My friend approached and told me he had learned that the family were at dinner, and we left the house privately and walked towards the tomb. At a short distance from the house, in a retired spot, stands the new family tomb, a plain structure of brick, with a barred iron gate, through which are seen two sarcophagi of white marble, side by side, containing the remains of Washington and his consort. This had been recently finished, as appeared from the freshness of the bricks and mortar, and the bare spots of earth about it, upon which the grass had not yet grown. It is painful to see change and novelty in such connections; but all has been done by the direction of Washington's will, in which he designated the spot where he wished the tomb to be. The old family tomb, in which he was first placed, is in a more picturesque situation, upon a knoll, in full view of the river; but the present one is more retired, which was reason enough to determine the wishes of a modest man. While we were talking together here, a person approached us, dressed in the plain manner of a Virginia gentleman upon his estate. This was the young proprietor. After his greeting with my friend, and my introduction, he conducted us to the old tomb, which is the one represented in the prints scattered through the country. It is now going to decay, being unoccupied, is filling up, and partly overgrown with vines and shrubs. The change was made with regret, but a sacred duty seemed to require it. It is with this tomb that our associations are connected, and to this the British fleet is said to have lowered its flags while passing up the Potomac to make the attack upon the capitol.

To one accustomed to the plantation system and habits of Virginia, this estate may have much that is common with others; but to persons unused to this economy, the whole is new and striking. Of things peculiar to the place, are a low rampart of brick, now partly overgrown, which Washington had built around the front of the house, and an ünderground passage leading from the bottom of a dry well, and coming out by the river side at the foot of the mount. On the west side of the house are two gardens, a green-house, and the usual accompaniments of a plantation-seed-houses, tool-houses, and cottages for the negroes-things possessing no particular interest, except because they were standing during Washington's life, and were objects of his frequent attention. I would not be one to countenance the making public of any thing pertaining to those who have received a visitor in confidence and good faith. And I hope not to transgress when I say, that if he can judge from what may be seen among those who bear the name and inherit the estate of the hero, no Massachusetts man need fear that the bond which united the two ancient historical commonwealths, is at all weakened; or that those memory-charge, cabalistic words, Massachusetts and Virginia, have lost any of their force with the true sons of either. Among the things of note shown us in the house, was the key of the Bastile, sent to Washington from France at the time of the destruction of the prison. Along the walls of the room hung engravings, which were mostly battle or hunting-pieces. Among them I noticed a print of Bunker Hill, but none of any battle in which Washington himself was engaged. The north room was built by Washington for a dining-room, and for the meetings of his friends and political visitors. The furniture of the room is just as when he used it, and leads us back to the days when there were met within these walls the great men of that generation who carried the states through the revolution, laid the foundations of the government, and administered it in its purer days. The rooms of the house are spacious, and there is something of elegance in their arrangement; yet the whole is marked by great simplicity. All the regard one could wish seems to have been shown to the sacredness of these public relics, and all things have been kept very nearly as Washington left them. Money made in the stocks can purchase the bedizenry of our city drawing-rooms; but these elevating associations, which no gold can buy, no popular favor win, which can only be inherited, these are the heir-looms, the traditionary titles and pensions, inalienable, not conferred, which a republic allows to the descendants of her great servants.

Let every American, and especially every young American, visit this place, and catch, if he can, something of its spirit. It will make an impression upon him which he may keep through life. It will teach him the story and lessons of the past so as no printed page can teach them. From amid the small machinery of day and week politics, he may learn what was once the tone of public life. It will enlarge his patriotism, elevate his notions of the public service, and call out some sense of veneration and loyalty towards the institutions of his country and the memory of her mighty dead; so that YOUNG AMERICA may, as there is some hope she may, bring back the elements which dignified the first eight years of our constitutional history.

As the afternoon rew to a close, and we were obliged to take our leave, regret from parting from our courteous entertainers, was lost in the grand and solemn impression made by all around us. Nothing was real. Every thing acted through the imagina. tion. Each object was dim with associations, and seemed but the exponent of some thought or emotion, the shadow of something great and past. The whole was enchanted ground; and the occupants seemed privileged persons, whom the guardian spirits of the place allowed to remain its tenants and keepers. When the young proprietor took leave of us at the piazza, he stood where Washington had stood to welcome and to part from the immortal men of France and America. He stood there his representative to a third generation. It may well be supposed that as we rode slowly home, our thoughts were in no ordinary course. We repassed the gate, the rivulet, and the open field, but still we were on enchanted ground. So impressed was I with this feeling, that had I met a procession of the great men of the past, riding slowly towards the mansion of their companion in arms and in the cabinet, it would have seemed only a natural consummation. It was not until we had reached the town, and our horses' hoofs struck upon the pavement, that the illusion was fairly broken.

The following was found inscribed on the back of a small portrait of Washington at Mount Vernon. It was written by some unknown visitor, supposed to have been an English traveller:

History and Tradition are explored in vain,
For a Parallel to his Character.
In the Annals of Modern Greatness
Ile stands alone;
And the noblest names of antiquity,
Lose their Lustre in his Presence.
Born the Benefactor of Mankind,
He united all the qualities necessary
To an illustrious career.
Nature made him great,
He made himself virtuous.

