THE PRESIDENTS’ GARDENS 135 
repairs to the steps, “which (like most things else I 
have looked into since I have been at home) are sadly 
out of repair.” Or again in the fall of that same year, 
in apology for not answering a letter sooner: “an eight 
years’ absence from home (excepting short occasional 
visits) had so deranged my private affairs;—had so 
despoiled my buildings;—and in a word had thrown 
my domestic concerns into so much disorder, as at no 
period of my life have I been more engaged than in 
the last six months, to recover and put them into some 
tolerable trim again.” 
Twice he went through this experience, though the 
first time it was hardly as trying as the second; for 
the first return to Mount Vernon, after he had re¬ 
signed his commission at the close of the war, was to 
the old and, to a degree, undeveloped, estate. From 
1783 until he was called to be President six years later, 
were the years which saw the real creation of Wash¬ 
ington’s Mount Vernon. During this time it was that 
he made plans, drew specifications and personally 
directed the work on new buildings, the alterations to 
old, and the improvements in the grounds, and con¬ 
struction of the gardens. The barn which Brissot 
writes of as just completed, was a part of this general 
work; and when he left the second time there was 
much that was trim and new and the old work was in 
perfect order. 
