when the British
soldiers set fire to the Capitol in 1814, and the two ladies sat at the
window of what is now the dining room of Tudor Place--the low part
between the main building and the western wing--and watched the
conflagration. You can imagine their grief as one saw the work of her
husband destroyed, and the other, the building which had been so much in
the mind and heart of her revered grandfather.

There is in existence a very lovely painting of Mrs. Peter at about the
time of her marriage; a sweet, young girl with light curls, and the
embodiment of daintiness. Suspended about her neck is, I think, the
miniature which General Washington had painted for her as a wedding
gift. When he asked her what she wanted she replied "a replica of
himself." He was much pleased that a young girl would want a portrait of
an old man! The photograph reproduced of Thomas Peter is from a portrait
done by him by his son-in-law, Captain William G. Williams.

While on a visit to Tudor Place occurred the death of Mrs. Peter's
mother, the former Eleanor Calvert. She was fifty-three years old, and
had borne twenty children.

[Illustration: MRS. THOMAS PETER (MARTHA PARKE CUSTIS)]

Mr. and Mrs. Peter had a family of eight children. Three of the
daughters had striking names: America, Columbia, and Britannia.

When General Lafayette paid his visit to Georgetown in 1824 it was, of
course, most natural that he should be entertained at Tudor Place, as
Mrs. Peter had known him in her childhood at Mount Vernon. At that time
America met her husband, Captain Williams, who was acting as an aide for
the Marquis. In later years, as chief of engineers on the staff of
General Zachary Taylor, Captain Williams was killed at the Battle of
Monterey. On that same visit Lafayette presented the youngest child,
Britannia, a little girl of nine, with a lovely little desk, now in the
National Museum in the loan collection of her grandson, Walter G. Peter.
On its under side it has an inscription in the handwriting of Martha
Custis Peter, telling her daughter its history.

Britannia Wellington Peter was born on January 27, 1815. She died the
day before her ninety-sixth birthday, and this editorial, from _The
Baltimore Sun_, gives a fine picture of the changes in the world in the
years covered by the span of her life:

A LONG AND INTERESTING LIFE

Mrs. Britannia Wellington Kennon, who died at Tudor Place, her
historic home in Georgetown, on th