so passing tall as his portraits have represented. He
was rather spare than full during his whole life; this is readily
ascertained from his weight. The last time he weighed was in the summer
of 1799, when, having made the tour of his farms, accompanied by an
English gentleman, he called at his mill and was weighed. The writer
placed the weight in the scales. The Englishman, not so tall, but stout,
square built, and fleshy, weighed heavily, and expressed much surprise
that the general had not outweighed him, when Washington observed that
the best weight of his best days never exceeded from two hundred and ten
to two hundred and twenty pounds. In the instance alluded to, he weighed
a little rising two hundred and ten. In the prime of life, Washington
stood six feet two inches, and measured precisely six feet when attired
for the grave.

"The power of Washington's arm was displayed in several memorable
instances: in his throwing a stone from the bed of the stream to the top
of the Natural Bridge; another over the Palisades into the Hudson; and
yet another across the Rappahannock, at Fredericksburg. Of the article
with which he spanned this noble and navigable stream, there are various
accounts. We are assured that it was a piece of slate, fashioned to
about the size and shape of a dollar, and which, sent by an arm so
strong, not only spanned the river, but took the ground at least thirty
yards on the other side. Numbers have since tried this feat, but none
have cleared the water. 'Tis the 'Douglas cast,' made in the days when
Virginia's men were strong, as her maids are fair; when the hardy sports
of the gymnasium prepared the body to answer the 'trumpet-call to war,'
and gave vigor and elevation to the mind; while our modern habits would
rather fit the youth 'to caper nimbly in a lady's chamber.'

"While the late and venerable Charles Willson Peale was at Mount Vernon,
in 1772, engaged in painting the portrait of the provincial colonel,
some young men were contending in the exercise of pitching the bar.
Washington looked on for a time, then grasping the missile in his
master-hand, whirled the iron through the air, which took the ground
far, very far, beyond any of its former limits; the colonel observing,
with a smile, 'You perceive, young gentlemen, that my arm yet retains
some portion of the vigor of my earlier days.' He was then in his
fortieth year, and probably in the full meridian of his physical powers;
but thos