Through My Eyes tour is a 45-minute immersive experience to step back and see Mount Vernon through the eyes of the people who knew George Washington best. An actor portraying a character such as Washington’s granddaughter, personal secretary, or farm manager guides you across the estate as they go about their daily activities, making several stops along the way. Besides the general admission tickets, we had to purchase an additional ticket for this tour. The tour started at the main entrance to the Mansion Circle.
This is one of my favorite parts of the mansion.
Our tour guide was one of George Washington’s nephews. We started the tour at the mansion and moved towards the Gardens to explore the lawns, groves, gardens, and views that George Washington designed.
We learned that George Washington’s design for his estate included four separate gardens covering more than six acres. The gardens served many purposes, from testing new varieties of plants to producing vegetables and fruit to providing floral displays. We started with the Upper Garden. The building in the picture below is a Green House.
Here is a French formal parterre, a flat area in a garden, with plants arranged in a formal design, created by Washington in 1785 in front of the Green House. The parterre’s design is most likely an expression of the affection Washington felt towards Laffayette, his aide-de-camp during the Revolutionary War, whom he considered an adopted son.
We walked around the garden trying to recognize familiar plants and enjoying the flowers.
We crossed the huge Bowling Green in front of the mansion.
Then, we followed our guide to the Lower Garden, which supplied vegetables for the estate.
Then, we moved towards the estate grounds with a view of the Potomac river. On our way there, “Washington’s nephew” explained to us the meaning of a ha-ha wall, which is a recessed landscape design element that creates a vertical barrier while preserving the views. According to Wikipedia, the name “ha-ha” is derived from the unexpected (i.e., amusing) moment of discovery when, on approach, the recessed wall suddenly becomes visible.
Before mechanical lawn mowers, a common way to keep large areas of grassland trimmed was to allow livestock, usually sheep, to graze the grass. A ha-ha prevented grazing animals on large estates from gaining access to the lawn and gardens adjoining the house, giving a continuous vista to create the illusion that the garden and landscape were one and undivided. The Ha-ha wall in the picture below is a brick structure on the lower right.
We had to take a picture next to this beautiful evergreen tree.
Another view of the estate mansion.
The tour ended with a view of the Potomac River. Some people found seats on the patio or on the grass and continued enjoying the view and the grounds. Dave and I went to look at the outbuildings, which I will show in the next post.
