House 10 Garden 
pleasured with the natural beauties of 
wood and river. The east lawn slopes 
away from the house in a gradual 
descent toward the river with reaches 
of greensward broken by parked tree 
masses merging into a hanging wood 
upon the acclivity of the bluffs. These 
fall away rapidly to the river shore; 
and the wood, left in its natural state, 
served to hold the soil in place upon 
the escarpment of the bluff against the 
scouring of torrential rains. A foot¬ 
note in the old map reads : 
“From the house to Maryland is a per¬ 
spective view. 'The lawn in view from 
the house is about ioo paces. From 
thence is a descent down to the river , 
about poo paces , and adorned with a 
hanging wood with shady walks." 
In the old days before the War, 
Washington followed the hounds 
among his neighbors and kept up a kennel of 
good dogs. Some of the favorites’ names, to 
be found in one of his housebooks, have a 
tuneful sporting ring to them, as: Vulcan, 
True Love, Ringwood, Sweet Lips, Singer 
and Forester, Music and Rockwood. 
Lafayette sent him a pack of French stag- 
hounds in 1785, but finding them fierce and 
troublesome, he gave them away and stocked 
his park with Virginia deer. 
THE WELL HOITSE MT. VERNON 
The level sweep of the lawn seen from 
the north end of the portico has a less 
grandiose beauty. The trio of elms grouped 
about the ice-house, the ivied wall with a 
stable of one of the “ quarters ” beyond, and 
a broad field of wheat against a dense mass 
of forest on the left combine in an effective 
bit of landscape. The west lawn, as a whole, 
is best viewed from the stone platform and 
steps at the west entrance door. Llere 
Washington set up the historical surveyor’s 
instrument and read the bearings of the 
various tree-sites as he determined them, 
having personally chosen the trees for trans¬ 
planting from the finest in his forests, as he 
rode about in the early morning over the 
estate. The plan of the shaded drives which 
flank the lawn is regular without stiffness, 
and the eye follows agreeably the flowing 
lines until they converge at the entrance 
gates. As one strolls under the dappling 
shade, these curves give an effect of changing 
views which a straight avenue lacks. From 
this approach the buildings close the per¬ 
spective in a well-balanced and very dignified 
grouping. I chose for the photograph of 
them, as giving the most effective ensemble 
of Mount Vernon, a point in the axis of the 
lawn of which the house axis is a prolonga¬ 
tion. H ere one has the mansion in elevation 
with its wings—the kitchen on the right, the 
office on the left—joined by graceful curved 
4 
