After their marriage, they resided at Mount Vernon, which Washington had lately inherited from his half-brother. The two Custis children resided with them, their estates being carefully looked after by Colonel Washington. John Parke Custis married a member of the Calvert family of Maryland. He was present at the siege of Yorktown as aide-decamp to his step-father, but died shortly after, leaving two childrenGeorge Washington Parke Custis and Nelly Custis. They were formally adopted by Washington, but always retained their family name. Nelly Custis grew up to be a most beautiful woman. She married Major Lawrence Lewis, of Virginia. Her brother, on reaching his majority, took possession of Arlington, vastly increased in value through the prudent care of Washington. He immediately began the erection of the present mansion, desiring a house in keeping with his great estate. It presents a fine appearance, its pillared front looming up grandly from the summit of the hill. Arlington House consists of a central building sixty feet long, with a portico of eight Ionic columns, modelled after the celebrated temple at Pæstum, near Naples. There are two wings, each forty feet long, giving an entire frontage of one hundred and forty feet. In the rear are the slave quarters, kitchens, stables, etc. It is constructed of brick, covered with stucco. George Washington Parke Custis married Mary Lee Fitzhugh, whose mother was a Randolph. Of his four children, all girls, but one survived infancy. Custis lived at Mount Vernon until his death, in 1857. As the adopted son of Washington, he was always held in affectionate esteem by his countrymen. His only surviving child, Mary Randolph Custis, married, in 1832, the playmate of her childish years, Lieutenant Robert Edward Lee, the youngest child of Governor Henry Lee, the intimate friend and eulogist of Washington. The married pair lived an ideally happy life at Arlington until the outbreak of the Civil War. When removed, but were left in charge of the servants; and when, shortly after, the house was seized by the Federal troops, the relics were all confiscated and are now in the National Museum at Washington. As the estate was entailed on the eldest son of Mrs. Lee, it could not be confiscated, but was sold for arrears of taxes and purchased by the Government for $26,800, in 1864. The sale was subsequently set aside as illegal by the Supreme Court of the United States, and the property was decided to belong to the heir, George Washington Custis Lee. As a military cemetery had been established there since 1864, Mr. Lee proposed a compromise with the Government, and transferred to it all his right and title to the estate for the sum of $150,000. The portion of Arlington set apart for the Cemetery, comprising about two hundred acres, borders on the Georgetown and Alexandria road. The grounds are surrounded by a low wall. The many magnificent oaks, some of them two hundred years old, and the rich lawns, studded with beds of gleaming flowers, and intersected by the carefully kept paths and drives, present a scene of surpassing beauty. At the main entrance is a marble arch adorned with lofty columns taken from the old War Department building. On three of them are the names of Scott, Lincoln, and Stanton. The portion of the Cemetery lying west of the house is devoted to the white soldiers, that on the northern side is allotted to the black soldiers. TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN DEAD. In front of the house is the tomb of General Philip H. Sheridan. The thousands of plain white headstones, stretching far away into the distance, form a most impressive sight. Contrary to the usual custom in cemeteries, the ground is perfectly flat, none of the ordinary mounds over the graves being seen. South of the mansion is a large granite monument, over a vault in which lie the remains of the "Unknown Dead." It is surrounded by cannon and piles of shot, and bears the following inscription: BENEATH THIS STONE REPOSE THE BONES OF TWO THOUSAND ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN UNKNOWN SOLDIERS FROM THE FIELDS OF BULL RUN AND THE ROUTE TO THE RAPPAHANNOCK. SEPTEMBER, A. D. 1866. The total number of bodies interred in the Cemetery is over sixteen thousand, nearly one thousand more than are at Gettysburg. In the mansion are books in which are kept careful records of the name and description of every soldier who was known, together with the date of his death and the position of his grave. Large iron frames on the borders of the burial-fields contain selections from the beautiful poem by Colonel Theodore O'Hara, read at the dedication of the Soldiers' Monument at Frankfort, Kentucky. O'Hara fought in both the Mexican and Civil Wars. He was a journalist as well as a poet, and was for some time editor of the Mobile Register. He died at Columbus, Georgia, in 1867. The poem, entitled "The Bivouac of the Dead," is as follows: "The muffled drum's sad roll has beat The soldier's last tattoo! No more on life's parade shall meet And glory guards with solemn round "No rumor of the foe's advance Now swells upon the wind, Nor troubled thought at midnight haunts Of loved ones left behind. No vision of the morrow's strife The warrior's dream alarms, No braying horn, no screaming fife "The neighing troop, the flashing blade, The charge, the dreadful cannonade, Nor war's wild notes, nor glory's peal Those breasts that never more may feel "Rest on, embalmed and sainted dead! Nor shall your glory be forgot While Fame her record keeps, Or Honor points the hallowed spot In the eastern grounds of the west cemetery are the tombs of George Washington Parke Custis and his wife, bearing their names and the dates of their deaths. A short distance north-west of Arlington is Fort Myer. It was constructed during the Civil War for the defence of Washington, and is the only one remaining of the great circle of fortifications. It is now used as a cavalry station. ALEXANDRIA. The city of Alexandria lies on the Virginia side of the Potomac, about six miles below Washington. It was founded in 1748, under the name of Belhaven, and is especially interesting from its connection with the daily life of the "Father of his Country." Elsewhere the great chief is on horseback, or sits high in some chair of state, lofty and removed from common men; but in Alexandria he is dismounted and afoot-a townsman and neighbor. The town rapidly became a place of considerable commercial importance, and, at one time, it was expected to outstrip Baltimore as a great port. A semi-weekly newspaper, called the Columbian Mirror and Alexandria Gazette, was established in 1792, and was for many years the only newspaper published in this part of the country. Washington's connection with Belhaven or Alexandria began when he was quite a boy. He had given up his idea of going to sea as a midshipman, and was beginning the study of surveying, being employed to explore the wild lands belonging to Lord Fairfax. He was living at Mount Vernon, the residence of his brother, and tradition says that he came into Alexandria ten times during one week, each time riding a different horse, any one of which would have delighted the soul of a cavalryman. Washington took great interest in training the militia of the town, and many of its people accompanied him on his march against Fort Du Quesne. After Washington had married and inherited Mount Vernon, he grossly shocked "society" by sending in a market-cart, to dispose of the produce of his estate. Washington became a trustee of the town in 1766, and devoted much time to its affairs. He was instrumental in having erected the first town-pump-the humble predecessor of a modern city's waterworks. He insisted that grain should be bought and sold by weight, fixing fifty-six pounds to the bushel as the standard of |