"This precious relic," says Mr. Quincy in a letter to Mr. Livermore, “came to my possession under the following circumstances: from 1805 to 1813, I was one of the representatives of the state of Massachusetts, in the Congress of the United States, from Suffolk District. During these years I had the happiness, with my wife, to form an acquaintance with Mrs. Martha Peter (formerly Custis), the wife of Thomas Peter, Esq., of Tudor Place, in the District of Columbia. There sprang up between both families-particularly between Mrs. Peter and my wife-a great intimacy, the result of mutual respect and also coincidence in political feeling and opinion, which, at that period, constituted a bond of great strength. She was a woman of great personal beauty, highly accomplished, intellectual, elevated in spirit and sentiment, and worthy of the relation which she held of granddaughter to George Washington.

"When, in 1813, on resigning my seat in Congress, I called at Tudor Place to take leave, Mrs. Peter, after stating the interest she felt in me and Mrs. Quincy, asked my acceptance of the gorget of Washington, with the ribbon attached to it, which' she said she had received at the division of her grandfather's estate.' About that time, there had been formed in Boston a political association bearing the name of the Washington Benevolent Society, having for its object the support of the views and principles of Washington, of which I was one of the vice-presidents; and I immediately suggested the propriety, and asked her leave, to present in her name that precious relic to that society. She expressed her gratification at the suggestion, saying 'that she knew of no place where the principles of Washington had been more uniformly

cherished, or were likely to be more highly prized or preserved longer, than in the town of Boston.'

Accordingly, on my return in April, 1813, I made a for mal statement of the above circumstances to the Washington Benevolent Society, and presented the gorget, in her name, to that society. The gift was gratefully and cordially received and acknowledged by a vote of the society, signed by Arnold Welles, 'president; and William Sullivan, Josiah Quincy, Samuel Messinger, John C. Warren, and Benjamin Russell, vice-presidents. A record of the gift, of the vote of thanks, and of all the proceedings, was written upon parchment, and deposited in a box especially adapted for its preservation; and an account of the doings of the society was officially transmitted to Mrs. Peter.

"The gorget remained in that situation, under the care of the society, for five or six years, until its final dissolution, when, by a vote of the society, it was formally placed in my custody; and I immediately wrote to Mrs. Peter a statement of the circumstances, offering to return the gorget to her. She was pleased to reply, that it was her wish that I should retain it in my possession, and make such disposition of it as I saw fit."

When I last visited Mount Vernon, in the autumn of 1858, I saw there a few articles, not already mentioned, that belonged to Washington. These were a liquor-chest, two mirrors, some tissue paper, one of his ordinary address cards, several diagrams and memoranda from his pen, and a number of engravings.

The liquor-chest was in a closet adjoining the dining-room, and was used by the family when I was there. It is made of

mahogany; and tradition avers that it composed a part of

Washington's baggage during the Revolution.
twelve large white glass flasks, thirteen inches in height.

It contains

One of the mirrors, highly ornamented with elaborate

WASHI

GE

NO

WATER-MARK.

the water-mark.

carvings, and bearing the arms of the Washington family, was in a small parlor adjoining the great drawing-room; and the other, a plain one, also bearing the family arms, in gilt upon a deep blue ground, at the top, was in another parlor, adjoining the library.

The tissue paper was made expressly for Washington's use. Each sheet bears his name and crest, and a rude figure of Liberty

with the pileus and cap, forming

The paper is quite coarse in texture com

pared with that manufactured at the present time. The engraving of the water-mark is half the size of the original.

The address card was coarsely engraved on copper, and was used by Washington during the war. While he was Presi

dent, he had a neat invitation-to-dinner card engraved in writing. The original plate of the latter is in the possession of a gentleman in Philadelphia.

Some of the diagrams from Washington's pen, alluded to, have been delineated upon other pages of this work. The engravings that belonged to him hang in the great passage and two adjoining parlors. These are, Andromache bewailing the Death of Hector; The Death of Montgomery; The Death of Warren; two Hunting Scenes; four Landscapes; The Defence of Gibraltar, four Views; Descent from the Cross; and a St. Agnes. These are all more or less injured by some tiny destroyers, that are daily making the high lights still stronger, so that all the pictures now appear snowy. If their destructive progress shall not be speedily arrested, those relics of the great Patriot's household ornaments will be lost forever. With characteristic modesty, Washington allowed no picture of scenes in which he was a participant to adorn the walls of Mount Vernon. Some fine oil paintings and family portraits that were there have been distributed among relatives; that of Lawrence Washington alone remains.

Only one more object of interest at Mount Vernon remains to be noticed. It is a portrait of Washington taken from a common English earthenware pitcher, and is known as The Pitcher Portrait. It is in a deep gilt frame, and upon the back is an admirable eulogy of the great Patriot, in monumental form. The history of this portrait and the eulogy was communicated to me recently by the venerable artist, Rembrandt Peale, of Philadelphia, and is both curious and interesting.

About the year 1804, the late John R. Smith, of Philadelphia, son of the eminent Jonathan Bayard Smith, showed