352 
End view of ‘Mount Pleasant’ 
super-imposed pediment, the ornate Palladian window im- 
mediately above on the second floor and, above that again, 
the corniced pediment springing from the eaves, all con- 
tribute to set a stamp of courtly distinction upon the pile, 
a distinction for which only Georgian architecture has found 
utterance. Above the second floor the hipped roof springs 
pierced, east and west, by two graceful dormers and 
crowned by a well-turned balustrade that traverses nearly 
the whole distance between the chimneys. The fan light 
over the door has remarkably heavy fluted mullions, and 
all the detail throughout the house, though highly wrought, 
is heavy, as it was wont to be at the precise period when 
“Mount Pleasant” was erected. 
If one were asked, however, to say what it is before all 
else that gives a peculiarly striking appearance to ‘Mount 
Pleasant,” the answer would straightway indicate the two 
flanking outbuildings set thirty or forty feet distant from 
the northeast and southeast corners of the house. Though 
designed for servants’ quarters and various domestic offices, 
these two-story hipped-roof buildings are made of the same 
material and finished with the same care as the rest of the 
house. Without them ‘“‘Mount Pleasant”? would be only an 
unusually handsome Georgian country house; with them it 
at once takes on the manorial port of one of the old Vir- 
ginia mansions. Beyond the drive-girt circle before the 
house shaded by a mighty spreading sycamore, and at some 
distance from either side of the road, are two barns. The 
grouping is impressive and eloquent of the state maintained 
by the Colonial occupants of this truly noble seat. 
The history of ‘Mount Pleasant” is not less engaging 
than its aspect. Captain Macpherson is one of the most 
picturesque personages to be met with in the picturesque 
pages of Colonial history. Sprung from the Macphersons 
of Clunie in Scotland, he left his native country and fol- 
lowed the sea, coming out to America at what time is not 
exactly known. He first came into prominent notice in 
Philadelphia, however, in 1757, when he took command of 
the privateer “Britannia.” After many vicissitudes of for- 
tune and numerous engagements with the French, from 
whom he made not a few brilliant and profitable captures, 
he succeeded in amassing a goodly fortune and then came 
back to rest from his seafaring, a rich man for those days. 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
October, 1912 
With a part of the spoils of his privateering he built 
“‘Clunie,” as he at first named his estate after the seat of his 
clan. The name ‘‘Clunie” he subsequently changed, how- 
ever, to ‘‘Mount Pleasant,” the title it still bears. Here he 
lived in a manner becoming a man of his substance, exer- 
cising an hospitality that won the commendation of John 
Adams, who never failed to chronicle the good things he 
there had to eat and drink. A man of intense activity, Mac- 
pherson busied himself by inventing various contrivances, 
one of which was a device for moving brick or stone houses 
bodily—a piece of mechanism that worked successfully. An- 
other fruit of his ingenuity was an “elegant cot which bids 
defiance to everything but Omnipotence.” The occupant, 
according to the Captain’s assertion, was warranted immun- 
ity from flies, mosquitoes or any other entomoligical irri- 
tant. In his later years he gave lectures on astronomy, pub- 
lished papers on moral philosophy, and issued the first 
Philadelphia city directory (1785), wherein he took occa- 
sion to express his personal pique at those that proved un- 
communicative to his canvassing queries. He has, for in- 
stance, under the ‘“‘C’s” a whole regiment of ‘Cross wo- 
men” with the numbers of their houses. A truly novel way 
of getting revenge! 
Wearying of the seclusion of “Mount Pleasant,” and 
longing again for the smell of the sea, at the outbreak of 
the Revolution this gallant, but eccentric gentleman, applied 
to the Marine Committee of the Continental Congress for 
the chief command of the navy, a post for which his past 
achievements bespoke favorable consideration. Despite his 
importunities to gain his point, however, the honor was 
given to another. After Macpherson left ‘“Mount Pleas- 
ant’ he leased it to Don Juan de Merailles, the Spanish 
Ambassador, and finally, in the Spring of 1779, sold it to 
General Benedict Arnold, who lived there much of the time 
for more than a year after his marriage to Peggy Shippen. 
It was at “Mount Pleasant”? that he and his bride gave 
some of those entertainments that increased the cavilling 
and carping of his enemies and creditors, when his per- 
sonal fortunes were sinking into hopeless embarrassment. 
After Arnold’s attainder and the confiscation of his prop- 
erty, ‘Mount Pleasant” was leased to Baron Steuben, but it 
is doubtful whether he ever lived there, as his duties took 
The hallway of “Mount Pleasant” 
