ent that Mount
Vernon became "little better than a well-resorted inn."

Artists came to paint the great man's picture; the sculptor Houdon to
take the great man's bust, arriving from Alexandria, by the way, after
the family had gone to bed; the Marquis de Lafayette to visit his old
friend; Mrs. Macaulay Graham to obtain material for her history; Noah
Webster to consider whether he would become the tutor of young Custis;
Mr. John Fitch, November 4, 1785, "to propose a draft & Model of a
machine for promoting Navigation by means of a Steam"; Charles Thomson,
secretary of the Continental Congress, to notify the General of his
election to the presidency; a host of others, some out of friendship,
others from mere curiosity or a desire for free lodging.

The visit of Lafayette was the last he made to this country while the
man with whose fame his name is inseparably linked remained alive. He
visited Mount Vernon in August, 1784, and again three months later. When
the time for a final adieu came Washington accompanied him to Annapolis
and saw him on the road to Baltimore. The generous young benefactor of
America was very dear to Washington, and the parting affected him
exceedingly. Soon after he wrote to the departed friend a letter in
which he showed his heart in a way that was rare with him. "In the
moment of our separation," said he, "upon the road as I travelled, and
every hour since, I have felt all the love, respect, and attachment for
you with which length of years, close connextion, and your merits have
inspired me. I have often asked myself, as our carriages separated,
whether that was the last sight I ever should have of you."

It was a true foreboding. Often in times that followed Washington was to
receive tidings of his friend's triumphs and perilous adventures amid
the bloody turmoil of the French Revolution, was to entertain his son at
Mount Vernon when the father lay in the dark dungeons of Olmuetz, but was
never again to look into his face. Years later the younger man,
revisiting the grateful Republic he had helped to found, was to turn
aside from the acclaiming plaudits of admiring multitudes and stand
pensively beside the Tomb of his Leader and reflect upon the years in
which they had stood gloriously shoulder to shoulder in defense of a
noble cause.

Even when Washington was at the seat of government many persons stopped
at Mount Vernon and were entertained by the manager. Several times the
absent owner