Friday, October 05, 1860
The trip was covered extensively by the British press, including reporting by The Times of London correspondent Nicholas A. Woods. Writing about the visit to Mount Vernon, Woods provided a detailed account of the deteriorating state Mount Vernon. In his description of the tomb, Woods (somewhat hyperbolously) observed that “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!” Woods wryly noted the historic irony of the event, explaining that there was “something grandly suggestive of historical retribution in the reverential awe of the Prince of Wales, the great-grandson of George III, standing bareheaded at the foot of the coffin of Washington.”