Called by his country to the defence of her Liberties,
He triumphantly vindicated the rights of humanity:
And on the Pillars of National Independence
Laid the foundations of a great republic.
Twice invested with supreme magistracy,
By the unanimous voice of a free people
He surpassed in the Cabinet
The Glories of the Field.

And voluntarily resigning the Sceptre and the Sword,
Retired to the shades of Private Life.
A spectacle so new and so sublime
Was contemplated with the profoundest admiration.
And the name of WASHINGTON,
Adding new lustre to humanity,

Resounded to the remotest regions of the earth.

Magnanimous in youth,
Glorious through life,
Great in Death.

His highest ambition, the Happiness of Mankind;
His noblest Victory, the conquest of himself.
Bequeathing to posterity the inheritance of his fame,
And building his monument in the hearts of his countrymen.
HE LIVED-The Ornament of the 18th Century.
HE DIED-Regretted by a Mourning World.

Gunston Hall, which was the seat of the celebrated GEORGE MASON, stands on an elevated and commanding site overlooking the Potomac.

Mr. Jefferson said that he was "of the first order of wisdom, among those who acted on the theatre of the revolution, of expansive mind, profound judgment, cogent in argument, learned in the lore of our former constitution, and earnest for the republican change on democratic principles. His eloquence was neither flowing nor smooth; but his language was strong, his manner most impressive, and strengthened by a dash of biting criticism when provocation made it seasonable." Mr. Mason was the framer of the constitution of Virginia, and a member of the convention which formed the federal constitution, but he did not sign that instrument. In conjunction with Patrick Henry, he opposed its adoption in the Virginia convention, believing that it would tend to the conversion of the government into a monarchy. He also opposed the slave trade with great zeal. He died at his seat in the autumn of 1792, aged 67 years.

The annexed epitaph was copied from a tombstone on the banks of Neabsco Creek, in October, 1837. It is, without doubt, the oldest monumental inscription in the United States. From the earliness of the date, 1608, it is supposed that the deceased was a companion of Capt. John Smith on one of his exploratory voyages.

Here lies ye body of Lieut. William Herris, who died May ye 16th, 1608: aged 065 years; by birth a Britain, a good soldier; a good husband and neighbor.

FAUQUIER.

FAUQUIER was created in 1759, from Prince William, and named from Francis Fauquier, Gov. of Va. from 1758 to 1767. Its greatest length is 45 miles, mean breadth 16. The surface is agreeably diversified, and the soil, when judiciously cultivated, susceptible of high improvement, and very productive. In the county exist valuable beds of magnesia and soapstone, and there are several gold mines worked by the farmers with tolerable profit, at intervals of leisure from their agricultural labors. Pop., whites 10,501, slaves 10,708, free colored 688; total, 21,891.

Warrenton, the county-seat, is 102 miles NNW. from Richmond. It is a beautiful village in the heart of the county, adorned with shade-trees. standing upon an eminence commanding a fine view of some of the spurs of the Blue Ridge. It contains about a dozen mercantile stores, 1 Episcopal, 1 Presbyterian, and 1 Methodist church, a fine male academy where ancient and modern languages are taught, a female academy in excellent repute, a newspaper printing office, the county buildings, among which is a handsome court-house, (shown in the annexed view,) and a population of about 1,400. An excellent macadamized road leads from here to Alexandria. Among the anecdotes we have gathered "by the way," the one herewith presented is, perhaps, worthy of insertion. Some thirty or more years since, at the close of a long summer's day, a stranger entered this village. He was alone and on foot, and his appearance was any thing but prepossessing. His garments, coarse and dust-covered, indicated an individual in the humbler walks. From a cane resting across his shoulders was suspended a handkerchief containing his clothing. Stopping in front of Turner's tavern, he took from his hat a paper and handed it to a gentleman standing on the steps: it read as follows

The celebrated historian and naturalist, VOLNEY, needs no recommendation from G. WASHINGTON

There are several other villages in Fauquier. Upperville, at the foot of the Blue Ridge, in the ww. angle of the county, is a new and flourishing village in a very rich agricultural country, on the main road from Winchester to Alexandria. It contains 1 Met., 1 Epis., and 1 Baptist church, and a population of about 500. Paris

and Somerville contain each about 40, and New Baltimore 20 dwellings.

The Fauquier White Sulphur Springs are 6 miles sw. of Warrenton. The improvements are very extensive, and the grounds beautifully adorned with shrubbery. These springs are very popular, and of easy access from the eastern cities.

