Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-02-16
BY EDWIN MELVIN WILLIAMS.

ID Elm lin MELFIN WILLIAMS.
~HE understandable charm of Mount
Vernon draws us very close to the
real Washington to the great
patriot in whom courtly dignity was
natural AS a Soldier Gen. WASH
tngton may not have been the equal of Napo-
leon, or of the Iron Duke, victor at Waterloo;
as statesman President Washington may not
have outstood even In his own generation; but
in that supreme quality which, Of all Others
we would hope to see in those we love, George
Washington was not lacking-he was gentle
man. Delightful evidences Of this are before
our eyes wherever we may look when in his
home
Our finer feelings respond to the exquisite
serenity of Mount Vernon, just nobility Of
thought came uppermost In Americans of Revo-
1utionary days when In the presence of him
whom they loved to think of as The Father Of
His Country"
This, is the understandable something that
makes Mount Vernon the most precious heir
loom Of the American people, AS Owen Wister
testified, Of his own reaction when he visited
Mount Vernon: Everything, every subject,
every corner and STEP seems to bring him close.
It is an exquisite and friendly serenity which
bathes ones sense, that seems to be charged all
through with some meaning or message Of
benefcence and reinsurance, but nothing that
could be put In words Turn into his garden,
and look at the walls and walks he planned,
the box hedges the trees, the flower beds, the
great order and the great sweetness everywhere.
You may spend an hour, you may spend day,
wandering, sitting, feeling this gentle power OF
the place: you may come back another time it
meets you,. you cannot disrel 1t by familiarity.
And as you think of this you bless the devo-
ton OF those whose piety and care treasure the
place and keep it sacred and beautiful"
THE history Of this beautiful estate, Mount
Vernon, begins in the middle of the seven.
I0aGf IN -
the Washington family with it, for 1t was in
1874 that Lord Culpeper granted to John WASH
1ngton and another 5000 acres Of land on the
west bank Of the Potomac River, about is miles
below what is now the District Of Columbia.
Inc said John Washington was the son Of
Lawrence Washington, M. A. who had been q
proctor at Oxford University and later the
rector Of Purleigh Essex County, England. The
Washington family was of the gentilty two Of
the uncles Of John being of knightlly rank
during the reign of Charles I, one Of them
marrying half-Sister of the famous, or In
famous, Duke Of Buckingham favorite of
James and Charles I, and destined to drag
down in his fatal career the throne Of the
Stuarts" " also, incidentally and unintentionally,
to people New England with Puritans. Again,
John washington, the American progenitor
was great-grandson of John Washington who
was granted the manor of Sulgrave in North
amptonshire IN 1888. So it is apparent that
the WashingtOns Of America were of gentle
blood During the Cromwellian period the
WaShingtons were Cavaliers and as such suf-
fered in their estates
IN 1857 or 1858 John Washington and his
brother Lawrence crossed the Atlantic to Viz
g1nia' whittier so many Royalists had gone.
John tarried at the landing port Popes Greek
In Westmoreland County and married Ann
Pope. With Nicholas Spencer, he bought the
5,OOO-acre tract before mentioned and built
his home (now known as Wakefeld) at Bridges
Greek, about a mile from the Pope home He
nFvian afv1ck he
and held the rank Of colonel. He lived the life
OF gentleman planter for 20 years death
coming in 1877. His son Lawrence was the
grandfather Of the illustrious George,
Augustine, son of Lawrence married twice
and at his death, in 1743, left a widow and
seven children. There had been three other
children, four to the first marriage and six
to the second. Lawrence, first-born of Angus
tine by his first wife, Jane Butler, inherited
the estate soon to be known as. Mount Vernon
George, first Of the five surviving children born
to Augustine by his second wife Mary Ball
inherited an estate in Stafford County, Virginia
nearly opposite Fredericksburg in which estate
however, ms mother had an administrative in
terest during his minority, as indeed she had
In the estates Of her other children
GEORGE was born on February %. 1882 (ac-
cord1ng TO the SO-called new style of calen-
der) on his fathers plantation at Bridges
Greek, IN the parish Of Washington (now
Wakefield). Westmoreland County, Va In a
Bible which belonged to his mother is an
entry which, in part, reads:
George Washington, son of Angus
tine and Mary, his wife, was born We
nth day Of February. 1881, about ten
In the morning. :"
In the next year his father built brick
barn on his Hunting Greek mount Vernon)
property, and in 1855, or little earlier, seems
TO have erected dwelling house also, for the
record shows that George Washington lived a