"Monticello is quite a high mountain, in the shape of a sugar-loaf. A winding road led up to the mansion. On the very top of the mountain the forest trees were cut down, and ten acres were cleared and levelled.... I know every room in that house. Under the house and the terrace that surrounded it, were the cisterns, ice-house, cellar, kitchen, and rooms for all sorts of purposes. His servants' rooms were on one side.... There were no negro and other out-houses around the mansion, as you generally see on plantations. The grounds around the house were beautifully ornamented with flowers and shrubbery.... Back of the house was a beautiful lawn of two or three acres, where his grandchildren used to play. "His garden was on the side of the mountain. I had it built while he was President. It took a great deal of labor. We had to blow out the rocks for the walls for the different terraces, and then make the soil.... I used to send a servant to Washington with a great many fine things for his table, and he would send back the cart loaded with shrubbery." Jefferson spent most of his time on his estate until his death in 1826, except when he was called away for the service of his country. Nine years after the beginning of the happy married life in Monticello there was a panic among the servants because of the approach of the British. Because Jefferson was Governor of Virginia, it was thought that of course the mansion would be pillaged. Mrs. Jefferson was put in the carriage and sent to a place of safety, while Mr. Jefferson remained at home, collecting his most valuable papers. Later he followed his family. But when the soldiers reached the estate, the first inquiry of the leader of the party was for the master of the house. When he learned that Jefferson had escaped, he asked for the owner's private rooms, and, on being shown the door which led to them, he turned the key in the lock and ordered that nothing in the house should be touched. This, it was explained, was in strict accordance with the orders that had been given by General Tarleton; their sole duty was to seize the Governor. A year later, when the Marquis de Chastellux, a nobleman from France, visited Monticello, he was charmed with the house of which Mr. Jefferson was the architect, and often one of the workmen. He said it was "rather elegant, and in the Italian taste, though not without fault; it consists of one large square pavilion, the entrance of which is by two porticoes, ornamented with pillars. The ground floor consists of a very large lofty saloon, which is to be decorated entirely in the antique style; above it is a library of the same size; two small wings, with only a ground floor and attic story, are joined to this pavilion, and communicate with the kitchen, offices, etc., which will form a kind of basement story, over which runs a terrace."