American Scenery, Vol. 2 (of 2): or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic nature — John Shaqi
American Scenery, Vol. 2 (of 2): or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic natureWillis, Nathaniel Parker
General
American Scenery, Vol. 2 (of 2): or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic nature
Willis, Nathaniel Parker
United States -- Description and travel
The house contains on the ground floor, six rooms, and a spacious
passage: four of these are of the ordinary size. At the north-east is a
large room, with a handsomely sculptured ceiling, which contains a
marble mantel-piece, sent to General Washington from Italy, and a very
fine organ, on which instrument Mrs. Washington was an accomplished
performer. The room at the south-east end of the house is used as a
family dining-room, and contains busts of Necker, Paul Jones, and
General Washington; also a handsome library, fitted in the wall, with
glass cases. The books were chiefly collected by General Washington.
The house fronts north-west, the rear looking to the river. In front of
the house is a lawn, containing five or six acres of ground, with a
serpentine walk around it, fringed with shrubbery, and planted with
poplars. On each side of the lawn stands a garden; the one on the right
is a flower-garden, and contains two green-houses, (one built by General
Washington, the other by Judge Washington,) a hothouse, and a pinery. It
is laid out in handsome walks, with boxwood borders, remarkable for
their beauty. It contains also a quantity of fig-trees, producing
excellent fruit. The other is a kitchen-garden, containing only fruit
and vegetables.
About two hundred yards from the house, in a southerly direction, stands
a summer-house, on the edge of the river-bank, which is here lofty and
sloping, and clothed with wood to the water’s edge. The summer-house
commands a fine prospect of the river and the Maryland shore; also of
the White House, at a distance of five or six miles down the river,
where an engagement took place with the British vessels which ascended
the river during the last war.
The estate, as owned by Judge Washington, consisted of between three and
four thousand acres, since divided between his nephews. The timber of
the woods, in which the fallow deer once abounded, is composed of white
and black oak, with dog-wood, hickory, ash, cedar, &c. The soil is thin
and rather poor, cultivated chiefly in Indian corn, rye, barley, &c.
There are two fisheries on the place, where shad and herring are caught
in large quantities. Mount Vernon is healthy during all the year except
the autumn, when bilious fevers and agues prevail.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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