Went to Alexandria with Mrs. Washington. Dined at Mr. Dulaney's and
exchanged deeds for conveyances of land with him and Mrs. Dulaney,
giving mine, which I bought of Messrs. Robert Adam, Dow and McIver,
for the reversion of what Mrs. Dulaney is entitled to at the death of
her Mother within bounds of Spencer and Washington's patent.[150]

[Illustration: Entrance hall, Dulany House. Fine woodwork in arch and
cornice]

Tradition says Dulany served with Washington as steward of the Jockey
Club. An amusing anecdote has come down to us of a race in which both
gentlemen had entered horses. The race was close--Washington's horse
won. For some reason the governors awarded the prize to Dulany. The
General left in high dudgeon and wrote a letter resigning from the club,
saying that he was under the impression that he belonged to a club the
members of which were gentlemen. Whereupon the governors reversed their
decision and awarded the General the prize! This extraordinary action is
reported to have placated him, for he appears to have continued a member
of the Jockey Club.

Mr. Dulany's house, now 601 Duke Street, is one of those famous houses
where it is claimed General Washington slept. An agent of the General,
Peyton Gallagher, occupied this house at one time, and--so the story
goes--when Washington had sat too long at accounts and the evening was
bad, his man of business put him up for the night.

The tradition is firmly entrenched that the Marquis de la Fayette
addressed the citizens of Alexandria from the front steps of this house
in 1824. The General was occupying the house across the street, which
was given to the Marquis and his party by the owner, Mrs. Lawrason, for
the duration of his visit. Alexandria was more excited by this visit
than any other occurrence in her history, and gave La Fayette a
resounding welcome. When citizens came surging in great crowds around
the Lawrason mansion to do him honor, the old gentleman, finding the
steps too low for speechmaking, walked across the street, climbed the
steps of 601 Duke Street, where he could be seen, and there made his
expressions of good will and appreciation in broken English to "the
assembled multitude."

Tradition also reports that Benjamin Dulany was a handsome, arrogant
gentleman, a fine horseman, superbly mounted. In those days the streets
of Alexandria were not as smooth nor as dry as today. Irate pedestrians
often found themselves bespattered an