Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. I.djvu/75

Rh the coat lined with red silk, and ornamented with silver trimmings; his waistcoat was embroidered white satin, his knee-buckles were of gold, and his hair was powdered. The bride was attired in a white satin quilted petticoat, a heavily corded white silk over-dress, diamond buckles, and pearl ornaments. The governor, many members of the legislature, British officers, and the neighboring gentry were present in full court dress. Washington's body-servant, Bishop, a tall negro, to whom he was much attached and who had accompanied him on all his military campaigns, stood in the porch, clothed in the scarlet uniform of a soldier of the royal army in the time of George II. The bride and her three attendants drove back to the White House in a coach drawn by six horses led by liveried postilions, Col. Washington and an escort of cavaliers riding by its side. Mrs. Washington's life at Mount Vernon for the subsequent seventeen years partook much of the style of the English aristocracy. She was a thorough housekeeper, and entertained constantly. Her daughter, Martha Parke Custis, who died in the seventeenth year of her age, was known as the "dark lady," on account of her brunette complexion, and was greatly loved by the neighboring poor, to whom she frequently ministered. On her well preserved portrait, painted by Charles Wilson Peale, is inscribed "A Virginia Beauty."