THE WASHINGTON FAMILY SEAT AND VAULT.
I recently paid a visit to the old family seat of the Washingtons,
which is sometimes said to be on Pope's Creek, and sometimes on
Bridge's Creek, near the Potomac. The farm lay between the two,
which are about a mile apart, near their junction with the Potomac.
The family mansion lies near Pope's Creek, and the vault where
the dead were deposited near Bridge's Creek. The latter appears
to have been favourable to a rich growth of cedars, and may have
been chosen for this reason. Or it may be that one of the two
brothers first settled there. The estate is still in the family, or in
the possession of one intermarried with the family. Some years
since it was owned by Mr. John Gray, of Travellers' Rest, near
Fredericksburg, who either repaired one of the outhouses or a wing
of the old one, or built a small house for his overseer out of the old
materials. The brick chimney is all that remains of the Washington
mansion,—the birthplace of General Washington,—except the
broken bricks which are scattered about over the spot where it was
built. The grandson of Mrs. General Washington, Mr. Custis, of
Arlington, some years since placed a slab with a brief inscription
on the spot, but it is now in fragments. I was happy to hear that
a bill had passed one branch of our Legislature, appropriating a sum
of money for enclosing this spot, as well as the vault in a neighbouring
field nearly a mile off. I also visited that spot, which no
one can look upon without distress and even disgust. The condition
of all such vaults as were once common in some parts of Virginia,
especially in the Northern Neck, must after the lapse of time be
necessarily thus distressing and disgusting, like the sepulchres of
old when filled "with rottenness and dead men's bones." The
vault where so many of the Washington family are interred is in an
open field and unenclosed. A small space around it is covered with
grass, briers, shrubs, and a few small trees. Itself can only be
distinguished by the top of the brick arch which rises a little above
the surface. The cavity underneath has been very properly filled
up with earth by Mr. Laurence Washington, one of its late proprietors,
to prevent the bones of the dead being taken away by visitors,
who had begun thus to pillage it. Not far from the vault there was
a large slab lying on the ground, with the name of one of the family
and two of his children. There were also fragments of another.
It is to be hoped that the Legislature will resolve on putting a
permanent enclosure around this also.
