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removed. The cemetery is nothing more than a plain brick vault, almost level with the ground; it is encircled by venerable oaks, and some beautiful red cedars are growing in the mould which covers the roof. Visitors were formerly allowed to see the interior, but some person having had the rudeness to strip part of the cloth from the coffin, all access to it is now forbidden. Subsequently to this prohibition, the servant who had been intrusted with the key conceived the horrible idea of robbing the vault, with the purpose of carrying off the body to Britain to exhibit it for money His intention was happily discovered and the nefarious outrage prevented; it is difficult indeed to imagine how it could have been carried into effect without immediate detection, but the projector must have been a fool to imagine that such atrocity would have been countenanced in Britain, or that he would have been permitted for a single day to carry on so abominable a trade.

The State of Virginia applied to the relatives of the General for permission to remove the body to Richmond, to erect a monument over it; and it is said that notwithstanding the specific injunctions of the will, the family were persuaded to consent to this proposal. Several years however have since elapsed, and as no provision has yet been made for carrying the proposed plan into effect, it is generally believed that no claim will now be

founded upon that permission. Congress it is reported wish to transfer the body to the seat of government, and to entomb it under the centre dome of the Capitol. If it is ever removed from its present situation certainly the Capitol is its only suitable resting place; no individual State should be allowed to possess a deposite which, if the family relinquishes it, is undoubtedly the property of the nation, and should pass into no other guardianship. Beyond all question however, the proper place for Washington's ashes is where they are. The secluded spot harmonizes with every idea which we have formed of his character, while the powerful influence of local associations, gives vividness to our conceptions, and intensity to our emotions. In the Capitol every thing would have an opposite tendency. It is a building which Washington never saw, and which is no way connected with his personal history; it has once been reduced to ashes, and what would in all probability have been the fate of the body, had the removal taken place before that event? In visiting the tomb of Nelson in the vaults of St. Paul's, it is not the wondrous achievements of the hero which chiefly occupy our thoughts-there is nothing in those damp and dismal caverns which is at all in harmony with such recollections. An attendant pilots you, by the yellow glimmering of a tallow candle, through tartarean darkness to the quarry of granite under which he is buried, and while wandering

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round it, your thoughts are engrossed by the opening which was made in the floor of the church to lower the coffin through, and of the prodigious labour it must have cost to pile up over it such ponderous masses of stone-Nelson you scarcely think of, your ideas are all engaged about those who buried him. At Mount Vernon no such distraction takes place. You look round upon scenery which Washington often contemplated; you tread the turf over which he walked; you see the gardens in which he amused himself; the trees which he planted; the house, the rooms, the chair, which he occupied; and the humble vault which he himself chose for the repose of his dust. Every thing is consistent-the effect harmonious and powerful-Mount Vernon alone should be Washington's grave.

On the opposite bank of the Potowmak, and a very little way farther up, is a small intrenchment, named Fort Washington, which commands the channel of the river. Had it been vigorously fought when our vessels went up the river to Alexandria, it is believed that it might have arrested their progress. When our troops however were on their march to Washington, the officer who commanded it blew it up and made off. There was no sufficient cause for such a proceeding, yet it is said that he obeyed to the letter the orders of his superior officer. I was quite gratified to hear from a gentleman of Judge Washington's family, that

when the British ships of war passed Mount Vernon, they honoured the memory of the departed hero by lowering their fore-top-sails; and their bands, as another gentleman informed me, played Washington's March. That was indeed a manifestation of most correct and honourable feeling, on the part of the commanding officer.

I have mentioned that the avenue to Mount Vernon had a neglected appearance, I am sorry to add that similar neglect pervades other parts of the establishment. The flower garden and greenhouse have nearly gone to decay; the tea-house on the bank of the river is almost in ruins, indeed its upper story, from which a more extensive view may be obtained, is at present totally inaccessible, for the ladder to it retains but one foot at top and another at bottom. Even the door of the vault is to all appearance so crazy, that I think a kick would go far to knock it to pieces. It is painful to observe such an air of desolation, in so interesting a spot, and I would cherish the hope that it will speedily be removed.

After having spent an hour or two at Mount Vernon, Judge Washington politely invited us to accompany him to a Barbecue, which was to take place in the afternoon close by the road to Alexandria. The very term was new to me; but when explained to mean a kind of rural fête which is common in Virginia it was not difficult to persuade us to accept the invitation.

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The spot selected for this rural festivity was a very suitable one. In a fine wood of oaks by the road side we found a whole colony of black servants, who had made a lodgement since we passed it in the morning, and the blue smoke which was issuing here and there from among the branches, readily suggested that there was cooking going forward.

Alighting from my horse and tying it under the shadow of a branching tree I proceeded to explore the recesses of the wood. At the bottom of a pretty steep slope a copious spring of pure water bubbled up through the ground, and in the little glen through which it was stealing, black men, women and children, were busied with various processes of sylvan cookery. One was preparing a fowl for the spit, another feeding a crackling fire which curled up round a large pot, others were broiling pigs, lamb, and venison, over little square pits filled with the red embers of hickory wood. From this last process the entertainment takes its name. The meat to be barbecued is split open and pierced with two long slender rods, upon which it is suspended across the mouth of the pits, and turned from side to side till it is thoroughly broiled. The hickory tree gives, it is said, a much stronger heat than coals, and when completely kindled is almost without

smoke.

Leaving the busy negroes at their tasks-a scene by the way which suggested a tolerable idea of an encampment of Indians preparing for a feast after