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Patience on a monument, whilst they are delineating the lines of my face.

"It is a proof among many others of what habit and custom can effect. At first I was as impatient at the request, and as restive under the operation, as a colt is of the saddle. The next time I submitted very reluctantly, but with less flouncing. Now no dray moves more readily to the thill than I do to the painter's chair. It may easily be conceived, therefore, that I yielded a ready obedience to your request, and to the views of Mr. Pine.

"Letters from England, recommendatory of this gentleman, came to my hand previous to his arrival in America, not only as an artist of acknowledged eminence, but as one who had discovered a friendly disposition toward this country, for which it seems he had been marked.”

While at Mount Vernon Pine painted the portraits of two of Mrs. Washington's grandchildren. These were Elizabeth Parke Custis, then about nine years of age, who afterward married Mr. Law, a wealthy English gentleman; and George Washington Parke Custis, the last survivor of his family, who died at Arlington House, on the Potomac, in the autumn of 1857. The pictures are exquisitely painted, and, like all of Pine's productions, the colors retain their original vividness.

Elizabeth is represented as a beautiful girl, with rich brown hair lying in careless curls, and in great profusion, upon her head and neck, her bosom covered with very light drapery, and having lying upon it the miniature of her father, John Parke Custis (printed on page 84 of this volume), suspended by a ribbon around her neck

ELIZABETH PARKE CUSTIS.

The brother was then between four and five years of age. He is represented as a fair-haired child, with loose summer garments, and carrying in his hand a branch with two or three leaves upon it. These pictures now occupy a conspicuous place upon the walls of the drawing-room at Arlington House.

Pine's grand design was never carried out. He died four or five years after his visit to Mount Vernon, and his family returned to England. The portraits which he had painted were sold and scattered. That of Washington was afterward found in Montreal, and purchased by the late Henry Brevoort, of Bedford, Long Island, and is now in possession of his son, J. Carson Brevoort.

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A few weeks after Pine left Mount Vernon, and while the plasterers were at work ornamenting the ceiling of the great drawing-room of the mansion, then just completed, there was an arrival at the home of Washington of an extraordinary character. It was a pack of French hounds, sent to him by Lafayette. On the 1st of September Washington wrote to the marquis, saying: "The hounds which you were so obliging as to send, arrived safe, and are of promising appearance. To Monsieur le Comte Doilliamson (if I miscall him, your handwriting is to blame, and in honor you are bound to rectify the error), and in an especial manner to his fair Comtesse, my thanks are due for this favor. The enclosed letter, which I

give you the trouble of forwarding, contains my acknowledg ment of their obliging attention to me on this occasion."

While Washington thanked Lafayette and his friends for their kindly offices, he certainly did not feel specially thankful for the hounds. During the war, his hunting establishment, which had been perfect, had been almost broken up, and he felt no disposition to renew it. His kennel, which was situated very near the site of the present tomb of Washington, was quite dilapidated; and the paling which enclosed it and a fine spring of water, had almost disappeared. Vulcan and Truelove, Ringwood and Sweetlips, Singer and Forester, Music and Rockwood-hounds of note on the master's register when he left Mount Vernon for the senate-were missing or were too old for service when he returned, and for only about three years afterward did he keep any hounds at all. Those sent by Lafayette were of great size and strength. Because of their fierce disposition they were kept closely confined; and, a few months after their arrival, Washington broke up his kennel, gave away his hounds, bade adieu to the chase forever, and, for his amusement, formed a fine deer-park below the mansion, upon a beautiful slope extending to the river.

The late Mr. Custis has left on record the following anecdote: "Of the French hounds, there was one named Vulcan, and we bear him the better in reminiscence, from having often bestrid his ample back in the days of our juvenility. It happened that upon a large company sitting down to dinner at Mount Vernon one day, the lady of the mansion (my grandmother) discovered that the ham, the pride of every Virginia housewife's table, was missing from its accustomed post of honor. Upon questioning Frank, the butler, this portly, and

at the same time the most polite and accomplished of all butlers, observed that a ham, yes, a very fine ham, had been prepared, agreeably to the Madam's orders, but lo and behold! who should come into the kitchen, while the savory ham was smoking in its dish, but old Vulcan the hound, and without more ado fastened his fangs into it; and although they of the kitchen had stood to such arms as they could get, and had fought the old spoiler desperately, yet Vulcan had finally triumphed, and bore off the prize, aye, 'cleanly, under the keeper's nose.' The lady by no means relished the loss of a dish which formed the pride of her table, and uttered some remarks by no means favorable to old Vulcan, or indeed to dogs in general; while the Chief, having heard the story, communicated it to his guests, and, with them, laughed heartily at the exploit of the stag-hound."

Almost simultaneously with the arrival of the French hounds, came a magnificent present from Samuel Vaughan, a wealthy resident of London, who had conceived a passionate admiration for the character of Washington. The object presented was a very beautiful chimney-piece, wrought in Italy, from the finest white and Sienite marbles, for Mr. Vaughan's own use. At the time of its arrival in England that gentleman was informed of the improvements in the mansion then in progress at Mount Vernon, and, without unpacking it, he sent it directly to Washington. It is exquisitely wrought in every part. Upon three tablets of the frieze, under the highly ornamented mantel, are sculptured, in very high relief, in white marble, pleasant domestic scenes in agricultural life. Upon the centre tablet, which is the largest, is an evening scene. A husbandman, with his wife and little child, is returning from the

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