for he was so much a public show that that might have been attended by annoying practical inconvenience; but when he rode out with Mrs. Washington his carriage was drawn by four—­sometimes six—­horses, with two outriders, in livery, with powdered hair and cockades in their hats.  When he rode on horseback, which he often did for exercise, he was attended by outriders and accompanied by one or more of the gentlemen of his household.  Toward the end of the year there arrived from England the state coach which he used in formal visits to Congress and for other ceremonious events.  It was a canary-colored chariot, decorated with gilded nymphs and cupids, and emblazoned with the Washington arms.  His state was simplified when he went to church, which he did regularly every Sunday; then his coach was drawn by two horses, with two footmen behind, and was followed by a post-chaise carrying two gentlemen of his household.  Washington was fond of horses and was in the habit of keeping a fine stable.  The term “muslin horses” was commonly used to denote the care taken in grooming.  The head groom would test the work of the stable-boys by applying a clean muslin handkerchief to the coats of the animals, and, if any stain of dirt showed, there was trouble.  The night before the white horses which Washington used as President were to be taken out, their coats were covered by a paste of whiting, and the animals were swathed in wrappings.  In the morning the paste was dry and with rubbing gave a marble gloss to the horses’ coats.  The hoofs were then blackened and polished, and even the animals’ teeth were scoured.  Such arrangements, however, were not peculiar to Washington’s stable.  This was the usual way in which grooming for “the quality” was done in that period.

The first house occupied by Washington was at the corner of Pearl and Cherry streets, then a fashionable locality.  What the New York end of the Brooklyn Bridge has left of it is now known as Franklin Square.  The house was so small that three of his secretaries had to lodge in one room; and Custis in his Recollections tells how one of them, who fancied he could write poetry, would sometimes disturb the others by walking the floor in his nightgown trying the rhythm of his lines by rehearsing them with loud emphasis.  About a year later Washington removed to a larger house on the west side of Broadway near Bowling Green.  Both buildings went down at an early date before the continual march of improvement in New York.  In Washington’s time Wall Street was superseding Pearl Street as the principal haunt of fashion.  Here lived Alexander Hamilton and other New Yorkers prominent in their day; here were fashionable boarding-houses at which lived the leading members of Congress.  When some fashionable reception was taking place, the street was gay with coaches and sedan-chairs, and the attire of the people who then gathered was as brilliant as a flight of cockatoos.  It was a period of spectacular dress and behavior for both