. 
 
APPENDIX B 
 
 Table of General Washington's Visits to Mount Vernon 
 While President 
 
 Dates and duration of General Washington's visits to Mount 
 Vernon during his two terms as President of the United States, 
 April 30, 1789 to March 4, 1797. 
 
 (The dates in italics are estimated from relative evidence in 
 letters, diary, newspapers, etc., in the absence of direct evidence 
 of the exact date, from which they are believed to be not more 
 than one day removed.) 
 
 Left for New York. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 71 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left on Southern Tour. 8 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 15 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 27 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 9 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 84 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 12 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 9 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 44 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 11 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 7 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 17 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 29 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 58 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 Left for Philadelphia. 33 days. 
 
 Arrived at Mount Vernon. 
 
 283 
 
 1789, 
 
 April 
 
 16. . . 
 
 1790, 
 
 Sept. 
 
 11. . . 
 
 
 Nov. 
 
 22. . . 
 
 1791, 
 
 March 30 . . . 
 
 
 April 
 
 7. . . 
 
 
 June 
 
 12. . . 
 
 
 June 
 
 27. . . 
 
 
 Sept. 
 
 20. . . 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 17. . . 
 
 1792, 
 
 May 
 
 15. . . 
 
 
 May 
 
 24. . . 
 
 
 July 
 
 16. . . 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 8. . . 
 
 1793, 
 
 April 
 
 1. . . 
 
 
 April 
 
 13. . . 
 
 
 June 
 
 27. . . 
 
 
 July 
 
 6. . . 
 
 
 Sept. 
 
 14. . . 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 28. . . 
 
 1794, 
 
 June 
 
 22. . . 
 
 
 July 
 
 3. . . 
 
 1795, 
 
 April 
 
 19. . . 
 
 
 April 
 
 26. . . 
 
 
 July 
 
 20. . . 
 
 
 Aug. 
 
 6. . . 
 
 
 Sept. 
 
 13. . . 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 12. . . 
 
 1796, 
 
 June 
 
 20. . . 
 
 
 Aug. 
 
 17. . . 
 
 
 Sept. 
 
 23. . . 
 
 
 Oct. 
 
 26. . . 
 
 1797, 
 
 March 
 
 15 . 
 
APPENDIX C 
 
 Tables of Those Born, Married, and Buried at Mount 
 
 Vernon 
 horn in mount vernon mansion 
 
 To Lawrence and Anne (Fairfax) Washington, four children, 
 born between 1713 and 1751 inclusive. Lawrence mentions 
 his three deceased children and his surviving daughter, Sarah, in 
 his will. 
 
 To George Augustine and Frances (Bassett) Washington, four 
 children born between 1787 and 1791 inclusive, while he resided 
 at Mount Vernon in charge of the estate during his uncle's absence 
 at the seat of government as President. (Welles' "History and 
 Geneology of the Washington Family," page 187.) 
 
 To Lawrence and Nellie (Custis) Lewis, two children. Wash- 
 ington records in his diary the birth of the first, December 1, 1799. 
 The second was born "about 1801" while Mr. and Mrs. I^ewis 
 made their home in the mansion with Mrs. Lewis' widowed grand- 
 mother, Mrs. Martha Washington. 
 
 To John Augustine and Eleanor Love (Selden) Washington, 
 six children born between 1844 and 1858 inclusive. Welles in 
 his "History of the Washington Family" records, pages 255 and 
 256, the births of seven children. Lawrence Washington, one of 
 these and the last surviving male child born in Mount Vernon 
 Mansion, confirms Welles except as to Eliza, who was not born 
 there. 
 
 MARRIED IN MOUNT VERNON MANSION 
 
 George Augustine Washington, nephew of George Washington, 
 to Frances Bassett, niece of Mrs. George Washington, October 
 15, 1785. Recorded by General Washington in his diary under 
 thai date. 
 
 Lawrence Lewis, nephew of George Washington, and Eleanor 
 Parke ('ustis, granddaughter of Mrs. George Washington, February 
 '1Z< 1799. Recorded by General Washington in his diary under 
 that date. 
 
 Noblet Herbert t<> Mary Lee Washington, granddaughter of 
 Genera] Washington's brother, John Augustine Washington, 1819. 
 
 284 
 
APPENDIX 285 
 
 (Welles' "History and Geneology of the Washington Family," 
 page 216.) 
 
 BURIED AT MOUNT VERNON 
 
 Lawrence Washington, who died at Mount Vernon, 1752, and 
 his three children, who died at Mount Vernon before this date, 
 and were buried in the first or old vault as soon as it was completed 
 by George Washington. 
 
 Sarah Washington, infant daughter of Lawrence and Anne 
 Washington, died at Mount Vernon in 1752 and was buried in 
 the first vault. 
 
 Martha Parke Custis, daughter of Mrs. George Washington, 
 died at Mount Vernon, June 19, 1773, and was buried in the first 
 vault. 
 
 George Washington, died at Mount Vernon, December 14, 1799, 
 and was buried in the first vault. Reentombed 1831 in the 
 second or new vault. 
 
 Daughter of Mr. & Mrs. T. Peter, age five, died August, 1800, 
 at Georgetown, D. C, and interred at Mount Vernon, September 
 1, 1800. (Diary of Mrs. Thornton, in "Records of Columbia His- 
 torical Society," volume 10, page 186.) 
 
 Martha Washington, wife of George Washington, died at Mount 
 Vernon, May 22, 1802, and was buried in the first vault. Re- 
 entombed in the new vault in 1831 . 
 
 William Augustine Washington, nephew of George Washington, 
 and one of the executors of his will, died at Georgetown, D. C., 
 October, 1810, and "was buried at Mount Vernon." (Welles' 
 "Pedigree and History of the Washington Family," page 174.) 
 
 Bushrod Washington, nephew of George Washington, executor 
 of his will and heir to Mount Vernon, died in Philadelphia, Novem- 
 ber 26, 1829. His remains are in the second or new vault. (Diary 
 of John Augustine Washington, September 10, 1855.) 
 
 Ann Washington, wife of Bushrod Washington above, died a 
 few days after her husband, November, 1829. Her remains are 
 in the new vault. (Diary of John Augustine Washington, Septem- 
 ber 10, 1810.) 
 
 Bushrod Washington, fourth child of William Augustine Wash- 
 ington above, "died at Mount Zephyr, in 1830, and was interred 
 in the vault at Mount Vernon." (Welles' "Washington Family," 
 page 196.) Not mentioned in John Augustine Washington's 
 diary. 
 
 Ann Aylette Washington, daughter of William Augustine Wash- 
 ington, was "born at Haywood, Westmoreland County, Virginia, 
 about 1787. Died and was buried at Mount Vernon." (Welles' 
 
286 APPENDIX 
 
 Washington Family," page 190.) Not mentioned in John Augus- 
 tine Washington's diary. 
 
 John Augustine Washington, grand-nephew of the General, 
 died at Mount Vernon in June, 1832, and his remains are in the 
 new vault. (Diary of his son, John Augustine Washington, 
 September 10, 1855.) 
 
 Lawrence Lewis, nephew of the General, died November 20, 
 1839, and his remains are in the new vault. (Diary of John 
 Augustine Washington, September 10, 1855.) 
 
 A Child of the Reverend W. P. C. Johnson, placed in the new 
 vault, April 16, 1842. (Diary of John Augustine Washington, 
 April 16, 1842.) 
 
 Mrs. M. E. A. Conrad, daughter of Lawrence and Eleanor Custis 
 Lewis, died September 21, 1839, at Pass Christian, Mississippi. 
 Her body "and that of her child were buried near the new vault," 
 July 10, 1843. (Diary of John Augustine Washington, July 10, 
 1843.) 
 
 Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis, granddaughter of Mrs. George 
 Washington, died at Audley in Clarke County, Virginia, July 
 13, 1852. Buried outside the new vault beside her daughter 
 and granddaughter. A marble shaft marks the spot. 
 
