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old gentleman, has set it down in his Ledger as a very bad debt.'

At Alexandria I was favoured with an introductory note to the Honourable Bushrod Washington, the General's nephew, and one of the judges of the Supreme Court, to whom Mount Vernon now belongs. I believe that strangers are politely received at the mansion house without any introduction, but it was of course more agreeable to be possessed of it, and I accidentally obtained the company of two young gentlemen who were going a pilgrimage to the same shrine. The road to Mount Vernon after running along for a short way within view of the Potowmak, strikes off into the woods on the right; the day was hot, and we found the shelter of the trees very grateful, but coming to a place where the road divided we chanced to take the wrong one, and after proceeding about a mile were indebted to a black girl for being set right again.

At the bottom of the avenue to Mount Vernon, the gate was opened to us by an old negro who had survived the master of his youth, and who now receives from many a visitor substantial tokens of the universal respect which is entertained for his memory. The avenue is narrow and in bad order, it has indeed more the air of a neglected country road, than the approach to a gentleman's residence. The mansion house, an old fashioned building of two stories surmounted by a small turret and

weathercock, stands on an elevated situation on the western bank of the Potowmak; it is built of wood, but the walls are cut and plastered in imitation of rusticated freestone. The back part of the house is to the river; at the other side are two small wings at right angles to the principal building, and connected by piazzas which bend towards them so as to form a kind of irregular crescent, Opposite the hall door is a circular grass plot surrounded by a gravel walk and shaded on both sides by lofty trees; two beautiful chesnuts were pointed out to me, which sprung from nuts planted by the General's own hand. On the two sides are the vegetable and flower gardens, in the latter of which is a greenhouse.2

3

The mansion house was originally built by Washington's uncle, who had served in the Brit ish navy under Admiral Vernon, and commemorated his regard for his commanding officer by the name which he gave to his estate. Some partial alterations were made on the house by the General, but report says that he subsequently regretted

In the British edition of Marshall's Life of Washington is a very accurate front view of Mount Vernon; in Weld's Travels a view is given of the back part of the house and the bank of the river, but it is exceedingly incorrect.

" In Marshall's life of Washington, it is said that the house was built by his elder Brother; my journal states his Uncle, and my memory strongly corroborates its testimony as to the information which was given me at Mount Vernon; it is possible however that I may have misunderstood what was told me.

that he did not entirely rebuild it. It is an old fashioned, perhaps not a very comfortable residence, according to modern ideas of comfort, but it ought now to be considered sacred, and have the most unremitting care bestowed on its preservation. He will be worse than a Vandal who presumes to pull it down. In the hall hangs a picture of the Bastile, and in a small glass case above it is an ancient key, which formerly turned the bolt of one of the dreary locks in that house of sighs. It was sent out to Washington by the Marquis la Fayette, after the destruction of the Bastile, as an inscription affixed in his hand writing records. Over the mantel piece of one of the parlours is a small framed miniature of the General which was cut out of a piece of common earthen-ware. It is a singular fact that this is regarded by the family as the most accurate likeness that exists. The general contour of his face is well ascertained, and there is a strong similarity in most of the portraits: yet those who knew him best agree that there was a certain expression in his countenance, which is quite wanting even in Stuart's painting, and in the engraving which was executed from it. This very ordinary kind of daub, which was broken out of a common pitcher, and probably executed by some potter's apprentice, is said to possess more of this intellectual characteristic than any of the other portraits.

At the back of the house a lofty piazza stretches

along the whole length of the building, and be. fore it the ground slopes rapidly towards the river and soon becomes quite precipitous. On the bank is a small tea-house, which affords a most commanding view of the surrounding scenery. The Potowmak widens into a bay before you, and bending round the base of Mount Vernon, seems almost to insulate the promontory on which it stands; then sweeping in the opposite direction round the projecting shore of Maryland, and lost for a time behind its vast forests, it re-appears in noble expanse about ten miles below, with the sunbeams flashing from its surface, and rolling its mighty current into the yet more ample bosom of the Chesapeake.

A little to the right of the tea-house, and nearer to the edge of the bank, is the tomb of Washington. Here under the peaceful shade of oaks and cedars, lie all that earth contains of him by whose energy and patriotism the United States became a nation! No venerable cathedral rears its arches over his remains; no sumptuous mausoleum embalms his memory.

"Si monumentum quæris, circumspice !"

His country is his monument; his country's liberty his only panegyric!

Washington in his will designated the spot in which he wished to be interred, and particularly directed that the body should not afterwards be

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removed. The cemetery is nothing more than a plain brick vault, almost level with the ground; it is encircled by venerable oaks, and some beautiful red cedars are growing in the mould which covers the roof. Visitors were formerly allowed to see the interior, but some person having had the rudeness to strip part of the cloth from the coffin, all access to it is now forbidden. Subsequently to this prohibition, the servant who had been intrusted with the key conceived the horrible idea of robbing the vault, with the purpose of carrying off the body to Britain to exhibit it for money! His intention was happily discovered and the nefarious outrage prevented; it is difficult indeed to imagine how it could have been carried into effect without immediate detection, but the projector must have been a fool to imagine that such atrocity would have been countenanced in Britain, or that he would have been permitted for a single day to carry on so abominable a trade.

The State of Virginia applied to the relatives of the General for permission to remove the body to Richmond, to erect a monument over it; and it is said that notwithstanding the specific injunctions of the will, the family were persuaded to consent to this proposal. Several years however have since elapsed, and as no provision has yet been made for carrying the proposed plan into effect, it is generally believed that no claim will now be