JOHN MARSHALL, late Chief Justice of the United States, was born at a locality called Germantown, in this county, 9 miles below Warrenton. The house in

which he was born is not in existence. When he was quite young, the family moved to Goose's Creek, under Manassa's Gap, near the Blue Ridge, and still later to Oak Hill, where the family lived at the commencement of the revolution. His father, Thomas Marshall, was a planter of limited means and education, but of strong natural powers, which, cultivated by observation and reflection, gave him the reputation of extraordinary ability. He served with distinction in the revolution, as a colonel in the continental army. John was the eldest of fifteen children. The narrow fortune of Col. Marshall, and the sparsely inhabited condition of Fauquier, compelled him to be almost exclusively the teacher of his children, and to his instructions the Chief-Justice said, "he owed the solid foundation of all his success in life." He early implanted in his eldest son a taste for English literature, especially for poetry and history. At the age of twelve, John had transcribed the whole of Pope's Essay on Man, and some of his Moral Essays; and had committed to memory many of the most interesting passages of that distinguished poet.

At the age of 14 he was placed with the Rev. Mr. Campbell, in Westmoreland, where, for a year, he was instructed in Latin, and had for a fellow-student James Monroe. The succeeding year was passed at his father's, where he continued the study under the Rev. Mr. Thompson, a Scotch gentleman, which "was the whole of the classical tuition he ever obtained. By the assistance of his father, however, and the persevering efforts of his own mind, he continued to enlarge his knowledge, while he strengthened his body by hardy, athletic exercises in the open air. He engaged in field sports; he indulged his solitary meditations amidst the wildest scenery of nature; he delighted to brush away the earliest dews of the morning." " To these early habits in a mountain region he owed a vigorous constitution. The simple manner of living among the people of those regions of that early day, doubtless contributed its share. He ever recurred with fondness to that primitive mode of life, when he partook with a keen relish balm tea and mush; and when the females used thorns for pins.

In the summer of 1775 he was appointed Lieut. in the "Minute Battalion," and had an honorable share in the battle of Great Bridge. In July, 1776, he was appointed 1st Lieut. in the 11th Virginia regiment, on the contine tal establishment, which marched to the north in the ensuing winter; and in May, 1777, he was promoted to a captaincy. He was in the skirmish at Iron Hill, and at the b. 'tles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. He was one of that body of men, never surpassed in the history of the world, who, unpaid, unclothed, unfed, tracked the snows of Valley Forge with the blood of their footsteps in the rigorous winter of 1778, and yet turned not their faces from their country in resentment, or from their enemies in fear.

That part of the Virginia line which was not ordered to Charleston, (S. C.,) being in effect dissolved by the expiration of the term of enlistment of the soldiers, the officers (among whom was Captain Marshall) were, in the winter of 1779-80, directed to return home, in order to take charge of such men as the state legislature should raise for them. It was during this season of inaction that he availed himself of the opportunity of attending a course of law lectures given by Mr. Wythe, afterwards chancellor of the state; and a course of lectures on natural philosophy, given by Mr. Madison, president of William and Mary College in Virginia. He left this college in the summer vacation of 1780, and obtained a license to practise law. In October he returned to the array, and continued in service until the termination of Arnold's invasion. After this period, and before the invasion of Phillips, in February, 1781, there being a redundancy of officers in the Virginia line, he resigned his commission.

During the invasion of Virginia, the courts of law were not reopened until afte be capitulation of Lord Cornwallis. Immediately after that event, Mr. Marshall m menced the practice of law, and soon rose into distinction at the bar.

In the spring of 1782, he was elected a member of the state legislature, and in the autumn of the same year, a member of the executive council. In January, 1783, he married Miss Ambler, the daughter of a gentleman who was then treasurer of the state, and to whom he had become attached before he left the army. This lady lived for nearly fifty years after her marriage, to partake and enjoy the distinguished honors of her husband. In 1784, he resigned his seat at the council-board in order to return to the bar; and he was immediately afterwards again elected a member of the legislature for the county of Fauquier, of which he was then only nominally an inhabitant, his actual residence being at Richmond. In 1787 he was elected a member from the county of Henrico; and though at that time earnestly engaged in the duties of his profession, he embarked largely in the political questions which then agitated the state, and indeed the whole confederacy.

Every person at all read in our domestic history must recollect the dangers and difficulties of those days. The termination of the revolutionary war left the country impoverished and exhausted by its expenditures, and the national finances at a low state of depression. The powers of Congress under the confederation, which even during the war were often prostrated by the neglect of a single state to enforce them, became in the ensuing peace utterly relaxed and inefficient.

Credit, private as well as public, was destroyed. Agriculture and commerce were crippled. The delicate relation of debtor and creditor became daily more and more embarrassed and embarrassing; and, as is usual upon such occasions, every sort of expedient was resorted to by popular leaders, as well as by men of desperate fortunes, to inflame the public mind, and to bring into odium those who labored to preserve the public faith, and to establish a more energetic government. The whole country was soon divided into two great parties, the one of which endeavored to put an end to the public evils by the establishment of a government over the Union, which should be adequate to all its exigencies, and act directly on the people; the other was devoted to state authority, jealous of all federal influence, and determined at every hazard to resist its increase.

It is almost unnecessary to say, that Mr. Marshall could not remain an idle or indifferent spectator to such scenes. As little doubt could there be of the part he would take in such a contest. He was at once arrayed on the side of Washington and Madison. In Virginia, as everywhere else, the principal topics of the day were paper money, the