by Andrea Wulf
41 “food movements”: Pollan 2010.
42 “made subservient to”: JM, “Address to the Agricultural Society of Albemarle,” 12 May 1818, JM RS, vol. 1, p. 263.
43 “symmetry of nature”: Ibid., pp. 269 and 263–70.
1 “THE CINCINNATUS OF THE WEST”: GEORGE WASHINGTON’S AMERICAN GARDEN AT MOUNT VERNON
1 Manhattan in summer 1776: McCullough 2006, pp. 134–35.
2 “in commotion”: Ewald Shewkirk, quoted in McCullough 2006, p. 135.
3 size of British fleet: McCullough 2006, p. 148.
4 “Freemen, fighting for”: GW, General Orders, 23 August 1776, GW Papers RWS, vol. 6, p. 110.
5 “clever kind[s] of Trees” and following references to plants: GW to Lund Washington, 19 August 1776, GW Papers RWS, vol. 6, p. 86.
6 “I tremble for”: GW to Lund Washington, 10 December 1776, GW Papers RWS, vol. 7, p. 289.
7 “it runs in my”: Ibid.
8 “infinitely amusing”: GW to Lund Washington, 28 March 1781, GWW, vol. 21, p. 386.
9 Lund’s horticultural reports: For example, Lund Washington to GW, 30 December 1775; 22 April 1778, GW Papers RWS, vol. 2, p. 621; vol. 14, p. 589.
10 “principal objects”: GW to Lund Washington, 28 February 1778, GW Papers RWS, vol. 13, pp. 699–700.
11 “the Buds of”: GW, 16 April 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 121.
12 “regimental Gardens”: General Orders, 24 March 1783, GWW, vol. 26, p. 257.
13 “matter of amusement”: Ibid., p. 258.
14 “exceeded anything of”: GW to Lafayette, 18 March 1780, GWW, vol. 18, p. 125.
15 “Trees and Earth being glazed”: GW, 25 March 1780, GW Diaries, vol. 3, p. 349.
16 Liberty Tree as temple: Thomas Paine’s “Liberty Tree. A new Song” was published widely across the colonial press in 1775. Schlesinger 1952, p. 436.
17 “Ax at the Tree”: GW to Robert Morris, 31 December 1776, GW Papers RWS, vol. 7, p. 497.
18 “their heads adorned”: Lafayette, “Memoir of 1776,” Idzerda 1977–1983, vol. 1, p. 92.
19 “quit the walks”: GW to Chastellux, 12 October 1783, GWW, vol. 27, p. 189.
20 war officially over: GW to Luzerne, 17 November 1783, GWW, vol. 27, p. 243.
21 “our Swords and”: GW to Lafayette, 30 September 1779, GWW, vol. 16, p. 370.
22 “The life of a Husbandman”: GW to Alexander Spotswood, 13 February 1788, GW Papers CS, vol. 6, p. 111.
23 vine and fig tree: GW to Lafayette, 1 February 1784; GW to Marquis de Chastellux, 1 February 1784, GW to Madame de Lafayette, 4 April 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 1, pp. 85, 87–88, 258.
24 “with dictatorial power”: Unlike some others, Rush only wanted to give GW dictatorial powers for a few months. (Benjamin Rush to Richard Henry Lee, 30 December 1776, Butterfield 1951, vol. 1, p. 123.)
25 “sole Dictator”: Ezekial Cornell to William Greene, 1 August 1780, Smith 1976–2000, vol. 15, p. 527; see also JM to TJ, 2 June 1780, TJ Papers, vol. 3, p. 412.
26 “the title of king”: Lewis Nicola to GW, 22 May 1782, GWW, vol. 24, p. 273.
27 “such ideas exist”: GW to Lewis Nicola, 22 May 1782, GWW, vol. 24, p. 272.
28 “whole world in peace”: GW to Armand, 7 October 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 3, p. 296.
29 “I can truly say”: GW to David Stuart, 15 June 1790, GW Papers PS, vol. 5, p. 526.
30 “wading to the conquest”: Elkanah Watson, 23 January 1785, Lee 2006, p. 22.
31 “perfectly straight”: Robert Hunter, November 1785, Lee 2006, p. 27; see also Captain George Mercer’s description of GW in 1760, Brookhiser 1997, pp. 107–8.
32 “something uncommonly majestic”: Latrobe, 1796, Lee 2006, p. 65.
33 “most beautiful Groves”: GW, 13 March 1748, GW Diaries, vol. 1, p. 7.
34 “a goodly field before us”: GW to Elias Boudinot, 18 February 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 1, p. 127.
35 “hardly a member of Congress”: James McHenry to Margaret Caldwell, 23 December 1783, Smith 1976–2000, vol. 21, p. 221.
