George Washington's Eye by Joseph Manca

Author:Joseph Manca
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Published: 2012-03-14T04:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 6.12. Benjamin Henry Latrobe, President Washington and His Family on the Portico of Mount Vernon, 1796, pen and ink and watercolor on paper, 18″ × 25″ (approx.). Latrobe captured the two trees that stand on the brow of the hill, the dense locust grove on the right, and the fine view south as the Potomac flows toward the sea. Courtesy of Louise and Brad Mentzer.

Washington loved a view from an elevation. On 19 August 1769, he wrote: “Rid with Mrs. Washington & others to the Cacapehon Mountain—to see the prospect from thence. Mr. Barclay, Mr. Thruston & Mr. Power dined with us.”50 Five days later he went there with others, including members of the Fairfax family: “Rid to Cacapeon with Lord Fairfax, the 2 Colo. Fairfaxs, Mr. Kimble Mrs. Washington & Patcy Custis.”51 Overlooking the upper reaches of the Potomac and near Berkeley Springs, the view from Mount Cacapon remained famous for years. Washington had surveyed the area, and he continued his economic interest there through landholding and interest in the canalization of the Potomac. The time he dedicated to a day’s viewing of a particularly striking “prospect” demonstrates that it was an important source of entertainment and delight to Washington and his fellows. In another diary entry, Washington mentioned the beautiful prospect from Wallingford, Connecticut, and the “pretty view” on the banks of the Susquehanna.52 He also liked the view in Charleston, South Carolina, with the “Gardens & green trees which are interspersed adding much to the beauty of the prospect.”53

Sometimes he gave a moral or allegorical slant to his mentions of viewing. He wrote to Henry Knox soon after his retirement, describing his own weariness: “I feel now, however, as I conceive a wearied Traveller must do, who, after treading many a painful step, with a heavy burden on his Shoulders, is eased of the latter, having reached the Goal to which all the former were directed—& from his House top is looking back, & tracing with a grateful eye the Meanders by which he escaped the quicksands and Mires which lay in his way, and into which none but the All-powerful guide, & great disposer of human Events could have prevented his falling.”54

It was not only in the company of Tidewater aristocrats that Washington discussed views and architecture. In a remarkable episode seldom mentioned in the literature on him, Washington spoke to a Native American in November 1770 in the environs of present-day Pittsburgh. Washington was inspecting lands in the area:

Here it was for the 2d. time that the Indian with me spoke of a fine piece of Land and beautiful place for a House & in order to give me a more lively Idea of it, chalk out the situation upon his Deerskin. It lyes upon Bull Creek, at least 30 Miles from the Mouth, but no more than 5 from the Mouth of Muddy Creek, in an ESE direction. The spot he recommends for a House lyes very high commanding a prospect of a

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