The Gardens and Grounds of Mt. Vernon, Va. 
maining during the session,—Washington, 
barring occasional visits to Annapolis and 
Alexandria, was with his household at Mount 
Vernon looking after his productive farms. 
He had over four thousand acres under culti¬ 
vation. Wheat and tobacco were the staples 
which he shipped from his own wharf to 
Belvoir and Gunston Hall. All these mat¬ 
ters we have mostly from the accounts and 
diaries of Washington himself, which cover 
a period of forty years, and they are interest¬ 
ing here as showing the personal habits and 
tastes of the man who made this beautiful 
old place, so characteristic of his dignity, his 
ire 
-A 
1 
■■§§ 
J 1 
A CORNER OF THE KITCHEN-GARDEN 
MT. VERNON 
England and the West Indies. His brand 
of flour was well known. 
He had brought out new furniture, and 
clothes and books at various times, from 
England. We have description of a couple 
of very handsome coaches which he imported. 
He kept good horses and dogs, and drove 
with the family in a coach and four, with 
negro postilions in livery, to Pohick Church 
of a Sunday. He had his barge on the river 
manned by negro boatmen in his colors. 
Altogether, he maintained a state equal to 
that of his neighbors Fairfax and Mason at 
modesty, his sense of fitness, and eminent 
practicality. If one has studied Washington 
understandingly the place speaks of him at 
every turn, so strong is the impress of his 
great personality upon the home he made 
with his own brain and hand. 
After the resignation of his commission to 
the Congress in 1783 he again retired to 
Mount Vernon, and there soon found the old 
house inadequate for the entertainment of 
visitors who flocked about him. Deciding 
upon enlargement, he set about making plans 
for the alteration of the buildings, and for 
468 
