ke his uncle, of Saint John's Church. He was a fine, humanitarian
gentleman. In a recent book, called _Father Takes Us to Washington_, he
is accused of having treated his dozen slaves in a terrible manner. His
great-grandson has just come out with a refutation of such treatment and
said that Mr. Key freed all of his slaves before his death in 1843 and
that he was one of the founders of the American Colonization Society,
which had for its purpose the freedom of the Negroes and their
colonization on the West Coast of Africa. Of course, it was in James
Monroe's administration that Liberia was founded and its capital named
Monrovia.

In later life, Francis Scott Key moved to Frederick, Maryland, where he
lies buried. The beautiful new bridge, only a stone's throw from his
home, bears his name. It replaces the aqueduct bridge which was built
about 1880, and before that, there was a bridge which carried the canal
across the river to continue on its way to Alexandria. I cannot remember
it, but I have been told that, looking across from the Virginia side, it
was a very picturesque sight with its long arches reaching above the
bridge, carrying its dripping load beneath, and standing against the
western sky, the towers of Georgetown College.

Chapter VIII

_High Street, Prospect Avenue, the College, the Convent, and the
Threlkelds_

Up the hill from Bridge (M) Street on the east side of High Street
(Wisconsin Avenue), a door or two above where the Farmers and Mechanics
Branch of Riggs Bank now stands, was a fine old house where the Potomac
Fire Insurance Company had its first home. But long before that, it was
the home of Mrs. Caperton, whose son, Hugh Caperton, became a well-known
lawyer here.

At the present 1239 Wisconsin Avenue, where Becker's Paint Store has
been for a good many years, was the house which Robert Peter gave to his
eldest daughter, Elizabeth, when, at the age of sixteen, she married her
cousin, James Dunlop, in 1787. This old letter gives some news about the
wedding.

It is addressed to: John Davidson, Esq., Merchant, Annapolis:

George Town August 17th, 1787

Dear Sir:

Without any ceremony or preamble I have undertaken to enclose you
the measure for a pair of Stays, not that I suppose that you are to
make them, but that you may undertake to engage Mrs. Davidson's
interest to undertake the direction of them.

They are for a daughter of mine who is tollerably ni