36 “get a touch”: James Tilton to Gunning Bedford, 25 December 1783, Seymour Adelman Letters and Documents Collection, Special Collections Department, Bryn Mawr College Library.
37 “intent upon eating”: Ibid.
38 “philosophical retreat”: GW to APS, 13 December 1783, The Freeman’s Journal: or The North-American Intelligencer, 17 December 1783.
39 Martha Custis Washington: When Martha’s first husband, Daniel Parke Custis, died, she inherited one third of his estate, including several plantations and £30,000 in personal property and slaves. (Dalzell and Dalzell 1998, p. 43.)
40 changes to Mount Vernon, late 1750s: Dalzell and Dalzell 1998, pp. 48–49, 58–60. By 1762 three walls of the garden had been built.
41 Changing Mount Vernon’s entrance: Dalzell and Dalzell 1998, pp. 52–53, 250–51.
42 half-mile vista: GW, 9 January 1769, GW Diaries, vol. 2, pp. 120, 125.
43 “Land of promise”: GW to Lafayette, 25 July 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 3, p. 152.
44 ordered building materials: GW to Robert Cary & Co, 26 July 1773, GW Papers Colonial, vol. 9, p. 289.
45 cupola: The cupola had also a practical use because it ventilated the top floor of the house during the hot and humid Virginia summers.
46 GW’s early landscape: Dalzell and Dalzell 1998; Griswold 1999; Pogue 1996.
47 “without any order”: GW to Lund Washington, 19 August 1776, GW Papers RWS, vol. 6, p. 86.
48 “barren”: Claude Blanchard, July 1782, MV Folder “Early Descriptions ante 1800,” Mount Vernon Library.
49 “I am become a private citizen”: GW to Lafayette, 1 February 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 1, p. 88.
50 “Free from the”: Ibid.
51 “The tranquil walks”: GW to Rochambeau, 1 February 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 1, p. 102; see also GW to Lauzun, 1 February 1784; GW to Adrienne de Noailles de Lafayette, 4 April 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 1, pp. 91, 258.
52 “wearied Traveller”: GW to Henry Knox, 20 February 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 1, p. 138.
53 “dress and manners”: Benjamin Rush to Granville Sharp, 27 April 1784, Butterfield 1951, vol. 1, p. 330; old grey coat: Luzerne to Rayneval, 12 April 1784, MV Folder, “Early Descriptions ante 1800,” Mount Vernon Library.
54 “His simplicity is”: Lafayette to Adrienne de Noailles de Lafayette, 20 August 1784, Idzerda 1977–1983, vol. 5, p. 237.
55 GW’s daily life: Winthrop Sargent, 13 October 1793, MV Folder, “Early Descriptions ante 1800,” Mount Vernon Library.
56 GW’s death: Tobias Lear, “The Last Illness and Death of General Washington,” 14 December 1799, GW Papers RS, vol. 4, pp. 547ff.
57 “completely involved with”: Lafayette to Adrienne de Noailles de Lafayette, 20 August 1784, Idzerda 1977–1983, vol. 5, p. 237.
58 GW’s mud-splattered boots: Joshua Brookes, 4 February 1799, MV Folder, “Early Descriptions ante 1800,” Mount Vernon Library; Robert Hunter, November 1785, Lee 2006, p. 28.
59 “out of the way”: GW to Thomas Lewis, 1 February 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 1, p. 95.
60 GW’s paperwork: GW to Benjamin Walker, 24 March 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 1, pp. 233–34; GW owned almost 60,000 acres in the West, Brookhiser 1997, p. 49.
61 “the state of the Lands”: GW to Thomas Lewis, 1 February 1784; see also GW to Samuel Lewis, 1 February 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 1, pp. 95, 91–92, and GW to Gilbert Simpson, 13 February 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 1, pp. 117–18.
62 “a tour of business”: GW to James Craik, 10 July 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 1, p. 492.
63 “fertile plains of the Ohio” and following quotes: GW to Lafayette, 25 July 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 3, p. 152.
64 “diversify the scene”: GW to William Grayson, 22 January 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, p. 282.
65 “I shall hope to receive”: GW to George Clinton, 25 November 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, p. 146.
66 white pine and eastern hemlock: GW to G
eorge Clinton, 8 December 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, p. 74.
67 live oak: GW to George Augustine Washington, 6 January 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, p. 258.
68 Magnolia grandiflora and umbrella magnolia and quote: GW to George Augustine Washington, 6 January 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, p. 258. On 21 May 1785 Washington received the first delivery from his nephew. GW, 21 May 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 143.
69 “become my amusement”: GW to William Grayson, 22 January 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, p. 282.
70 “Road [sic] to my Mill Swamp”: GW, 12 January 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 75.
