The Gardens and Grounds of Mt. Vernon , Va. 
arcades to the main building in a very agree¬ 
able symmetry. 
Upon the map one remarks that the plan 
of this lawn and avenues has somewhat the 
outline ot a bell. As the gravel ways con¬ 
verge to the oval which they describe before 
the house, on a diameter equal to the full 
length ot the front, there is a heavier massing 
ot trees upon their shoulders, meant to screen 
the outbuildings which the lay of the ground 
and other practical considerations bring into 
ness, and there is a fine sweep of the Potomac 
visible over the further treetops. Beyond, 
the road dives down through groves to the 
river landing. 
I had intended keeping out of this paper 
matters of history with which everyone is 
assumed to be familiar, but the master is 
so closely associated with his home—this 
precious monument we have of him so 
fortunately preserved to us—that a few words 
about his relations to it seem unavoidable. 
THE SOUTH END OK THE HOUSE MT. VERNON 
this location. A glimpse along down the front 
of those on the right of the road descending 
to the stables is full of interest. The store¬ 
house faces the gable of the kitchen, and 
then come the smoke-house, the wash-house, 
and the coach house, in this order. The 
ramp of the well-built road with its cobbled 
gutters, the grass border against the little 
houses, and the pyramidally clipped box 
hedges between them are of a pleasing quaint- 
Mount Vernon is rather a modest house, 
as compared with some of the great places 
ot Colonial Virginia, such as Westover and 
Shirley for instance, but it has all the appoint¬ 
ments and the finished elegance of the house 
of a gentleman of the times. Washington 
inherited the estate from his half-brother 
Lawrence in 1751, the property having come 
to Lawrence, the older brother, by the death 
of their father, Augustine, in 1743. It was 
464 