 Mary Lee Washington Herbert died 1852 and her remains 
 were placed in the new vault. (Diary of John Augustine Wash- 
 ington, September 10, 1855.) 
 
 Jane C. Washington, wife of John Augustine Washington who 
 died at Mount Vernon in 1832, and mother of John Augustine 
 Washington last private owner of Mount Vernon, died at Blakeley, 
 Jefferson County (now West Virginia), 1855. Her body was 
 placed in the new vault September 10, 1855, after which none other 
 has been admitted. (Diary of John Augustine Washington, 
 September 10, 1855.) 
 
APPENDIX D 
 
 The Regents and Vice-Regents of the Mount Vernon La- 
 dies' Association of the Union Since Its Organiza- 
 tion with the Dates of Their Appointment 
 
 Miss Ann Pamela Cunningham, Regent, 1853-1873 
 (Resigned, 1873; Died, May 1, 1875) 
 
 VICE-REGENTS 
 
 1 Mrs. Anna C. O. Ritchie . 
 
 2 Mrs. Alice H. Dickinson . 
 
 3 Mrs. Philoclea E. Eve . . 
 
 4 Mrs. Octavia Walton LeVert 
 
 5 Mrs. Catharine A. MacWillie 
 
 6 Mrs. Margaretta S. Morse. 
 
 7 Mrs. Mary Rutledge Fogg. 
 
 8 Mrs. Elizabeth M. Walton 
 
 9 Miss Mary Morris Hamilton 
 
 10 Mrs. Louisa I. Greenough . 
 
 11 Mrs. Abba Isabella Little . 
 
 12 Mrs. Catharine Willis Murat 
 
 13 Mrs. Mary Bootes Goodrich 
 
 14 Miss Phebe Ann Ogden 
 
 15 Mrs. 
 
 Alice Key Pendleton . 
 
 Abby Wheaton Chase 
 Jane Maria Van Antwerp 
 Margaret A. Comegys 
 Hannah B. Farnsworth 
 Sarah King Hale . 
 Martha Mitchell . 
 Rosa V. J. Jeffreys 
 
 16 Mrs. 
 
 17 Mrs. 
 
 18 Mrs. 
 
 19 Mrs. 
 
 20 Mrs. 
 
 21 Mrs. 
 
 22 Mrs. 
 Mrs. Janet M. C. Riggs, Acting Vice-Regent 
 
 1858 
 
 resigned 
 
 resigned 
 
 died 
 
 died 
 
 died 
 
 resigned 
 
 died 
 
 resigned 
 
 resigned 
 
 resigned 
 
 resigned 
 
 died 
 
 resigned 
 
 died 
 
 resigned 
 
 died 
 
 died 
 
 died 
 
 died 
 
 died 
 
 resigned 
 
 died 
 
 died 
 
 1866 
 1859 
 1889 
 1877 
 1872 
 1872 
 1872 
 1858 
 1866 
 1865 
 1866 
 1867 
 1864 
 1867 
 1863 
 1885 
 1892 
 
 1888 
 1879 
 1861 
 1902 
 1894 
 
 23 Mrs. Elizabeth W. Barry . 
 
 24 Mrs. Sarah J. Sibley . . 
 
 25 Mrs. Mary P. J. Cutts. . 
 
 26 Miss Lily Lytle Macalester 
 
 27 Mrs. Magdalen G. Blanding 
 
 28 Mrs. Harriet B. Fitch . . 
 
 1859 
 
 died 
 
 died 
 
 resigned 
 
 died 
 
 resigned 
 
 . died 
 
 1883 
 1869 
 1878 
 1891 
 1884 
 1880 
 
 Virginia 
 
 North Carolina 
 
 Georgia 
 
 Alabama 
 
 Mississippi 
 
 Louisiana 
 
 Tennessee 
 
 Missouri 
 
 New York 
 
 Massachusetts 
 
 Maine 
 
 Florida 
 
 Connecticut 
 
 New Jersey 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Rhode Island 
 
 Iowa 
 
 Delaware 
 
 Michigan 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 Wisconsin 
 
 Kentucky 
 
 Dist. of Colum. 
 
 Illinois 
 
 Minnesota 
 
 Vermont 
 
 Pennsylvania 
 
 California 
 
 Indiana 
 
 2S7 
 
288 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 29 Mrs. Sarah H. Johnson 
 
 30 Mrs. Letitia Harper Walker 
 
 81 Mrs. Ann Lucas Hunt . 
 
 32 Mrs. Mary Chestnut 
 
 33 Mrs. Margaret J. M. Sweat 
 
 34 Miss Emily L. Harper 
 
 35 Mrs. Lucy H. Pickens 
 30 Mrs. M. E. Hickman 
 
 37 Mrs. M. A. Sterns . 
 
 38 Mrs. Emily R. M. Hew; 
 
 39 Miss Ella Hutchins. . 
 
 40 Mrs. Janet M. C. Riggs 
 
 41 Mrs. Maria Brooks. 
 
 42 Mrs. Matilda W. Emory . 
 
 43 Mrs. Nancy Wade Halsted 
 
 44 Mrs. Nannie C. Yulee . 
 
 45 Mrs. Susan E. J. Hudson . 
 
 46 Mrs. Ella B. Washington . 
 
 47 Mrs. Betsy C. Mason . 
 
 48 Mrs. A. P. Dillon . . . 
 
 49 Mrs. C. L. Scott . . . 
 
 50 Mrs. William Balfour . 
 
 51 Mrs. Mary T. Barnes . 
 
 52 Mrs. David Urquehart. 
 
 53 Miss M. E. Maverick . 
 
 died 
 died 
 
 1866 
 1908 
 
 Arkansas 
 North Carolina 
 
 1860 
 
 died 
 died 
 
 1878 
 1867 
 
 Missouri 
 South Carolina 
 
 1866 
 
 died 
 died 
 died 
 resigned 
 resigned 
 resigned 
 resigned 
 
 1908 
 1891 
 1899 
 1874 
 1873 
 1872 
 1872 
 
 Maine 
 
 Maryland 
 
 South Carolina 
 
 Nevada 
 
 New Hampshire 
 
 Ohio 
 
 Texas 
 
 1867 
 
 S resigned 
 
 • } died 
 
 resigned 
 
 resigned 
 
 1868 
 1871 
 1876 
 1873 
 
 Dist. of Colum. 
 New York 
 Dist. of Colum. 
 
 1868 
 
 died 
 died 
 
 1891 
 1884 
 
 New Jersey 
 Florida 
 
 1870 
 
 died 
 died 
 
 1913 
 1898 
 
 Connecticut 
 West Virginia 
 
 1872 
 
 died 
 
 \ resigned 
 
 • ) died 
 
 resigned 
 
 1873 
 1873 
 1898 
 1878 
 
 Virginia 
 
 Iowa 
 Arkansas 
 
 1873 
 
 resigned 
 
 died 
 
 resigned 
 
 resigned 
 
 1875 
 1912 
 1876 
 1873 
 
 Mississippi 
 Dist. of Colum 
 Louisiana 
 Texas 
 
 Mrs. Lily M. Berghman, Second Regent 
 (Made Acting Regent, 1873; Regent, June, 1874; Died, 1891) 
 
