y much resembling in
appearance, our own D. P. H.; but standing in a melancholy street,
without the appendages of green-house, conservatory, and gate, as in
that choice London mansion. The Honourable Secretary's apartment was
downstairs in the area, and the convenience of its proximity to the
kitchen, with the thermometer at 85 deg. in the shade, as it was to-day, was
doubtless duly appreciated by him, he having just arrived from Turin. We
found him waiting for us, and he accompanied us to the President's
residence, called the White House. It is a handsome but unpretending
building, not like its neighbours, of marble, but painted to look like
stone; the public reception-rooms are alone shown, but a good-natured
servant let us see the private rooms, and took us out on a sort of
terrace behind, where we had a lovely view of the Potomac. The house is
situated in a large garden, opposite to which, on the other side of the
road, is a handsome, and well-kept square. The house has no pretensions
about it, but would be considered a handsome country house in England;
and the inside is quite in keeping, and well furnished. The furniture is
always renewed when a new President takes possession; and as this is the
case every four years, it cannot well become shabby.

In a line directly opposite the back of the house, and closing up the
view at the end of the gardens, stands the monument which is being
erected to Washington. This, when finished, is to be a circular
colonnaded building, 250 feet in diameter, and 100 feet high, from which
is to spring an obelisk 70 feet wide at the base, and 500 feet high, so
that, when completed, the whole will be as high as if our monument in
London were placed on the top of St. Paul's. At present nothing but its
ugly shaft is built, which has anything but a picturesque appearance,
and it is apparently likely to remain in this condition, as it is not
allowed to be touched by any but native republican hands, here a rather
scarce commodity. It is being built of white stone, one of the many
kinds found in this country. By the by, we omitted to state, in
describing the Capitol, that the balustrades of the staircases, and a
good deal of ornamental work about the building, are of marble, from a
quarry lately discovered in Tennessee, of a beautiful darkish lilac
ground, richly grained with a shade of its own colour; it is very
valuable, costing seven dollars per cubic foot.

From the President's house we w