Twice Washington materially enlarged the house at Mount Vernon, the first time in 1760 and the second in 1785, and a visitor reports, what his host must have told him, that “its a pity he did not build a new one at once, for it has cost him nearly as much to repair his old one.”  These alterations consisted in the addition of a banquet-hall at one end (by far the finest room in the house), and a library and dining-room at the other, with the addition of an entire story to the whole.

The grounds, too, were very much improved.  A fine approach, or bowling green, was laid out, a “botanical garden,” a “shrubbery,” and greenhouses were added, and in every way possible the place was improved.  A deer paddock was laid out and stocked, gifts of Chinese pheasants and geese, French partridges, and guinea-pigs were sent him, and were gratefully acknowledged, and from all the world over came curious, useful, or beautiful plants.

The original tract did not satisfy the ambition of the farmer, and from the time he came into the possession of Mount Vernon he was a persistent purchaser of lands adjoining the property.  In 1760 he bargained with one Clifton for “a tract called Brents,” of eighteen hundred and six acres, but after the agreement was closed the seller, “under pretence of his wife not consenting to acknowledge her right of dower wanted to disengage himself ... and by his shuffling behavior convinced me of his being the trifling body represented.”  Presently Washington heard that Clifton had sold his lands to another for twelve hundred pounds, which “fully unravelled his conduct ... and convinced me that he was nothing less than a thorough pac’d rascall.”  Meeting the “rascall” at a court, “much discourse,” Washington states, “happened between him and I concerning his ungenerous treatment of me, the whole turning to little account, ’tis not worth reciting.”  After much more friction, the land was finally sold at public auction, and “I bought it for L1210 Sterling, [and] under many threats and disadvantages paid the money.”

[Illustration:  WASHINGTON’S SURVEY OF MOUNT VERNON, CIRCA 1746]

In 1778, when some other land was offered, Washington wrote to his agent, “I have premised these things to shew my inability, not my unwillingness to purchase the Lands in my own Neck at (almost) any price—­& this I am very desirous of doing if it could be accomplished by any means in my power, in ye way of Barter for other Land—­for Negroes ... or in short—­for any thing else ... but for money I cannot, I want the means.”  Again, in 1782, he wrote, “Inform Mr. Dulany,... that I look upon L2000 to be a great price for his land; that my wishes to obtain it do not proceed from its intrinsic value, but from the motives I have candidly assigned in my other letter.  That to indulge this fancy, (for in truth there is more fancy than judgment in it) I have submitted, or am willing to submit, to the disadvantage of borrowing as large a sum as I think this Land is worth, in order to come at it”