 1874 
 
 54 Mrs. Emma Reed Ball Virginia 
 
 55 Mr3. Aaron V. Brown .... died 1889 Tennessee 
 
 50 Mrs. Lily L. Broadwell 
 37 Mrs. John P. Jones. 
 
 1875 
 
 died 
 resigned 
 
 1889 
 1876 
 
 Ohio 
 Nevada 
 
APPENDIX 289 
 
 1876 
 
 58 Mrs. Jennie Meeker Ward . . . died 1910 Kansas 
 
 59 Mrs. Justine Van Rensselaer 
 
 Townsend died 1912 New York 
 
 1878 
 
 60 Mrs. J. Gregory Smith . . . resigned 1884 Vermont 
 
 1879 
 
 61 Miss Alice Longfellow Massachusetts 
 
 62 Mrs. Robert Campbell .... died 1882 Missouri 
 
 1880 
 
 63 Mrs. Ida A. Richardson . . . died 1910 Louisiana 
 
 1882 
 
 64 Mrs. Ella S. Herbert .... died 1884 Alabama 
 
 1885 
 
 65 Mrs. E. B. A. Rathbone Michigan 
 
 66 Mrs. Mary T. Leiter .... died 1913 Illinois 
 
 67 Mrs. Janet Dekay King . . . died 1896 Vermont 
 
 68 Mrs. Elizabeth Woodward . . . died 1897 Kentucky 
 
 1888 
 
 69 Miss Harriet C. Comegys Delaware 
 
 70 Mrs. Fannie Gilchrist Baker . . died 1901 Florida 
 
 1889 
 
 71 Mrs. Alice Hill died 1908 Colorado 
 
 72 Mrs. Rebecca B. Flandrau . . . died 1912 Minnesota 
 
 73 Mrs. Phoebe A. Hearst California 
 
 1890 
 
 74 Mrs. A. R. Winder died 1906 New Hampshire 
 
 1891 
 
 75 Mrs. Georgia Page Wilder . . . died 1914 Georgia 
 
 Mrs. Justine V. R. Townsend, Third Regent 
 (Elected Temporary Regent, December, 1891; Regent, June, 1892; 
 
 Died, 1912) 
 
 1893 
 
 76 Mrs. Geo. R. Goldsborough . j ^^ JJJ* Maryland 
 
 77 Mrs. J. Dundas Lippincott 
 
 78 Miss Mary L. Pendleton . 
 
 79 Mrs. Philip Schuyler . . 
 
 80 Mrs. Christine B. Graham . 
 
 died 1894 Pennsylvania 
 
 resigned 1897 Ohio 
 
 resigned 1894 New York 
 
 . died 1915 Missouri 
 
290 APPENDIX 
 
 si Mrs. Francis S. Conover .... died 191 1 New Jersey 
 
 82 Mrs. Mary P. Yeatman Webb Tennessee 
 
 1891 
 
 83 Miss Lelia Herbert died 189' 7 Alabama 
 
 1895 
 
 84 Mr,. Robert H. Clarkson . j™^ gg N ,,, ras , ;a 
 
 85 Mrs. William Ames died 1904 Rhode Island 
 
 86 Miss Amy Townsend New York 
 
 1896 
 
 87 Mrs. Chas. C. -Harrison Pennsylvania 
 
 88 Mrs. Thomas S. Maxey Texas 
 
 1897 
 
 80 Mrs. James E. Campbell . . resigned 1902 Ohio 
 
 1900 
 
 90 Mrs. Roberl 1). Johnston Alabama 
 
 «»1 Mrs. C. F. Manderson Nebraska 
 
 92 Mrs. Eugene Van Rensselaer West Virginia 
 
 1901 
 
 93 Mrs. J. J. Pringle South Carolina 
 
 94 Mrs. Wm. F. Barret Kentucky 
 
 95 Mrs. Chas. Denby died 1906 Indiana 
 
 1905 
 
 96 Mrs. Henry W. Rogers Maryland 
 
 1907 
 
 97 Mrs. Frances J. Ricks . . resigned 1914 Mississippi 
 
 98 Mrs. Lewis Irwin died 1915 Ohio 
 
 99 Mrs. J. Carter Brown Rhode Island 
 
 100 Miss Mary I'. Failing Oregon 
 
 101 Mrs. Eliza F. Leary Washington 
 
 1909 
 
 102 Mrs. A. B. Andrews died 1915 North Carolina 
 
 Miss Habbiet Clayton Combgys, Fourth Regent 
 (Elected May, 1909) 
 
 1911 
 
 108 Mrs. James Gore King Richards Maine 
 
 L04 Miss Mary Bvarts Vermont 
 
 105 Mrs. Antoine Lentilhon Foster Delaware 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 291 
 
 106 Miss Annie Ragan King 
 
 107 Miss Jane A. Riggs . . 
 
 1912 
 
 1913 
 
 108 Mrs. Horace Mann Towner 
 
 109 Mrs. Thomas P. Denham 
 
 Louisiana 
 Dist. of Colum. 
 
 Iowa 
 Florida 
 
 1914 
 
 110 Mrs. Charles E. Furness , Minnesota 
 
 111 Mrs. Louis Hanks Wisconsin 
 
 112 Mrs. Benjamin D. Walcott ...... Indiana 
 
 113 Miss Harriet L. Huntress New Hampshire 
 
 1915 
 
 114 Miss Annie B. Jennings Connecticut 
 
 115 Mrs. W. H. Bradford New Jersey 
 
 1916 
 
 116 Mrs. Anne Shepley Nagle Missouri 
 
 117 Miss Mary Govan Billups Mississippi 
 
 118 Mrs. Harriet Isham Carpenter Illinois 
 
 119 Mrs. John V. Abrahams Kansas 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abingdon, 122, 132 
 
 Accotink, 97 
 
 Acquia, 111 
 
 Adam, Mr., 91 
 
 Adams, President John, 199,234,241, 247 
 
 Adams, Sir Thomas, R. N., 91 
 
 Addison, Mr., 91 
 
 Addison's Spectator, 28 
 
 Agriculture, Experimental, 80-83 
 
 Alexander, Mr., 44, 95, 96 
 
 Alexander, George, 97 
 
 Alexander, Robert, 96, 97, 98, 122 
 
 Alexander, Philip, 98 
 
 Alexandria, vii, 31, 38, 39, 92, 94, 95, 
 96, 97, 105, 122, 124, 133, 138, 166, 
 172, 181, 185, 188, 189, 193, 194, 197, 
 200, 208, 217, 220, 223, 224, 241, 244 
 
 Alexandria Jockey Club, 99 
 
 Alterations in Mount Vernon Mansion, 
 125, 126, 127, 140, 141, 142, 149, 150, 
 161, 204 
 
 Ambler, Edward, 46 
 
 Amboy, 114 
 
 Anderson, James, 195 
 
 Anderson, Mrs., 133 
 
 Annapolis, 93, 102, 103, 114, 119, 121, 
 122, 144, 173, 179. 208, 209 
 
 Anthony, Old, the Miller, 85 
 
 Appleby School, 13, 22 
 
 Archer, James, 262, 269 
 
 Arlington, Earl of, 6 
 
 Arlington House, 16, 251, 274 
 
 Arteignan, Count de Cheiza d', 173 
 
 Assembly, see Burgesses 
 
 Asses, Maltese and Spanish, 174, 175 
 
 Association, Mount Vernon Ladies', of 
 theUnion, 13, 142, 250, 253, 258-9, 261, 
 262, 265, 267, 274. 277, 282, 287-91 
 
 Atheneum, Boston, 274 
 
 Attic, or Garrett, 56, 230, 238 
 
 Audley, 250, 286 
 
 Aylett, Miss, 14 
 
 Ayletts, Wm., 110 
 
 Bache, Mrs., 59 
 Bacon's Rebellion, 6 
 
 Ball, Col. Joseph, 10, 26, 27 
 Ball, Mary, see Mary Washington 
 Baltimore, 114, 200 
 Baltimore, Lord, 4 
 Barbadoes, 33 
 Barclay, Mr., 90 
 
 Barn, near Mansion, 15, 22, 197 
 on Union Farm, 154 
 sixteen-sided, on Dogue Run 
 
 Farm, 196, 197 
 on Muddy Hole Farm, 197 
 planned for River Farm, 197 
 Barney, Captain, 181 
 Bassett, Colonel Burwell, 98, 110, 111, 
 
 112, 116, 133, 144, 171 
 Bassett, Mrs., 101, 133 
 Bassett, Frances, 157, 158, 165, 168, 
 
 171, 189, 193, 195, 197, 229, 284 
 Bastille, Key of, 187, 213, 230, 260 
 Bastille, Sketch of, 187, 213, 230 
 Bastille, Model of, in stone, 213, 275 
 Bath Warm Springs, 113 
 Beaujolais, 210 
 Bed, in which General Washington 
 
 died, 275 
 Beckwith's, Mr., 99 
 Beekman, Mr., 152 
 Bellair (Maryland), 153 
 Belle Aire, 21, 37, 64, 92, 93 
 Belmont Bay, 64 
 Belvoir, 12, 17, 18, 22, 26, 28, 30, 35, 
 
 37, 39, 45, 55, 56, 64, 91, 93, 96, 117, 
 
 142, 165, 204, 208, 244, 257 
 Berghman, Mrs. Lily M., 263, 288 
 Bermuda, 33, 34 
 
 Bible, Washington family, 10, 275 
 Binney, Justice, quoted, 242 
 Birth-night Balls, 166 
 Bishop, 46-47, 48, 50, 51, 133, 143, 145, 
 
 162, 163, 164, 189 
 Blackburn, Anne, 241, 285 
 Blackburn, Jane Charlotte, 245-247, 251, 
 
 252, 286 
 Blackburn, Major Richard Scott, U. 
 
