Stranica 312 [312]
OCR
THE POTOMAC AND RAPPAHANNOCK the twenty-five hundred acres he inherited from his brother, he already had inherited the paternal estate on the Rappahannock, and to those he added fifty-five hundred acres, making him one of the wealthiest planters and land-owners in Virginia, having many thousand acres of the finest land along the Rappahannock and Potomac. Mrs. Washington was, also, wealthy, having a large fortune in land and money, while her two children inherited comfortable fortunes from their father, Daniel Parke Custis. Washington's own description of his home is interesting: "A high healthy country, in a latitude between the extreme of heat and cold, on one of the finest rivers in the world, a river well stocked with various kinds of fish, at all seasons of the year, and in the spring the shad, herring, bass, carp, sturgeon, etc., in abundance. The borders of the estate are washed for more than ten miles by tidewater, several valuable fisheries appertaining to it, the whole shore, in fact, one entire fishery.” The plans and specifications for the house, the design for the grounds, the survey of the roads and gardens are all in existence, drawn by Washington’s own hand. Every measurement was calculated and indicated with an engineer’s exactness, and in every arrangement for his home, he appears to have made convenience and durability the prime objects of his planning. As this article is on the garden of Mount Vernon, and not on the house, let us join the young engineer, and imagine him with his loved dogs—True Love, Sweet Lips, Mopsy, Music, and Rover— at his heels as he steps out in an early hour before breakfast to look over his estate. On the river side is an undulating lawn, sloping gently with a slight rise at each end. On the points overlooking the river were summer-houses, resting places from which to admire the river or to watch the activities on the small wharf. Under the southeast summer-house, during Washington’s time, there was a large, dry [191]
