ARLINGTON.

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Arlington, the seat of George William Custis, Esq. is situated on one of the highest points of those rising hills which serve to adorn the city. This place was formerly the seat of Government, where hostages and prisoners of state were kept. We observed a monument, which contains the following curious inscription :

"Here lies the body of the Honourable John Custis, who died aged 77, and yet lived but seven;" alluding to the period of his life as a Virginia bachelor. Mr. Custis has been much occupied with agricultural pursuits. For several years past he has given, at his own expense, an annual fête, at which the neighbouring farmers exhibit their finest sheep and cattle, and best productions of the loom. Prizes are distributed; after which the visitors dine under a range of tents, one of which belonged to the illustrious Washington, on whose virtues he loves to dwell, when he addresses his rural guests on the subject of the institution. He complains that

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• Grandson of Washington.

no public monument records his worth :— "Say, my dear Sir, when you return to Europe, that under the pretorium of virtue, the canvas sacred to freedom, you drank in native beverage to the memory of freedom's immortal son. Say, that this relic of the revolution is preserved with hallowed reverence, and is devoted to honour the anniversary of an institution, whose objects were most dear to the heart of its departed master -the promotion of industry and independence1."

Mr. Custis relates an anecdote of an old grey-haired soldier, who, on his way from one of the northern states to Carolina, visited Mount Vernon, shortly after the death of Washington, in order to see his mansion and his tomb; and when he approached the humble mound which contains his remains, exclaimed-" If it is here my country has buried my general, where, in the name of God, would they bury me?"

Mr. Custis proposes to erect a public monument, or tomb, of the following description:

Letter to the Author.

"Upon an elevation of eighteen steps, a basis is formed, from which arise as many pillars to support an enormous stone. The steps and pillars represent the federative union of states and districts, and are to be of one piece, short and massy for the support of the stone, which, by its pressure, will close the cemetery that, within the area of the pillars, has received the body."

The late Mr. Blodget proposed to erect a national monument, by private subscription, on the plan of the Timoleonton, of Syracuse. Every American, of both sexes and every age, is invited to furnish a stone for the pile of the beloved Chief. In the centre of a fine academy is to be placed an equestrian statue of Washington. Foreigners may enrich by presents the academical institution, but procul profani-they are not permitted to contribute to the erection of the monument, the glory of which is reserved for those only who are fellow-citizens of the sage, whom Greece would have thus honoured. The trustees appointed to superintend the execution of this plan, are Bushrod Washington, John Marshal, and Benjamin Stoddard: the two first are judges of the Supreme Court of the

United States; the last was lately secretary of the navy. Mr. Custis deserves praise for the zeal with which he encourages agricultural improvements.

BLADENSBURG.

The establishment of George Calvert, Esq. at Bladensburg, attracts attention. His mansion, consisting of two stories, seventy feet in length, and thirty-six in breadth, is admirably adapted to the American climate. On each side there is a large portico, which shelters from the sun, rain, or snow. The hall is ornamented with lemon-trees, geraniums, polianthusses, heliotropes, and other plants, which, in the summer evenings, invite the humming-birds to taste of their sweetness; and afterwards struggling to escape, they fly incessantly backwards and forwards near the cieling, until from fatigue they perch on a stick or rod, when they are easily taken by the hand. In the saloon there are some fine paintings, particularly Noah's Ark, by Velvet

Breughell; the Judgment of Paris, and the portrait of Rubens, by this great master, of whom Mrs. Calvert is a relation.

Mr. Calvert is a good agriculturalist, as is evident from his plan of rotation of crops, artificial grasses, hawthorn hedges, and a fine breed of horses and cattle. His farm consists of fifteen hundred acres, for the cultivation of which thirty-six oxen and twenty-four horses and mules are employed. In winter, the former are fed on hay, and in summer on cut grass and clover: the horses and mules on maize, or corn in the ear, or rye mixed with cut straw. Neither horses nor oxen are suffered to pasture in the fields before the commencement of July. The milch cows are always housed at night. During many years, tobacco was the staple production of this district, of which a considerable quantity is still cultivated. An acre usually yields a hogshead, or a thousand pounds, which sells from six to ten dollars. Last season Mr. Calvert had a hundred and twelve hogsheads. The farmers of this district have several crops on hand, owing to the present low price, and the chance of a higher. The tobacco plant thrives well in this soil, which is a mixture