 S. A., 245 
 Blackburn, Col. Thomas, 236, 241 
 
 293 
 
294 
 
 INDKX 
 
 Blakeley, 215, 246, 251, 286 
 
 Blueskin, 170 
 
 Bogg'a Race Track, 99 
 
 Boiling Green, The, 1 1 1 
 
 Hooks, 70. 215, 231, 273, 274, 27.3 
 
 Booths, Mr., L12 
 
 Boston, 124, 125 
 
 Boucher, Capt., 1:57 
 
 Boucher, Rev. Jonathan, 91, 93, 103, 
 
 114, 119, L22 
 Bound Brook, lit 
 Boyd's hole, 112 
 Braddock, General, 40, 12, 43, 45, 47, 
 
 133 
 Bramm, Jacob van. 32, 33, 3i), 2:57 
 Bread and Mutter Ball, !»."> 
 Brehan, Marquise de, 172 
 Bridges Creek, 9, 10 
 Brissot, J. 15.. 170 
 Bristol, 114 
 
 Brooks, Capt. Christopher, 10 
 "Brown, a Mr.," 90 
 Brown, Mr.. 91 
 Brown, David Paul, 242 
 Brown, Doctor, 223 
 Brown. Miss Kitty, 237 
 Brflhswick, 114 
 Buchan, Karl of, 205, 227 
 Buck House. 112 
 Buckey, Thomas W., 253 
 Bull Run, 137 
 
 Burgesses, 9, 19, 31, 48, 54. 55, 61, 62, 
 , 8, 95, mi, 105, 106, 107, 108, 
 
 10!>, 110, 128 
 Burlington, 114 
 Burwell, Colo., 91 
 Bushrod, Mrs., 91 
 Butler, Caleb, 9 10 
 Butler, Jane, 9, 10 
 Byr.l, William, 12 
 
 Cadwallader, Mr. and Mrs., 90 
 
 Csesar, 236 
 
 Calvert. Benedict, OS, 114, 119-122 
 
 Calvert, Mrs., L20 
 
 Calvert/< lecil, Lord Baltimore, t 
 
 Calvert, Eleanor, 93, 119, 120, 121, 122, 
 
 130, 132, 1 IV. 207 
 ( alvert, Leonard, 1 
 < lampball's, Mrs.. 1 1 1 
 Campbell, Mrs. Robert, 260 
 
 Cane-, 227, 2 I] 
 
 Carlyle, John, it. 95, 96, 97 
 
 Carl vie, Mrs., 96 
 
 Carlyle, Sally, 96, 97 
 I, ( harles, 210 
 
 Carter, Councillor, 257 
 
 Carthagena, 16, 22, 69, 206 
 
 Cary, Miss (Mrs. Geo. Win. Fairfax's 
 
 sister), :>0 
 ( !ary, Mary, 46 
 Cary, Robert & Co., 69, 123 
 Cattle, 84 
 Causey, The, 110 
 Cedar Grove on Accotink, 93 
 Cedar Grove, 14, 17, 41 
 Chamberlayne, Mr., 49, 133 
 Chantille, L69 
 Charity, 87, 135 
 Charlottesville, 139 
 Charles II. King, 4, 6,7, 8 
 Charlestown, W. Va., 260 
 Chastellux de, quoted 90, 143 
 Cheere, William, 72 
 ( Ihesapeake Bay, 4, 13, 138, 178, 181 
 ( 'hester, 114 
 ( Ihestertown, 1 1 1 
 Chews Ball. Mrs., 96 
 Chichester, Mr., 99, 208 
 Christ Church. Alexandria, 95, 108, 160, 
 
 22 L, 2 1 1 (see Fairfax Parish) 
 Christian, Mr., dancing master, 101, 102 
 Cincinnati, Society of, 148, 237 
 Civil War, 15, 262, 
 Claibornes, 112 
 Clarke Count v. 250, 286 
 Clay, Henry, 249 
 Clinton, Governor, 148, 151 
 Cockburn, Martin, of Springfield, 93 
 Colchester, (it. 105 
 Colonization Society, American, 243 
 Columbia Historical Society Records, 
 
 quoted, 285 
 Couiegys, Miss Harriet ('., 263, 289. 
 
 290 
 Conde, Prince de, 169 
 Conrad, Mrs. Angela Lewis, see Angela 
 
 Lewis 
 Constitution of the United States, 17!> 
 
 181 
 Conway, Moncure I)., quoted, 16, 20 
 Corbin, Miss. !)7 
 Cornerstone, 24 
 ( 'ornwallis. 1 1_>, 155 
 Craik, Dr. James. 92, 96, 113, 144. 148, 
 
 in .;. J.' I, 223, 227, 275 
 Craik, William, l ts 
 Cully, en 
 
 Culpepper I lounty, 31 
 Culpepper, Lord. 6, L0, 12. 27.".. 281 
 
 Cunningham, Ann Pamela, 258, 262, 
 263, 287 
 
INDEX 
 
 295 
 
 Cunningham, Mrs., mother of Ann Pa- 
 mela Cunningham, 257-258 
 
 Custis, Daniel Parke, 52, 62, 232 
 
 Custis, Eleanor Parke ("Nelly," Mrs. 
 Lewis), 132, 133, 143, 144, 15G, 104, 
 171, 187, 190. 200, 202, 205, 207, 208, 
 209, 210, 213, 217, 220, 221, 229, 
 234, 235, 236, 237, 250, 254, 273, 274, 
 270, 284, 280 
 
 Custis, Elizabeth Parke (Mrs. Law), 
 132, 143, 188, 207, 208, 218, 238, 254, 
 273 
 
 Custis, George Washington Parke, 
 50, 00, 02, 07, 73, 74, 133, 143, 144, 
 150, 104, 171, 175, 187, 190, 207, 208, 
 209, 221, 233, 234, 230, 237, 248, 251, 
 273, 274 
 
 Custis," John Parke, 52, 02, 63, 00, 70, 
 91, M, 98, 100, 101, 102, 103, 109, 
 111, 115, 119, 120, 121, 122, 130, 132, 
 143, 141, 150, 104, 170, 208, 229, 250 
 
 Custis, Martha Parke (daughter Martha 
 Custis Washington), 52, 03, 00, 70, 
 91, 101, 102, 113, 115, 110, 117, 122, 
 132, 150, 170, 229, 285 
 
 Custis, Martha Parke (Mrs. Peter), 
 granddaughter of Martha Custis 
 Washington, 132, 143, 207, 208, 218, 
 238, 254, 273, 285 
 
 Custis, Widow Martha, see Martha 
 Washington 
 
 Daguerre, 63 
 
 Dalton, Captain, 97 
 
 Dalton, Mrs., and daughter, 90 
 
 Dancing, 101 
 
 Dandridge, Betsy, 110 
 
 Dandridge, Martha, see Martha Wash- 
 ington 
 
 Dandridge, Mrs., mother of Martha 
 Washington, 117. 
 
