THE FOUNDING OF THE NATIONAL CAPITAL 243 



John Davis, the English schoohnaster who first told the un- 

 founded tale of Jefferson's riding alone to the Capitol to be in- 

 augurated as President, and hitching his horse to the palisades, 

 wrote of Washington in 1802, what may well be believed: 

 " There were no objects to catch the eye but a forlorn pilgrim 

 forcing his way through the grass that overruns the streets, or a 

 cow ruminating on a bank." He says the village was sur- 

 rounded by " endless and almost impenetrable woods," and 

 drops into poetry upon " the noble river Potomac, on whose 

 banks the proud structures of Washington are to lift their heads." 



Francis Baily, President of the Royal Astronomical Society 

 of London, visited here in 1796. He arrived by stage from 

 Baltimore, for which journey four dollars was the fare, and 

 the road was well furnished with good taverns. Georgetown 

 he describes as " a handsome town which will in time lose its 

 name of Georgetown, and adopt the general one of Washing- 

 ton" — a prediction which is now fulfilled. He visited Alex- 

 andria, fare seventy-five cents by stage. He praises the view 

 from the capitol as 'extremely delightful,' visits Greenleaf's 

 Point, where twenty or thirty houses were built, and says about 

 a hundred others were scattered over in other places. Most of 

 the streets were cut through the woods, appearing like broad 

 avenues in a park. "In short," says he, " all tends to render 

 it one of the most delightful and pleasant sites for a town I have 

 ever remarked." 



In the Travels of the Duke de la Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, 

 who spent the years 1795 to 1797 in the United States, and who 

 was a careful observer, is the most extended account of this 

 District and its vicinity in Maryland and Virginia at the period of 

 our review to be met with. He pronounces the plan of the city 

 "both judicious and noble"; but adds that it is in fact the 

 grandeur and magnificence of the plan which renders the con- 

 ception "no better than a dream." He details at length the spec- 

 ulation in lots, then at its height, in what he always terms 

 ' Federal City ' ; shows that Robert Morris, with Nicholson 

 and Greenleaf, bought up all that could be had, either from the 

 commissioners or from private owners ; that the Morris syndi- 

 cate (to use a term not then invented) purchased six thousand 



