Mount Vernon has
always been a place of pilgrimage because of the tomb of George Washington,
America’s secular saint. Prior to the outbreak of the American Civil
War, Mount Vernon was visited by HRH Prince Albert, Prince of Wales (later King
Edward VII). On October 5, 1860
President James Buchanan accompanied the Prince on a tour of Mount Vernon and
visited Washington’s tomb, which was not in very good shape. A British correspondent wrote, “No pious care
seems to have ever tended this neglected grave. . .It is here alone in its
glory, uncared for, unvisited, unwatched, with the night-wind for its only
mourner sighing through the waste of trees, and strewing the dead brown leaves
like ashes before the tomb. Such is the grave of Washington!”
After the First
World War another Prince of Wales visited.
On November 13, 1919, the future King Edward VIII visited Washington’s
grave and laid a wreath. The Prince also
planted a small English yew tree near the tomb.
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