 Davis, Mr., 112 
 
 Davis, Rev. Mr., 224, 234 
 
 Dawson's, Mrs., Ill 
 
 Deed, original, to Mount Vernon, 6-7, 
 275, 281 
 
 Deer Park, 150, 152, 153, 197, 198, 214, 
 266 
 
 Democratic Review, quoted, 191 
 
 Dent, Elizabeth, 46 
 
 Dick, Doctor, 223 
 
 Difficult Run, 218 
 
 Digges Family, 4, 18, 91, 92, 93, 179, 
 243, 257 
 
 Dinwiddie, Governor, 38, 39, 40 
 
 Distillery, 85 
 
 Dodge, Harrison Howell, 262, 270 
 Doeg (Dogue) Indians, 3 
 Dogs, 97, 98, 99, 112, 174, 175 
 Dogue Creek, 6, 12, 13, 15, 18, 21, 36, 
 
 48, 77, 78, 91, 94, 234, 250, 254 
 Dogue Run, 10, 78, 100 
 Dogue Run Farm, 78, 190, 197 
 Dove, The, 4 
 Duelling, 100 
 Dulaney, Lloyd, 99, 113 
 Dumfries, 111 
 
 Dunmore, Lord, 117, 13G, 137, 139 
 Durham, County of, 7 
 
 Eagle's Nest, 219 
 
 Eden, Governor, 93 
 
 Elisabeth Town, 114 
 
 Eltham, 110, 111, 144 
 
 Epsewasson, 220 
 
 Evans, Joshua, 101 
 
 Everett, Hon. Edward, quoted, vii, 200 
 
 Ewell, Fannie, 21 
 
 Ewell family, 04, 92 
 
 Exeter, 240 
 
 Experimental agriculture, 80-83 
 
 Fairfax, Anne, 17, 18, 19, 33, 35, 36, 
 
 40, 47, 08, 284 
 Fairfax, Rev. Bryan, 18, 96, 165, 100, 
 
 221, 222, 227 
 Fairfax County, 3, 7, 35, 36, 44, 55, 
 
 99, 109, 123, 124, 188, 219, 274, 281, 
 
 282 
 Fairfax, George William, 30, 44, 46, 
 
 55, 56, 90, 91, 97, 105, 100, 117, 118, 
 
 119, 142, 153, 105, 204 
 Fairfax Parish, 106 
 Fairfax Resolutions, 124 
 Fairfax, Sally, 40 
 Fairfax, Saily Cary (Mrs. George 
 
 William), 40, 97, 117, 204, 208 
 Fairfax, Thomas, Lord, 12, 18, 20, 28, 
 
 29, 31, 90, 257 
 Fairfax, William, 12, 17, 20, 28, 45, 48, 
 
 105 
 Farewell Address, 187, 190 
 Farms, Five, 78, 150, 154, 155, 189, 219 
 Fauntleroy, Betsy, 38 
 Fauntleroy, Win, Sr., 38 
 Fauquier County, 138 
 Federal City, The, see Washington City 
 Federalist, The, 180, 
 Federalist, The, ship, 180-181 
 Ferry Farm, on the Rappahannock, 14, 
 
 21, 02, 64 
 Fire Protection, 272-273 
 
296 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Fires, 264, 272 
 
 Fish, of the Potomac, 5, 78, 80, 97, 112 
 
 Fitch, Jno., 172 
 
 Fithian, Philip Viekers, 108 
 
 Fitzhugh, Henry, 219 
 
 Fleming, Major, 93 
 
 Ford, W'orthington, 59 
 
 Four Mile Run, 86, 218 
 
 Fox-hunting, 28, 96, 97, 111, 112, 160, 
 
 175, 208 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 59, 171, 227, 228, 
 
 229 
 Frazer's Ferry, 112 
 Frederick County, 55, 109 
 Fredericksburg, 14, 17, 20, 31, 37, 39, 
 
 41, 64, 110, 111, 129, 139, 140, 145, 
 
 148 
 French, Daniel, 108 
 Frestel, M., 200, 209 
 Frost, Amariah, 152, 210 
 Fulton, Robert, 172 
 
 Gadsby's City Hotel, 220 
 
 Gage, General, 124 
 
 Gardens, 150, 152, 153, 264 
 
 Garrett, see Attic 
 
 Gates, Horatio, 128, 139 
 
 Georgetown, D. C, vii, 18, 207, 218, 
 
 285 
 Georgetown on Sassafras, 114 
 Glassford, Mr., H. X., 91 
 Globe, The, 112 
 Goldsbury, Mr., 90 
 Gooch, Governor, 52 
 Gordon, II. X., (apt., 243 
 Gould, Jay, 267, 282 
 Graham, Mr. and Mrs. Macauley, 172 
 Grapes, 152 
 Cray's Hill, 85, 220 
 Grayson family, 01 
 Grayson, Rev. Mr., 158 
 Grayson, William. 92, 93, 127 
 Green, Dr. Charles, vs. 93, 101 
 Green, Thomas, 197 
 Greenaway Court, 29, 257 
 ( rreene, General, 229 
 Greenhouse, 16, 201, 272 
 Gregory, Mrs. Mildred, 10, 11, 281 
 Gregory, Roger, 11, 281 
 Griffith, Doctor, 158 
 (Irvine-;, l.mv. 10 
 Gunston Ball, 18, 37, 92, 93, 101, 124, 
 
 208 
 
 Bale, Edward Everett, 2.'!:? 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 180, 190 
 
 Hamilton, Stanislaus Murray, 94 
 
 Hardwick, Mr., 90 
 
 Harpsichord, Nelly Custis', 276 
 
 Harrison, Benjamin, 179, 180 
 
 Bayfield, 157 
 
 I la\ wood, 285 
 
 Baywoods, Mr., 122 
 
 Hearst, Mrs. Phoebe A., 267, 289 
 
 Henderson, Col. Alexander, 93 
 
 Henry, Patrick, 125, 128, 179, 180 
 
 Herbert, Mr., 91 
 
 llcrlierl family, 95 
 
 Herbert, John, 222 
 
 Herbert, Noblet, 245 
 
 Herbert, Mrs. Noblet, see Mary Lee 
 
 Washington 
 Herbert, Upton H„ 261, 262 
 Heurich, Christian, 267, 282 
 Hobs hole, 112 
 Hobson, Richmond P., 137 
 Hollingsworth, J. M., 262 
 Hollin Hall, 92, 257 
 Hooes Ferry, 113 
 Hope Park, 207 
 Hopkinson, Judge, 242 
 Horses, 93, 155, 169, 170, 191, 211-2, 213 
 Hospitality, 89-104, 135, 173, 189, 192- 
 
 193, 207, 210, 212, 218, 219, 243, 
 
 255, 256 
 Houdon, M., 171-172, 281, 260, 274 
 Hubbards, Mr. Benja., 110, 111 
 Humphreys, Col. David, 144, 161, 102, 
 
 181, 185 
 Hunter, John, 167 
 Hunting Creek, Little, 6, 10, 11, 12, 14, 
 
 18, 21, 36, 77, 78, 106, 235, 254, 281 
 Hunting Creek, Great, 166, 221 
 
 Ice House, 266 
 Industry, The, 33 
 Irving, Washington, 59 
 
 James River, 4, 42, 110 
 
 Jay, John, 180 
 
 Jeffers, George H., 2s| 
 
 Jefferson County, \ a., and W. Ya., 245, 
 
 246. 251, 282, 286 
 Jefferson, Thomas, 171. lsn 
 Jenifer, Daniel, of St. Thomas, !•::. 97, 
 
 128 
 Johnson, Rev. W. P. C . 249, 251 
 Johnson, child of Rev. W. P. C, 286 
 Johnston, Mr.. R. X.. 91 
 Johnston, Mr. ( reorge, 93 
 Jones, Rev. Mr., 171 
 
