1831.] 
MOUNT VERNON. 
15 
against the Spaniards Washington's brother Lawrence served; i 
and he was the original proprietor of this deHghtful sylvan 
retreat. It afterward passed into the general's hands, and it was 
here that he resided when retired from the cares and labours of 
public employment; and it is here that his ashes now repose, 
together with those of his connubial partner, and several relatives 
of the family. To visit this place is deemed a sort of pious or 
rather patriotic pilgrimage, which few would willingly neglect to 
make at least once in the course of their lives, should circimi- 
stances call them to the seat of government. 
The mansion in which Washington resided till his death is a 
plain edifice of wood, cut in imitation of freestone, two stories 
high, surmounted by a cupola, and ninety-six feet in length, with 
a portico in the rear, overlooking the river, extending the whole 
length of the building. The central part of this edifice was 
erected by Lawrence Washington, who named it as before men- 
tioned ; the two wings were afterward added by the general, who 
caused the ground to be planted and beautified in the most taste- 
ful manner. 
The house fronts northwest, looking on a beautiful lawn of five 
or six acres, with a serpentine walk around it, fringed with shrub- 
bery and planted with poplars. The tomb, or family vault, in 
which rest the hero's remains, is about two hundred yards south- 
west from the house, and about one hundred and fifty from the 
river bank : " A more romantic and picturesque site for a tomb," 
says a late writer, " can scarcely be imagined. Between it and 
the river Potomac is a curtain of forest-trees, covering the steep 
declivity to the water's edge, breaking the glare of the prospect, 
and yet affording glimpses of the river even when the foliage 13 . 
thickest. The tomb is surrounded by several large native oaks, 
which are venerable by their years, and which annually strew the 
sepulchre with autumnal leaves, furnishing the most appropriate 
drapery for such a place, and giving a still deeper impression to 
the me?nento mori. Interspersed among the rocks, and over- 
hanging the tomb, is a copse of red cedar; but whether native or 
transplanted is not stated. Its evergreen boughs present a fine 
contrast to the hoary and leafless branches of the oak ; and while 
the deciduous fohage of the latter indicates the decay of the 
