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preme court room, is supported by doric columns, whose shafts 
are of pudding-stone. The gallery above the principal dome, af¬ 
fords a very extensive view. The principal avenues of the city, 
which is to be built, all depart from this point, and this view re¬ 
calls the situation of the castle at Carlsruhe, with this difference, 
that here no wood, and but few houses are seen. 
With the families de Mareuil, St. Andr6, Huygens, and all the 
French legation, we made an excursion by water to Mount Ver¬ 
non, the country-seat of the great Washington. Mount Vernon 
is situated sixteen miles from the capitol, and on the right bank 
of the Potomac, in the state of Virginia. We hired a steam-boat 
for the purpose, on board of which we went at half past ten 
o’clock, at Georgetown. We went across the long bridge through 
an opening of a double drawbridge, and steered down the Po¬ 
tomac. Washington remaining on our left, had a very handsome 
appearance from the water, and especially the cape, named Green- 
leaf’s point, situated at the junction of the east branch with the 
Potomac, which is fortified, and contains very spacious store¬ 
houses. Eight miles below Washington, we stopped at the city 
of Alexandria, lying on the right bank of this river, in order to 
obtain a boat for landing at Mount Vernon. Alexandria is one 
of the three cities of the district of Columbia, which are Wash¬ 
ington, Georgetown, and Alexandria. This town is said to have 
a considerable commerce; it has a harbour with wooden wharves, 
near which I saw several schooners lying, and also two brigs. It 
is said to contain about eight thousand inhabitants. The streets 
are long and very straight, crossing each other at right angles! 
After a stay of twenty minutes, we continued our course. Both 
banks are hilly, in some places rocky; there is a great deal of 
gravel, and they are covered with wood. At a winding of the 
stream we passed by Fort Washington, recently built upon a rock 
on the left bank, commanding the stream with its batteries. In 
an oblique direction on the opposite shore, we at last perceived 
Mount Vernon, beautifully situated. The water near the banks 
being very low, the steam-boat stopped in the middle of the 
stream, about a mile from the shore, and we landed in boats. We 
ascended by a very bad road to a place where cattle were graz¬ 
ing, which I heard was formerly Washington’s garden. Between 
three oaks and some cypress trees, we saw a coarse wooden door 
about four feet high, in a very bad piece of masonry. I thought 
at first it was a spring-house. How great was my astonishment, 
when I learned that this was the entrance to the sepulchral vault 
of the greatest man of his time; the ornament of his age; of 
Washington! 
1 picked up some acorns fallen from the trees which shaded 
the tomb; my object was to plant them when I returned home. 