INDEX 
 
 297 
 
 Kanawha, 148 
 
 Kansas children restore Quarters, 272 
 
 Kenmore House, 41, 64, 111, 140 
 
 Kester, Vaughan, 52 
 
 King George County, 281 
 
 King William County, 112 
 
 King William Court House, 110 
 
 King's^College, New York, 103, 114, 119 
 
 Kingshighway, 14, 18 
 
 Kniglit, Humphrey, 55, 58 
 
 Knox, General, 147, 177, 182, 230 
 
 Knox, Mrs., 209 
 
 L, Captain, 191 
 
 LaFayette, General Marquis de, 143, 
 146, 170, 173-174, 175, 177, 182, 187, 
 209, 210, 227, 228, 229, 244, 260, 275 
 
 LaFayette, Marchioness de,147, 170,229 
 
 LaFayette, George Washington, 170, 
 200, 209, 229, 244 
 
 Lancaster, 114 
 
 Lanphier, Going, 126, 127, 140, 141 
 
 Lantern, Iron, in hall, 16, 275 
 
 Latrobe, Benjamin H, 210 
 
 Laurie, Doctor, 96, 101 
 
 Law, Mr., 213, 229, 236 
 
 Law, Mrs., see Elisabeth Parke Custis 
 
 Lear, Tobias, 165, 189, 200, 203, 205, 
 
 219, 222, 223, 227, 231, 235, 236 
 Lear, Mrs., see Frances Bassett 
 Ledger, New York, 260 
 
 Lee, Anne Fairfax, see Anne Fairfax 
 
 Lee, Billy, 143, 145, 163, 164 
 
 Lee, Charles, 128 
 
 Lee, Charles, son of George Lee, 36 
 
 Lee, George, 36, 47 
 
 Lee, Henry, 110 
 
 Lee, Mrs. Henry, 46 
 
 Lee, General "Light horse Harry," 46, 
 
 180, 211-212, 219 
 Lee, Richard, 36 
 
 Lee, Richard Henry, 168-169, 180 
 Lee, General Robert E., 260 
 Lewis, Angela, 234, 250, 283, 286 
 Lewis, Betty, see Elisabeth Washington 
 Lewis, Col. Fielding, 98, 110, 111, 112, 140 
 Lewis, George, 227, 236 
 Lewis, Howell, 194, 222, 236 
 Lewis, John, 90, 236 
 Lewis, Lawrence, 194, 195, 217, 218, 
 
 220, 221, 234, 235, 236, 248, 249, 250, 
 251, 252, 284, 286 
 
 Lewis, Mrs. Lawrence, see Eleanor 
 
 Parke Custis 
 Lewis, Lorenzo, 249 
 Lewis, Miss, 145 
 
 Lewis, Robert, 236 
 
 Liberia, 243 
 
 Library, see Books 
 
 Littlepage, Captain, 172 
 
 Lloyd, Col., 90 
 
 Lodge, Henry Cabot, 59, 177 
 
 Lonsdale, Lord, 271 
 
 Lossing, Benson J., quoted, 16, 59 
 
 Lotteries, 99, 100 
 
 Loudoun County, 138, 246 
 
 Louisiana, school children of, restore 
 
 summer house, 266 
 Luzerne, Chevalier de la, 152, 172 
 
 Madison, James, 180, 187, 206, 230, 233 
 
 Magnolia, 83, 169 
 
 Magowan, Rev. Walter, 91, 100, 102 
 
 Managers of Mount Vernon, 194-195 
 
 Manley, H., 98 
 
 Manly, Miss, 97 
 
 Mansfield, Lord, 242 
 
 Mansion House Farm, 78 
 
 Marlboro, 93 
 
 Marshall Hall, 77, 93 
 
 Marshall, John, 180, 210, 241 
 
 Marshall, Thomas Hanson, 77, 93, 94 
 
 Mason's Neck, 18 
 
 Mason, George, 18, 37, 92, 100, 105, 
 
 106, 124, 125, 127, 137, 180, 208 
 Mason, Thomson, 92, 257 
 Masonic, 37, 38, 224, 231, 267 
 Massey, Rev. Lee, 93 
 McCarty, Capt. Daniel, 93, 98, 208 
 McHenry, James, 203, 214 
 McHenry, Mrs., 214 
 Meade, Bishop, 59, 244 
 Mercer, 240 
 Michaux, Andre, 173 
 Michigan restored Old Tomb, 266 
 Mike, 96 
 
 Mill, 14, 15, 19, 35, 36, 85, 112, 220 
 Minton, Mrs. Eliza, 12, 17 
 Monongahela, 151 
 Monroe, James, 180 
 Monticello, 139 
 Montpensier, 210 
 Morris, Mr., 207 
 Morris, Gouverneur, 172 
 Morse, Jedediah, 173 
 Mosson, Rev., Rector of St. Peter's, 59 
 Mount Airy, Maryland, 93, 114, 119, 
 
 121, 122 
 Mount Eagle, 165, 221 
 "Mount Vernon Parish," 21 
 Mount Vernon — look under special 
 
 topics relating thereto. 
 
2i)8 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Mount Zephyr, 251, 285 
 Moustier, ( !omte de, 172 
 Miul.lv Hole Farm, 78 
 Muir. Mr., !)1 
 Muse, Adjutant, :32, 83 
 
 Navy, U. S., ordera when ships pass 
 Mount Vernon, 277 
 
 Neabsco, '.'2 
 
 Neekar, bust of, 187 
 
 Neighborhood, 91, 208 
 
 Neil, Mrs., 40 
 
 Nelson, General Washington's war- 
 horse, L55, 170 
 
 Nels »n, Thomas, 179 
 
 Newark. 1 1 1 
 
 Newcastle, 1 1 !■ 
 
 Newenham, Sir Edward, 176 
 
 New Kent, 51, 52, 77. 112, 133, 111. I '. I 
 
 New York, 46, 103, 113, 114, 152, 183, 
 
 1st. is.",, 1S7, 283 
 Nicholas, Miss, 1)7 
 Niemcewitz, Kosciusko's friend, 210, 
 
 212-21::. 275 
 Nomini, 1 12 
 Xomini Hall. 257 
 Non-importation Resolves, 123 
 Norris, Mr., R. N., 9] 
 North Lodge Gate, 267, 268 
 
 Odin, 7 
 
 Ogle, Mr.. 153 
 
 Ohio, 38, 39, 15, 53, 113, 148 
 
 ( )hio ( lompany, 19, :il 
 
 O'Neill, Rev. Charles, 244 
 
 Orders on London, (i'.i 7:;. 123 
 
 Orleans, Due d', 210 
 
 Onne, Robert, 40, 41, 42 
 
 Outbuildings, 56, 57, 07, 88, 127, 153, 
 
 154 
 Oven, 86 
 
 Pamunkey River, 18, 53, 59 
 
 Parkers Ordinary, 1 10 
 
 I'm t terson, John, 55, 56 
 
 Payne, Mr. Edwd., 99 
 
 Peake, 87, 91, 99 
 
 Peale, Charles Willson, lit LIS 
 
 Pearce, William. 194, 195, 197, L98 
 
 Pendleton, Edmond, L25, L28, 180, 225, 
 
 226 
 Pennsylvania, I fniversitj of, 209 
 Perin, Mr., 171 
 
 Perry, Commodore O. II.. U. S. N., 244 
 Peter, Mr. Thomas, 236, 285 
 Peter, Mrs. (.see Martha Parke i 
 
