MOUNT VERNON. 105 



Finding I was only seventeen miles from 

 Mount Vernon, once the residence and now 

 the resting-place of the great Washington, I 

 felt it would be a reproach to return home 

 without visiting his tomb. Accordingly on 

 the morning of the 28th of June, I left Wa- 

 shington by the steamer, and after a sail of 

 seven miles, disembarked at Alexandria, a 

 town of considerable importance, and from 

 thence with a party of strangers, on the same 

 errand with myself, proceeded in a stage for 

 Mount Vernon, a distance of ten miles. 



The first five miles led through a fine cul- 

 tivated country, and I there saw, for the first 

 time, a field of wheat in stoo/cs ; the crop ap- 

 peared to be light. The remaining five miles 

 were entirely through a copse forest ; the soil 

 light and sandy, and the road as usual abo- 

 minable. 



Mount Vernon is a house of moderate size, 

 of the description of a gentleman's country 

 house of the old English style. It is now in- 

 habited by the widow of Judge Washington, 

 nephew of the General, and strangers are not 