71 John Custis’s plants: Peter Collinson to John Custis, 15 December 1735, Armstrong 2002, pp. 36–39; John Custis to Peter Collinson, 1738, Swem 1948, p. 69.
72 GW and native species in gardens: More than two decades later Bernard McMahon, author of the first American garden book, still bemoaned that Americans cultivated “foreign trifles” instead of native species. (McMahon 1806, p. 72.)
73 Miller’s Gardeners Dictionary: Wulf 2009, pp. 34–36.
74 John Bartram: Wulf 2009, pp. 34–47.
75 Miller’s American plants: JB to Peter Collinson, 14 August 1761, Berkeley and Smith Berkeley 1992, p. 534.
76 “In looking into”: GW to George Clinton, 8 December 1784; see also GW to George Augustine Washington, 6 January 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, pp. 174, 258.
77 GW’s books: GW’s Inventory Library, Prussing 1927, p. 429.
78 “agriculture and English history”: TJ to Walter Jones, 2 January 1814, DLC.
79 GW’s agricultural book order in NY: Custis 1861, p. 297.
80 “a great abundance of” and following quotes and plant references: GW, 12 January 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 75.
81 “Employed until dinner”: GW, 19 January 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 78.
82 “exceeding miry & bad”: GW, 8 and 11 February 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, pp. 86, 88.
83 “serpentine road”: Washington called his new driveway either “Serpentine Road” or “Serpentine Walk”—in order to avoid confusion it will be “Serpentine Walk” throughout this chapter.
84 “promiscuously without Order”: Miller 1731, entry “Wilderness.”
85 GW’s trees and shrubs in Serpentine Walk: GW, 12 January, 16, 18, 22, 23, 28 February; 3, 6 March 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, pp. 75, 91, 92, 94, 96, 97, 99.
86 “Miller … seems to”: GW to George Clinton, 20 April 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, p. 511.
87 GW and Batty Langley’s book: Invoice from Robert Cary & Co, 6 August 1759, GW Papers Colonial, vol. 6, p. 333.
88 “after Nature’s own Manner”: Langley 1728, p. vii.
89 “shrubberies”: For the development of shrubberies in the eighteenth century see Laird 1999.
90 “The Trees should”: Miller, 1731, entry “Wilderness”; for Langley’s advice on graduating plantations, Langley 1728, p. 182.
91 “forwarder upon the lawn”: Miller 1768 entry “Garden”: for GW’s planting see GW, 26 February 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 96.
92 “drudgery of the pen”: GW to George William Fairfax, 27 February 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, p. 390.
93 “raising of shrubberies”: Ibid.
94 “Dick, Tom, and Harry”: GW to David Humphreys, 7 February 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 3, pp. 487–88.
95 “references of a”: Ibid.
96 “may be compared”: GW to Mary Ball Washington, 15 February 1787, GW Papers CS, vol. 5, p. 35.
97 Jean-Antoine Houdon: GW, 2 October 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 200.
98 tea for ill guests: Elkanah Watson, 23 January 1785, Lee 2006, p. 23.
99 “dined with only”: GW, 30 June 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 157.
100 “No pilgrim ever”: Elkanah Watson, 23 January 1785, Lee 2006, p. 21.
101 “from all parts”: Robert Hunter, November 1785, Lee 2006, p. 27. The numbers of visitors who had stayed overnight and for dinner were becoming so unmanageable that on 18 August 1785 Washington advertised in the Virginia Journal for a “House-Keeper, or Household Steward, who is competent to the charge of a large family, and attending on a good deal of company.”
102 “first by the coming”: GW, 25 February 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 95.
103 “hard froze”: GW, 26 February 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 96.
104 “like a common man”: Robert Hunter, November 1785, Lee 2006, p. 31.
105 “which my hands”: GW to Chastellux, 2 June 1784, GW Papers CS, vol. 1, p. 413.
106 clumps of native trees: GW, 2 March 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 97.
107 design of “public walks”: and following quotes, GW to Henry Knox, 28 February 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, p. 400.
108 “pruning and shaping”: GW, 3 March 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 97.
109 “tubes of Ice”: GW, 9 March 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 99; for the damage to the shrubberies see the following days, GW Diaries, vol. 4, pp. 101ff.
110 British garden writers: Langley 1728, p. x.
111 typical American: Washington’s gardening friend Samuel Vaughan followed his lead and also placed a necessary in the shrubberies of the State House garden in Philadelphia. Coxe Toogood 2004, vol. 1, pp. 94–97.
112 plants near the necessaries: GW, 22 February, 31 March 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, pp. 94, 111. George Mason had sent Washington the guelder rose and the Persian lilac after the Mount Vernon conference. GW, 29 March 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 109.
113 “a Plant of Liberty”: Langley 1728, p. 173.