 Peter Porcupine's Gazette, 200 
 Philadelphia, 114, 123, 125, 129, 112, 
 
 1 is. 156, 179, 188, 190, 210, 218, 225, 
 
 226, 234, 237, 240, 243, 245, 248, 274, 
 
 283, 285 
 Philipse, Mary, 40 
 Pickering, Mr., 241 
 Piercey's independent Blues, 220 
 Pilgrim, '1 he sloop, 152 
 Pinckney, Charles Cotesworth, 181 
 Pine, Roberl Edge, 170 17 1 
 Pip. r. Mr., 91, 97 
 
 iway, I. 7, 15, is. 114, 2sl 
 Pohick Church, 21. 48, 64, 93, 99, 105, 
 
 106, 107, los. 166, 171, 244 
 Poole, William, 55, 57-58 
 Pope, Ann, 9 
 Pope's ( reek, 112 
 Porter, Commodore David, U. S. N., 
 
 244 
 Portico floor. 119-150, 270-271 
 Portraits. 114, 115, 170, 171, 172, 205, 
 
 211. 217, 228, 229, 2130, 2:31, 2:57, 
 
 238 27 1 
 Port tobacco, 77, 113, 223 
 Posey, (ant. John, 77. 94, 99 
 Postal facilities, 135-6 
 Potomac River, vii, 3, 4, 5. 6, 7, 9, 10, 
 
 11, 12. I:!, 14, 15. 16, 17, IS, 22, 63, 
 
 (il, 77. sii. !>:;. 101, 114. 117, 122, 133, 
 
 136, 137, 138, 165, 168, Kill. 177, 178, 
 
 181, 229, 21:5, 250, 257, 268, 276, 277, 
 
 281 
 Powell, Mrs., 206 
 Powell's, Mrs., 59 
 Power, Mr.. 90 
 Priestlev. Doctor, 206, 230 
 Prince William County, 7, 35, 128, 137. 
 
 L38, 241 
 Princeton, 11 1, 209 
 "Prodigal Judge. The," 52 
 Pryor, Mrs., quoted, 60 
 
 Quarters, 272 
 
 Ramsay, Miss Betsey, 96, 110 
 Ramsay, Wm., 95, 96, I 8 
 Ramsay's, I he W idow ,114 
 Ravensworth, 207, 219, 27 1 
 Regents and Vice-Regents of the Mount 
 
 Vernon Ladies' Association, 2S7-29! 
 Religious tolerance in Virginia, 19 
 Restorations, 201-277 
 Rhodes, Amphilis, 8 
 Richmond, 123, 128, 149, 172, 173, 241. 
 
 231 
 
INDEX 
 
 299 
 
 Richmore, Mr., R. N., 91 
 
 Rickett's Circus, 199 
 
 Riggs, George ^Y., 262 
 
 Rippon Lodge, 241, 244 
 
 Rittenhouse, David, 229, 276 
 
 River Farm, 78, 92, 197, 235 
 
 Robinson, Mr. Speaker, 109 
 
 Rochambeau, General Count de, 143 
 
 Rockhall, 114 
 
 Rogers, C. Mellon, 231 note 
 
 Roof, 269-270 
 
 Roots's, 112 
 
 Rover's Delight, 94 
 
 Roys Ordinary, 111 
 
 Ruffins Ferry, 111 
 
 Rumney, Doctor, 91, 96, 98, 101, 110 
 
 St. Bees Head, 271 
 
 St. Paul's Church, 112 
 
 St. Peter's Church, New Kent, 52, 59 
 
 Sartell, Mr., R. N., 91 
 
 Saunders, Captain, of the Industry, 33 
 
 Sears, 127, 140 
 
 Sea wall, 267 
 
 Serpentine Road, 150, 151 
 
 Shaw, William, 165, 168, 169, 171 
 
 Sheep, 84 
 
 Shingles, 269-270 
 
 Six-chimney House, 52, 61, 62, 68 
 
 Slades, 114 
 
 Slaves, 232-234 
 
 Sleepy Creek, 90 
 
 Smith, John, visits upper Potomac, 4 
 
 quoted, 5, 28 
 Smith, Col. VVm., 144, 161-164 
 Smith, Mr., The Parson, 112 
 Snow, Gideon, 164 
 Society Hill, 268 
 South, Tour of the, 187, 283 
 "Southern Matron, The," 258 
 Spain, King of, 175 
 Spearing, Ann, 46 
 Spencer, Lord, 8 
 Spencer, Madam Francis, 11 
 Spencer, Nicholas, 7, 10, 11, 275, 281 
 Spinning output, 67 
 Stafford County, 7, 11, 219, 281 
 Stamp Act, 122 
 "Stars & Stripes," 8 
 Stedlar, Mr., 96 
 
 Sterling's, Lord, at Baskin's Ridge, 114 
 Story, Justice, quoted, 242 
 Strickland, 249 
 Struthers, John, 248 
 Stuart, Dr. David, 171, 227, 236 
 Stuart, Capt. Walter, 96 
 
 Stuart, Gilbert, 211 
 Stuart, Miss, 158 
 Sulgrave Manor, 7, 8 
 Summer-house, 266 
 Sun-dial, 155 
 Surveyor's tripod, 31 
 Suttons, 114 
 Swords, 227, 231, 275 
 
 Table of Washington's visits to Mount 
 Vernon while President, 279, 283 
 
 Table of those Born, Married, and 
 Buried at Mount Vernon, 279, 284-286 
 
 Tarleton Raid, 139 
 
 Terrett, Miss, 90 
 
 Taylor, Wm. A., Commissioner, 282 
 
 Texas, citizens of, restore North Lodge 
 Gates, 267 
 
 Thackeray, W. M., quoted, 39, 100 
 
 Thomas Collyer, Steamer, 261 
 
 Thompson, Charles, 183, 185 
 
 Thompson, Rev. Mr., 171 
 
 Thornton, George, 90 
 
 Thornton, Diary of Mrs. Wm., quoted, 
 285 
 
 Thornton, Thatcher, 268 
 
 Tilghman, Mr., 91, 99 
 
 Title to Mount Vernon, 6, 7, 10, 11, 35, 
 36, 226, 245, 246-247, 259, 260, 267, 
 279, 281-282 
 
 Tods Bridge, 111 
 
 Tom, 96 
 
 Tomb, first or old, 34, 223, 225, 234, 236, 
 244, 245, 247, 248, 266, 268, 285, 286 
 
 Tomb, second or new, 248, 249, 250-3, 
 255, 256, 257, 259, 262, 277, 285, 286 
 
 Townsend, Miss Amy, 272 (Note), 290 
 
 Townsend, Mrs. Justine Van Rensse- 
 laer, 283, 289 
 
 Trees, 151, 152, 269 
 
 Trench, Capt., 39 
 
 Trenton, 114 
 
 Triplet, T., 98 
 
 Triplet, Wm., 98 
 
 Trumbull, Col. John, 205, 238 
 
 Truro Parish, 12, 104-108 
 
 Tunnelling the banks, 268-9 
 
 Union Farm, 78, 154 
 
 Valentine's, Josh., 110, 111 
 
 Valley of Virginia, or Shenandoah, 28, 
 
 29, 53 
 Vallo, Charles, 172 
 Varick, Col. Richard, 161 
 Vaughan Mantel, 174-5, 275 
 
300 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Vaughan, Samuel. 174, 275 
 
 Vernon, Admiral, 10, 17, 69, 206, 275 
 
 Versailles, 176 
 
 Virginians," Thackeray's "The, 89, 100 
 
 Visitors, Board of, 259 
 
 Volney, 210 
 
 Waccamaw, Lake, 2d!) 
 
 aer, Dr. Peter, 93, 99 
 Wageners, 208 
 
 Wakefield, 9, 10, 14, 22, 77, 257 
 Walker, Col. Benjamin, 1 11 
 Wallace. William, 20.3, 227 
 Walls. 150, 153, 207, 208 
 Walnut Farm, 215 
 Warburton Manor, 4, 18. 92, 122, 2-13, 
 
 257 
 Washington's Birthday Anniversary, 
 
 166, 217 
 Washington, evolution of name, 7 
 Washington, Ann Aylette, 285 
 Washington, Anna Maria, 247, 284 
 Washington, Anne Fairfax, see Anne 
 
 Fairfax 
 Washington, Angus! inc. grandson of 
 
 John the Emigrant and Father of 
 
 Ga>rge, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 20, 23, 
 
 21, 2(i. 35, 54, 85, 105, 2S1 
 Washington, Augustine, half-brother of 
 
 George, L0, 13, 1 1, 22, 45, 77 
 Washington, Justice Bushrod, 43, lis. 
 
