As may be supposed, this interesting building is filled with relics.
The most valuable of all of them hangs on the wall of the central
hall, in a small glass case shaped like a lantern--the Key of the
Bastille--which was sent to Washington, as a gift from Lafayette,
shortly after the destruction of the noted prison in 1789. This is the
key of the main entrance, the Porte St. Antoine, an old iron key with
a large handle of peculiar form. This gift was always highly prized at
Mount Vernon, and in sending it Lafayette wrote: "It is a tribute
which I owe as a son to my adopted father; as an aide-de-camp to my
general; as a missionary of liberty to its patriarch." The key was
confided to Thomas Paine for transmission, and he sent it together
with a model and drawing of the Bastille. In sending it to Washington
Paine said: "That the principles of America opened the Bastille is not
to be doubted, and therefore the key comes to the right place." The
model, which was cut from the granite stones of the demolished prison,
and the drawing, giving a plan of the interior and its approaches, are
also carefully preserved in the house.
The Washington relics are profuse--portraits, busts, old furniture,
swords, pistols and other weapons, camp equipage, uniforms, clothing,
books, autographs and musical instruments, including the old
harpsichord which President Washington bought for two hundred pounds
in London, as a bridal present for his wife's daughter, Eleanor Parke
Custis, whom he adopted. There is also an old armchair which the
Pilgrims brought over in the "Mayflower" in 1620. Each apartment in
the house is named for a State, and cared for by one of the
Lady-Regents of the Association. In the banquet-hall, which is one of
the wings Washington added, is an elaborately-carved Carrara marble
mantel, which was sent him at the time of building by an English
admirer, Samuel Vaughan. It was shipped from Italy, and the tale is
told that on the voyage it fell into the hands of pirates, who,
hearing it was to go to the great American Washington, sent it along
without ransom and uninjured. Rembrandt Peale's equestrian portrait of
Washington with his generals covers almost the entire end of this
hall. Here also is hung the original proof-sheet of Washington's
Farewell Address. Up stairs is the room where Washington died; the bed
on which he expired and every article of furniture are preserved,
including his secretary and writing-case, toilet-boxes and
dressing-stand. Just above this chamber, under the peaked roof, is the
room in which Mrs. Washington died. Not wishing to occupy the lower
room, after his death, she selected this one, because its dormer
window gave a view of his tomb. The ladies who have taken charge of
the place deserve great credit for their complete restoration; they
hold the annual meeting of the Association in the mansion every May.
As the visitor walks through the old house and about the grounds,
solemn and impressive thoughts arise that are appropriate to this
great American shrine. From the little wooden cupola there is seen the
same view over the broad Potomac upon which Washington so often
gazed. The noble river, two miles wide, seems almost to surround the
estate with its majestic curve, flowing between the densely-wooded
shores. Above Mount Vernon is a projecting bluff, which Fort
Washington surmounts on the opposite shore--a stone work which he
planned--hardly seeming four miles off, it is so closely visible
across the water. In front are the Maryland hills, and the river then
flows to the southward, its broad and winding reaches being seen afar
off, as the southern shores slope upward into the forest-covered hills
of the sacred soil of the proud State of Virginia. And then the
constantly broadening estuary of the grand Potomac stretches for more
than a hundred miles, far beyond the distant horizon, until it becomes
a wide inland sea and unites its waters at Point Lookout with those of
Chesapeake Bay.