114 GW’s wilderness: GW, 15, 17 March 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 103.
115 “Pine labyrinths”: GW to Anthony Whitting, 14 October 1792, GW Papers PS, vol. 11, p. 223.
116 “Miniature Labyrinth”: Winthrop Sargent, 13 October 1793, MV Folder “Early Descriptions ante 1800,” Mount Vernon Library.
117 Langley and Miller’s wilderness: Langley 1728, plate VII and Miller 1768, entry “Wilderness.” Years later, in 1806, Bernard McMahon in The American Gardener’s Calendar also asserted that a “Wilderness” consisted of “winding mazes or labyrinths.” (McMahon 1806, p. 58.)
118 three wagonloads of pines: GW, 18 March 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 104.
119 “yielded to the Wind”: GW, 19 March 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 104.
120 GW called back to public duty: GW, 20–28 March 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, pp. 105–9.
121 Mason brought plants: GW, 22, 29 March 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, pp. 107, 109.
122 “rather too thin”: GW, 24 March 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 107.
123 plants from Mason and Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer: GW, 29 March, 12 November 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, pp. 107, 222; Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer to GW, 28 February 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, p. 397.
124 “All nature seemed alive”: GW, 25 April 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 127.
125 “The tender leaves” and “the Dogwood”: GW, 16 April 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 121.
126 “shedding its fragrant perfume”: GW, 9 May 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 136.
127 “some being of a deep scarlet”: GW, 16 April 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 121.
128 “would look very pretty”: GW, 26 April 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 128.
129 “deserves a place”: GW, 14 May 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 138.
130 “Most of my transplanted” and following quotes: GW, 7 May 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 135.
131 “In a word nature”: GW, 11 August 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 181.
132 “the work of ones own hands”: GW to Edward Newenham, 20 April 1787, GW Papers CS, vol. 5, p. 152.
133 “Once he has begun”: Robert Hunter, November 1785, Lee 2006, pp. 28–29.
134 replanting of shrubberies: for example GW, 4, 7, 8, 10, 18 November 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, pp. 218, 220–21, 232.
135 sowing bowling green: GW, 11 October 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 205.
136 deer park: GW, 18 August, 30 September 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p
p. 184, 199.
137 walls of enclosed gardens: GW, 12 July 1785, 4 February 1786, GW Diaries, vol. 4, pp. 164, 271.
138 greenhouse drawing: GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 87.
139 “in dry sand as soon”: GW to George Augustine Washington, 6 January 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, p. 259.
140 “Salt is pernicious”: GW to William Gordon, 8 March 1785; Virginia Journal and Alexandria Advertiser, 17 March 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 2, pp. 413–14.
141 Botanical Garden: GW, 13 June and 8 July 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, pp. 151, 161.
142 code for seed labels: GW, 1 July 1786, GW Diaries, vol. 5, p. 1.
143 GW’s horticultural records: GW to George Augustine Washington, 31 March 1789, GW Papers PS, vol. 1, p. 474.
144 “Not a day’s”: William Maclay, 1 May 1790, Maclay 1890, p. 253.
145 “experiments by intelligent”: GW to Charles Carter, 20 January 1788, GW Papers CS, vol. 6, p. 48.
146 “(if not forgot) they”: GW to Anthony Whitting, 3 February 1793, GW Papers PS, vol. 12, p. 96.
147 old vineyard: GW, 6 April 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 114.
148 GW’s non-native species and following plant references: GW, 13 and 24 April, 20 May, 23 July, 2 November 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, pp. 118, 127, 142, 167, 217.
149 fruit trees in walled gardens: GW, 12 February 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 89; GW to John Marsden Pintard, 2 August 1786, GW Papers CS, vol. 4, p. 188. For varieties and species available to American gardeners, see also Prince 1790.
150 GW and tobacco: GW to Stewart & Campbell, 4 September 1766, GW Papers Colonial, vol. 7, p. 462; GW to Charles Carter, 20 January 1788, GW Papers CS, vol. 6, pp. 48–49; see also Dalzell and Dalzell 1998, p. 62.
151 “ruinous” agricultural methods: GW to George William Fairfax, 10 November 1785, GW Papers CS, vol. 3, p. 349; see also GW to Arthur Young, 6 August 1786, GW Papers CS, vol. 4, p. 196.
152 “Nothing in my opinion”: GW to William Drayton, 25 March 1786, GW Papers CS, vol. 3, p. 606.
153 “every experiment is”: GW to Charles Carter, 20 January 1788, GW Papers CS, vol. 6, p. 49.
154 “Plaister of Paris”: GW, 25 April 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, pp. 127–28. Only two weeks later an impatient Washington noted that “I cannot discover that the grass ground on which the Powdered plaister of Paris was strewed, in different quantities, is benefitted in the smallest degree by it.” (GW, 7 May 1785, GW Diaries, vol. 4, p. 135.)