 15S, Jin, 220-7. 2:i5, 236, 238, 240-5, 
 
 246, 251, 252, 254, 255, 272, 273, 281- 
 
 282, 285 
 Washington, Mrs. Bushrod, see Anne 
 
 Blackburn 
 Washington, Bushrod, son of Win. 
 
 August inr Washington, 285 
 Washington, Charles, 10, 112, 157, 221, 
 
 J27 
 Washington City, vii, 188, 198, 207, 
 
 209, 2 IS. 2 17. J is, 255, 201, 274 
 Washington, Corbin, 215 
 Washington, Eleanor Love, 247, 284 
 Washington, Elisabeth, 10, 13, 37, 41, 
 
 01. LSI, l:»t. 207, 218 
 Washington, Eliza Selden, 217, 285 
 Washington, Fort, L is. 92, 213 
 Washington, General George, look 
 
 under special topics relating thereto 
 
 Washington, George, son of John 
 Augustine ami Eleanor, 217, 285 
 
 Washington, George Augustine, 157, 
 158, L68, 171. 181, 189, 194, 284 
 
 Washington, Sons of George Augustine, 
 
 235 
 
 Washington, Mrs. George Augustine, 
 
 see Franees Bassett 
 Washington, George Steptoe, 227 
 Washington, Harriott, 150 
 Washington House, 8 
 Washing!, ,n, .lane Charlotte, 247, 284 
 Washington, John, the Emigrant, 7, 8, 
 
 !). 10. 11. 33, 51, 2S1 
 
 Washington, John, of Warton, 7 
 Washington, John Augustine, brother 
 
 of Ceorge. 1(1. 13. 43, 44, 55, 58, 112, 
 
 128, 130, 158, 226, 235. 210, 284 
 Washington. John Augustine, son of 
 
 Corbin, grand nephew of the General, 
 
 215 0, 251, 252, 255. 256, 2.S2, 280 
 Washington, Jane Charlotte Blackburn, 
 
 wife «,f above, 245-7, 240, 251, 252, 
 
 258, 255, 282, 286 
 Washington, John Augustine, son of 
 
 above, 246-7, 249, 250, 251, 258, 255, 
 
 256, 258, 25!), 200, 282, 284, 286 
 Washington, Kleauor Love Selden, 246- 
 
 7, 284 
 Washington, Lawrence, rector of Pur- 
 
 leigh, 8, S) 
 Washington. Lawrence, grantee of 
 
 Sulgrave Manor, 7, 8 
 Washington, Lawrence, brother of 
 
 John the Emigrant, 8, 9 
 Washington, Lawrence, son of John the 
 
 Emigrant, and the grandfather of 
 
 George, 9, 10, 11, 281 
 Washington, Lawrence, half-brother of 
 
 George, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 
 
 19, 20, 22, 24, 26, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 
 
 36, 47, 54, 68, 231, 238, 266, 275, 281, 
 
 251. 285 
 
 Vashington, Lawrence, of Chotanck, 
 
 210, 227 
 
 Washington, Lawrence of Belmont, 2H> 
 
 Washington, Lawrence, 112, 11.3 
 
 Washington, Lawrence, son of John 
 
 Augustine and Eleanor Love Selden, 
 
 Introduction, 2,39, 247, 249, 253, 2.V., 
 
 252, 284 
 
 Washington, Eliza Fontaine. 217, 284 
 Washington, Lund. 107, 127, L33, 135, 
 
 LS6, Lis. 139, 140, 111, 142. lit), 150, 
 
 157, 15S, 194, 2os, -J-; 1 1 
 Washington, Mrs. Lund. 158 
 Washington, Martha. 16, 51. 52. .">:;, 59, 
 
 (Id 01. 05. 07. 0,!). 71. 70. 91, 96, 101, 
 100. 110. Ill, 115, lit!, 121, 122. 125, 
 127, 12!». 132, 138, LH, 135. 130, 187, 
 138, 1H. 1 13, 144, 115, 140, 156, 158, 
 102, 100, 170, 173, 175, 183, 187, 189, 
 
INDEX 
 
 301 
 
 190, 191, 193, 195, 19S, 200, 205, 206, 
 207, 208, 209, 211, 212, 213, 210, 219, 
 223, 225, 226, 229, 230, 232, 233, 234, 
 235, 236, 237, 247, 249, 250, 252, 254, 
 273, 274, 276, 284, 285, 286 
 
 Washington, Mary, 10, 12, 13, 26, 37. 
 40, 41, 64, 135, 148, 184 
 
 Washington, Mary Lee, 245, 251, 252. 
 284, 286 
 
 Washington, Mildred, wife of Roger 
 Gregory, 10, 11, 281 
 
 Washington, Mildred, sister of George, 
 10, 13 
 
 Washington, Miss, of Mount Zephyr, 
 251 
 
 Washington mythology, 20 
 
 Washington, Richard B., 249, 253 
 
 Washington, Robert, 8, 227 
 
 Washington, Samuel, brother of General 
 Washington, 10, 13, 112, 159 
 
 Washington, Samuel, nephew of Gen- 
 eral Washington, 227, 236 
 
 Washington, Sarah, 35, 285 
 
 Washington, Mrs. W„ 91 
 
 Washington, Mrs. Warner, 222 
 
 Washington, Warner, Jr., 90 
 
 Washington, Warren, 110 
 
 Washington, Whiting, 222 
 
 Washington, Col. William, 236 
 
 Washington, William Augustine, 227, 
 285 
 
 Watson, 170 
 
 Wayne, General, 229 
 
 Webbs Ordinary, 112 
 
 Webster, Noah, 172 
 
 Weedon's, 111 
 
 Weems, Parson, 21, 92, 173 
 
 Well, in cellar, 24 
 
 Welles' History and Geneology of the 
 Washington Family, 284, 285 
 
 Wellington, home of Tobias Lear, 165, 
 227, 235 
 
 Wentworth, General, 16, 17 
 West, Colo., and his wife, 97 
 West Indies, 16, 22, 32, 33 
 Westmoreland County, England, 13, 14 
 Westmoreland County, Virginia, 7, 9, 
 
 13, 14, 20, 21, 22, 77, 240, 245, 268, 
 
 271, 285 
 Westover, 42 
 Wharf, 267 
 Wharf-house, 267 
 Whitehaven, 271 
 White House, New Kent County, 52, 
 
 53, 55, 59, CO, 62, 68, 257 
 Whiting, Anthony, 194 
 Whiting, Mrs. Beverley, 10 
 William and Mary, College of, 61, 240 
 Williams, Captain, 152 
 Williams, Mrs., 12, 17 
 Williamsburg, 9, 14, 19, 39, 40, 44, 48, 
 
 51, 52, 53, 54, 58, 61, 62, 77, 91, 104, 
 
 110, 111, 113, 120, 123, 124, 129, 143, 
 
 281 
 Will's Creek, 42 
 Wills, Washington's, 225-6-7-8, 234, 
 
 235, 236, 237, 248, 273 
 Wilmington, 114 
 Wilson, Justice James, 240, 241 
 Winchester, 39, 53, 58, 113 
 Wister, Owen, quoted, vii 
 Wolcott, Oliver, 202 
 Wolcott, Mrs., 202 
 Wood, Mr., 90 
 Wood, James, 54 
 Wood, Mrs., 54 
 
 Woodlawn, 220, 235, 236, 250, 266 
 Woodrow, Mr., 90 
 
 York, 114 
 
 York River, 48, 51, 221 
 Yorktown, 143, 144, 155, 204, 240 
 Young, Arthur, 154, 156, 189 
 Young, James, 262