flower-garden, I saw one other plant-and only one-that had experienced the fostering care of Washington. It was a Sago Palm, an East India production, from which is obtained the article of domestic use known as pearl sago, a species of fecula or starch. It stands in a large tub in which flowers were blooming; and its tufted leaves, like immense feathers, growing from the heavy stem seven feet from the ground, were fresh and beautiful.

The Lemon Tree, the Century Plant, and the Sago Palm, are all that remain of the movable plants which belonged to Washington, and were taken from the green-house when it

was destroyed by fire in December, 1835, the same night when the destructive element consumed more than five hundred buildings and other property valued at more than twenty millions of dollars, in the city of New York. The fire originated in a defective flue connected with the conservatory, and

that building, with the servants' quarters adjoining it, was laid in ashes in the course of a few hours. What plants were saved from the flames were mostly destroyed by the frost, for it was one of the coldest nights on record.

The conservatory was never rebuilt nor the ruins removed. These, now overgrown with vines and shrubs, form a picturesque garden wall, but lose some of their attractiveness to the eye of taste, by the presence of two tall, perpendicular chimneys, which are seen above the shrubbery from every point of view in the garden. These broken walls, too, strike the visitor unpleasantly. They are at the modern carriage

entrance to Mount Vernon, and are the first objects associated with Washington that meet the eye on approaching the mansion from the public road

Eastward of the flower-garden, and on the opposite side of the present entrance to Mount Vernon, Washington constructed an ice-house, after his retirement from public life, at the close of his presidency. It was som thing new in Virginia; indeed, ice-houses were not in very common use elsewhere at that time. It is well preserved, and is finely shaded by tall trees, which form a beautiful grove on the north side of the mansion.

Previous to the erection of this ice-house, Washington had used, for the purpose of keeping meat, butter, and vegetables cool in summer, a large dry-well at the south-east corner of the lawn in front of the mansion, just on the brink of the high precipitous bank of the river. Into this a descent was made

by a flight of steps, and over it he erected an elegant summerhouse, with a spire and iron vane in the form of a crescent. The well and the summer-house are there, but a part of the walls of the former have fallen in. From the summer-house fire views

of the Potomac may be obtained, but as the staircase leading to it has nearly rotted away, there is difficulty and some danger in climbing up into it over the chasm formed by the caving in of the side of the well. It was from that summer-house that the sketch was made of the mansion, out-buildings, and lawn, with the visitors, as they appear in the frontispiece to this volume.

I have before me a manuscript memorandum from the hand of Washington, in which he notes, in minute detail, the distances and directions in feet and inches, and by points of compass, of various objects, such as the garden-houses, the dial-post, and the dry-well, from the "front door of the mansion." It is interesting, as showing the extreme minuteness and accuracy with which Washington kept a record of all his operations, and might serve those who are about to restore Mount Vernon to its original form and perfection, as an indicator of points now lost through neglect and decay.

During the spring and summer of 1784, visitors flocked to Mount Vernon in great numbers. Many of the companions in arms of the beloved chief, of all grades, from general officers to private soldiers, went there to pay their respects, and enjoy once again sweet intercourse with him under whom they had always delighted to serve.

At length one came who was specially a man after Washington's own heart-a young man whom he loved as a son or a younger brother. He had been a friend to the Americans in their struggle for freedom, and was a friend of mankind. That visitor was the Marquis de Lafayette, a distinguished scion of an ancient noble family, who, in the summer of 1776, while at the table of the commandant of Mentz, in Germany, with other French officers, heard the Duke of Glouces ter, brother to the King of England, speak of the Declaration of Independence just put forth by the Anglo-American colonies, and of the strong measures adopted by the British ministry to crush the rising rebellion. The marquis was then just past eighteen years of age, slender in form, and a boy in personal appearance. But the heart of a patriot and hero beat