The establishment of Mount Vernon employed a perfect army of domestics; yet to each one was assigned special duties, and from each one strict performance was required.  There was no confusion where there was order, and the affairs of this estate, embracing thousands of acres and hundreds of dependents, were conducted with as much ease, method and regularity as the affairs of a homestead of average size.

Mrs. Washington was an accomplished house-wife of the olden time, and she gave constant attention to all matters of her household, and by her skill and management greatly contributed to the comfort and entertainment of the guests who enjoyed the hospitality of her home.

The best charities of life were gathered round Washington in the last days at Mount Vernon.  The love and veneration of a whole people for his illustrious services, his generous and untiring labours in the cause of public utility; his kindly demeanour to his family circle, his friends, and numerous dependents; his courteous and cordial hospitality to his guests, many of them strangers from far distant lands; these charities, all of which sprang from the heart, were the ornament of his declining years and granted the most sublime scene in nature, when human greatness reposes upon human happiness.

On the morning of the 17th of December, 1799, the General was engaged in making some improvements in the front of Mount Vernon.  As was usual with him, he carried his own compass, noted his observations, and marked out the ground.  The day became rainy, with sleet, and the improver remained so long exposed to the inclemency of the weather as to be considerably wetted before his return to the house.  About one o’clock he was seized with chilliness and nausea, but having changed his clothes he sat down to his indoor work.  At night, on joining his family circle, he complained of a slight indisposition.  Upon the night of the following day, having borne acute suffering with composure and fortitude, he died.

In person Washington was unique.  He looked like no one else.  To a stature lofty and commanding he united a form of the manliest proportions, and a dignifed, graceful, and imposing carriage.  In the prime of life he stood six feet, two inches.  From the period of the Revolution there was an evident bending in his frame so passing straight before, but the stoop came from the cares and toils of that arduous contest rather than from years.  For his step was firm, his appearance noble and impressive long after the time when the physical properties of men are supposed to wane.

A majestic height was met by corresponding breadth and firmness.  His whole person was so cast in nature’s finest mould as to resemble an ancient statue, all of whose parts unite to the perfection of the whole.  But with all its development of muscular power, Washington’s form had no look of bulkiness, and so harmonious were its proportions that he did not appear so tall as his portraits have represented.  He was rather spare than full during his whole life.