On this occasion Mrs. Washington made a purchase in
one of the buildings, and ordered it sent to her home in Charles Town.
"What name?" asked the clerk.
"Mrs. George Washington."
The clerk concluded that she was joking.
"I want your _real_ name," he insisted with a smile.
"But," plaintively protested the gentle Mrs. Washington, "that is the
only name I _have_!"
* * * * *
One of the most charming of the old houses in the neighborhood of
Charles Town, and one of the few which is still occupied by the
descendants of its builder, is Piedmont, the residence of the Briscoe
family. It is a brick house, nearly a century and a half old, with a
lovely old portico, and it contains two of the most interesting relics I
saw on my entire journey in the South. The first of these is the wall
paper of the drawing-room, upon which is depicted, not in pattern, but
in a series of pictures with landscape backgrounds, various scenes
representing the adventures of Telemachus on his search for his father.
I remember having seen on the walls of the parlor of an old hotel at
South Berwick, Maine, some early wall paper of this character, but the
pictures on that paper were done in various shades of gray, whereas the
Piedmont wall paper is in many colors.
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