panels in each of which is an inverted wreath. On the end facing the Amphitheatre is an inscription reading, "Here rests in honored glory an American soldier known but to God." Thomas Hudson Jones, New York, was the sculptor and Lorimer Rich, New York, the architect. Arlington House has been given enhanced interest by its partial restoration to the habitable condition of earlier years. Many of the rooms have been furnished with furniture of the period when the Lees and the Custises before them lived here. The house thus again made livable is brought more vividly before our eyes as a home enjoyed and loved by those whom it sheltered; and we are prompted to reflection upon the strange fortunes of war and peace by which this dwelling has been made the anomalous centerpiece of a national cemetery. Arlington House was built in 1802. The portico, with its great Doric columns, was modeled after that of the Temple of Theseus at Athens. In the rear are the original servants' quarters; the water tower is new. The builder of Arlington was George Washington Parke Custis, son of John Park Custis, whose widowed mother became Mrs. Martha Washington. When Col. John Parke Custis died, at the siege of Yorktown, Washington adopted as his own the two children, George Washington Parke Custis and Eleanor Parke Custis. Thenceforward Custis was a member of the Mount Vernon household, until after the death of Mrs. Washington, in 1802, when he removed to his Arlington estate. Enjoying honored distinction as the adopted son of Washington, and entertaining with lavish hospitality, he drew to Arlington annual hosts of visitors and friends Washington, the Nation's Capital. 131 Lafayette was among the distinguished guests here; and there came many another of the friends of Washington, to rehearse their recollection of the men and the events of Revolutionary days. The rooms of the mansion were stored with a rich collection of Washington mementoes and memorials-most of them brought from Mount Vernon-portraits, pictures, silver service, and household furniture and ornaments. Some of these are now in the National Museum, and others are in their original places at Mount Vernon. Custis died in 1857. The marble shafts which mark his grave and that of his wife, Mary Lee Custis, are in a retired spot, near the limit of the southwestern plateau in line with the two rows of headstones which begin at the avenue with Nos. 6568 and 6569. Upon the death of Custis, Arlington passed to the children of his only daughter, Mary Custis Lee, wife of Col. Robert E. Lee, of the United States Army, to whom she had been married in 1831 in the drawing room of the Arlington House, where to-day visitors register their names. When the Civil War came, Colonel Lee resigned from the Federal service; on April 22, 1861, he left Arlington, and with his family went to Richmond, there to take command of the Virginia troops, and afterward to become the Commander-in-Chief of the Confederate Army. Hardly had the Lees gone out, when the Federal troops took possession, and converted the mansion into a headquarters and the grounds into a camp. Then, as the war went on and battles were fought, a hospital was established here; and when other available cemetery grounds no longer sufficed for the burial of the dead, the level plateaus and grassy slopes of Arlington were, by order of Quartermaster-General Meigs, devoted to the purpose of a military cemetery. The first grave prepared was for a Confederate prisoner who had died in hospital. In the year 1864 the property was sold for delinquent taxes, and the Government bought it, paying $26,100. In 1877 George Washington Custis Lee, heir under the Custis will, established his legal title to the property, and the claim was adjusted to his satisfaction by the payment to him by the United States of the sum of $150,000. P RESIDENT WASHINGTON'S pew in Christ Church, Alex andria, is still preserved as it appeared when occupied by the family. One may make the visit to Alexandria in connection with the Mount Vernon trip. The church is open on week days, and the curator is on the premises from 9 o'clock until 6. The church is on Washington street. Fairfax Parish, to which Alexandria belongs, was created in 1765; and among the first vestrymen chosen was George Washington, then thirtythree years of age. Christ Church was completed on February 27, 1773, and on the same day Colonel Washington subscribed the highest price paid for a pew, £36 10s., contracting further to pay for it an annual rental of £5 sterling. The pews, which originally were square, were changed-all but Washington's to the present style in 1816. Other alterations of the interior were made in later years; but a wiser afterthought has restored the church to the style of the Colonial days. The canopy and the wine-glass pulpit are Colonial. The chancel rail and the mural tablets of the Lord's Prayer and the Apostles' Creed were here in Washington's time; the communication table, reading desk and chairs are those which were used then; and so likewise is the crystal chandelier of solid brass with its twelve candlesticks. In the old days candles were used to light the church; on the pillars may still be detected beneath the paint the marks of the sconces and tinder box. The baptismal font dates from 1818. Washington's pew, Nos. 59 and 60, is on the left side, near the front, and marked by a silver plate with fac-simile of his autograph; it has two seats, one facing the other, and a third cross-seat against the wall, the pew is now reserved for strangers. Across the aisle is the pew which was occupied by the Lees; its silver plate bears the name of Robert E. Lee in autograph. Twin mural tablets set in plate in 1870 are inscribed in memory of George Washington and Robert Edward Lee. In the vestry room may be seen the record of Washington's purchase of his pew in 1773; and the first Bible and Church Service, the Bible bearing an Edinburgh imprint of 1767. The long-handled purses used in Washington's time for the offerings are perhaps the most curious of all the Alexandria relics of old days and ways. Carlyle House.-Second only to Christ Church in interest of historical associations is the Carlyle House, on the corner of Fairfax and Cameron streets. Built by John Carlyle in the year 1752, at a period when Alexandria was the metropolis of the British Empire in America, the house had full share with the town in events which were portentous of revolution. It was the time of the French and Indian Wars, and General Braddock had come to America to assume command of the British forces. Here had repaired, to confer with him, the Governors of six of the colonies Shirley of Massachusetts, DeLancy of New York, Morris of Pennsylvania, Sharpe of Maryland, Dinwiddie of Virginia, and Dobbs of North Carolina. By invitation of Mr. Carlyle, they met in the Blue Room of the Mansion. The chief purpose was to devise means for raising revenue for the support of service in North America; and it was resolved that the Governors, having found it impracticable to obtain in their respective governments the proportion expected by His Majesty, "they are unanimously of the opinion that it should be proposed to His Majesty's ministers to find out some method of compelling them to do it." When the Alexandrians heard of this resolution of the congress, they met in the court house opposite the Carlyle House, and with George Washington in the chair, resolved: "That taxation and representation are in their nature inseparable." The action of the six Governors was received in like spirit by the Colonies; and thus the Congress of Alexandria, as the meeting in Mr. Carlyle's blue room was known, contributed largely to the growing discontent which twenty years later found expression in the Revolution. To the Carlyle House came George Washington, summoned from Mount Vernon by Braddock, who offered him a commissien as Major in the British Army: and it was in the Carlyle |