Fayette; many valuable and rare plants also adorned it. The road passing through this place west of the mansion, leading from Lancaster turnpike to Schuylkill Falls, was called Monument road, on account of a monument about twenty-five feet high erected alongside of it before 1808; its object is the subject of various traditions, but is really unknown. RELICS OF WASHINGTON. The IN many of the books of Washington in his library he had inserted his book-plate. It displayed the name and armorial bearings of the owner. The family arms were " Argent, two bars gules in chief, three mullets of the second. Crest, a raven, with wings, indorsed proper, issuing out of a ducal coronet, or." It will be seen by the illustration the shield was white or silver, with two red bars across it, and above them three spur-rowels, the combination appearing like the stripes and stars on our national ensign. The crest was a raven of natural color issuing out of a ducal golden coronet. The three mullets or starfigures indicated the filial distinction of the third son. motto was Exitus acta probat-"The end justifies the means." The library was large for the time, and contained the best books and best editions of the day, but mostly of a solid, practical character, principally on history, agriculture, law, travels, dictionaries, military science, pamphlets, maps and charts, etc. It became the property of John A. Washington, who was on the staff of General Robert E. Lee, and who perished at an early period of the late civil war. His wife being dead, the books were scattered among their heirs. A portion of them was sold by one of the heirs through M. Thomas & Son at auction Nov. 28, 1876. The sale, possessing extraordinary interest for book-collectors, as well as lovers of relics and of the Father of his Country, brought bidders from all parts of the country. The books sold comparatively low, though of course bringing much higher prices than the same books ordinarily would. We were fortunate to secure four volumes containing notes and comments in the clear, bold hand of their former and illustrious owner. When Washington went to New York as President, he took Mr. McComb's house, lately occupied by the French minister, and purchased part of the latter's furniture. Among the articles he obtained a writing-desk, or secretary, and also an easy-chair that was used with it. He finally took them to Mount Vernon, and in his will left them thus: "To my companion-in-arms and old and intimate friend, Dr. Craik, I give my bureau (or, as cabinet-makers call it, tambour secretary) and the circular chair, an appendage of my study." They are now in possession of a grandson of Dr. Craik, the Rev. James Craik of Louisville, Ky. The illustrations of seals are from his seal-ring, which bore his family arms and motto, and from two watch-seals which he wore together in early life. Upon each of the last two is engraved his monogram, one of them being a fac-simile of his written initials. One of these was lost by Washington himself on the bloody field of Monongahela, where Braddock was defeated in 1755, and the other by his nephew in Virginia more than thirty-five years ago. Both were found in the year 1854, and restored to the Washington family! Washington's watch was one he ordered from Lepine, “watchmaker to the king." It was smaller and flatter than, and not so bulky as, the old-fashioned English watch. He carried it, with his seal and key, both of carnelian, attached to a ribbon. The dial is of white enamel, the seconds figures carmine red; the case is of gold alloyed with copper, giving it the red appearance of jeweller's gold. The watch, with the key and seals, became the property of Bushrod Washington, the general's nephew, and was willed by him to Robert Adams of Philadelphia, and at his death to Bushrod Adams. On March 23, 1830, it was forwarded to Mr. Adams by John A. Washington, who inherited Mount Vernon from his uncle Bushrod. It is now in the possession of Bushrod Washington Adams of Philadelphia, and is preserved with the greatest care. Washington carried with him to Mount Vernon a pair of elegant pistols, which, with equally elegant holsters, had been presented to him by the Count de Moustier, the French minister, as a token of personal regard. These weapons, it is believed, are the ones presented by Washington to Colonel Samuel Hay of the Tenth Pennsylvania regiment, who stood high in the esteem of his general. They bear the well-known cipher of the general, and were purchased at the sale of Colonel Hay's effects after his death, in November, 1803, by John Y. Baldwin of Newark, N. J. His son, J. O. Baldwin, presented one of them to Isaac I. Greenwood of New York in 1825, in whose possession it remained, the other having been lost on the occasion of a fire which destroyed the residence of his mother. On Christmas Eve, 1783, Washington, a private citizen, arrived at Mount Vernon, and laid aside for ever his military clothes and sword. That sword, with Franklin's staff, now stands in a glass case in the Patent Office. This sword he had worn throughout all the later years of the war, and it was doubtless used by him in the old French war, for upon a silver plate attached to it is engraved "1757." It hung at Mount Vernon for almost twenty years. It is a kind of hanger, encased in a black leather scabbard with silver mountings. The handle is ivory, colored a pale green and wound with silver wire in spiral grooves. It was manu |