Potomac Bridge, and of the opposite Virginia and Maryland shores. The building is one hundred and seventy feet front and eighty-six deep; is built of white free stone, with Ionic pilasters, comprehending two lofty stories of rooms, crowned with a stone balustrade. The north front is ornamented with a lofty portico, of four Ionic columns in front, and projecting with three columns. The outer intercolumniation is for carriages to drive into, and place company under shelter; the middle space is the entrance for those visiters who come on foot; the steps from both lead to a broad platform in front of the door of entrance. The garden front is varied by having a rusticated basement story under the Ionic ordonnance, and by a semicircular projecting colonnade of six columns, with two flights of steps leading from the ground, to the level of the principal story.

In the interior, the north entrance opens immediately into a spacious hall of forty by fifty feet, furnished simply, with plain stuccoed walls. Advancing through a screen of Ionic columns, apparently of white marble, but only of a well executed imitation, in composition: the door in the centre opens into the oval room, or saloon, of forty by thirty feet-the walls covered with plain crimson flock paper, with deep gilded borders. The marble chimney-piece and tables, the crimson silk drapery of the window curtains and chairs, with the carpet of French manufacture, wove in one piece, with the arms of the United States in the centre, two large mirrors and a splendid cut glass chandelier, give the appearance of a rich and con

sistent style of decoration and finish. On each side of this room, and communicating therewith by large doors, is a square room of thirty by twentytwo feet. These three rooms form the suit of apartments in which company is usually received on parade occasions. To the west of these is the company dining-room, forty by thirty, and on the northwest corner is the family dining-room. All these rooms are finished handsomely, but less richly than the oval room; the walls are covered with green, yellow, white, and blue papers, sprinkled with gold stars and with gilt borders. The stairs, for family use, are in a cross entry at this end, with store-rooms, china closets, &c., between the two dining-rooms. On the east end of the house is the large banqueting room, extending the whole depth of the building, with windows to the north and south, and a large glass door to the east, leading to the terrace-roof of the offices. This room is eighty by forty feet, and twenty-two high; it is finished with handsome stucco-cornice. It has lately been fitted up in a very neat manner. The paper is of fine lemon-colour, with a rich cloth border. There are four mantels of black marble with Italian black and gold fronts, and handsome grates; each mantel is surmounted with a mirror, the plates of which measure one hundred by fiftyeight inches, framed in a very beautiful style, and a pair of rich ten-light lamps, bronzed and gilt, with a row of drops around the fountain; and a pair of French cepina vases, richly gilt and painted with glass shades and flowers. There are three handsome chandeliers of eighteen lights each, of

cut glass of remarkable brilliancy, in gilt mountings, with a number of gilt bracket-lights of five candles each. The carpet, which contains nearly five hundred yards, is of fine Brussels, of fawn, blue, and yellow, with red border. Under each chandelier is placed a round table of rich workmanship of Italian black and gold slabs-and each pier is filled with a table corresponding with the round tables, with splendid lamps on each of them. The curtains are of light blue moreen with yellow draperies, with a gilded eagle, holding up the drapery of each. On the cornices of the curtains in a line of stairs, and over the semicircle of the door, besides large' gilded and ornamented rays, are twenty-four gilded stars, emblematic of the States. The sofas and chairs are covered with blue damask satin. All the furniture corresponds in colour and style. The principal stairs on the left of the entrance hall, are spacious and covered with Brussels carpeting. On ascending these, the visiter to the President is led into a spacious antiroom, to wait for introduction in regular succession with others, and may have considerable time to look from the south windows upon the beautiful prospect before him; when in course to be introduced, he ascends a few steps and finds himself in the east corner chamber, the President's cabinet room, where every thing announces the august simplicity of our government. The room is about forty feet wide, and finished like those below. The centre is occupied by a large table, completely covered with books, papers, parchments, &c., and seems like a general repository of every thing that may be wanted for reference; while the President