one child, Martha Custis Kennon. To Mrs. Kennon and her daughter
Mrs. Thomas Peter bequeathed Tudor Place, having long survived her
husband, and her other children having received their inheritance.
Martha Custis Kennon married her cousin, Dr. Armistead Peter, the son of
Major George Peter, and so the original surname came back to the place,
which has never been out of the one family.

Until the death of Mrs. Kennon when they were, of course, divided, there
was at Tudor Place a very large and valuable collection of Washington
relics, fascinating things, among them Mrs. Washington's seed-pearl
wedding jewelry and dress, a set of china made for and presented to
General Washington by the French government, the bowl given him by the
Order of the Cincinnati, and numberless other interesting things. In a
corner of the central room, the saloon, as it is called, was the small
camp trunk always used by the General. The room on the east, off of
which opens the conservatory, is the drawing room; that to the west, the
parlor. The saloon opens out onto the temple, the round porch on the
south. The two large rooms at each side have lovely cornices, beautiful
marble mantels and handsome crystal chandeliers; long group windows to
the floor and very unusual doors of curly maple. At the debut tea of
Mrs. Kennon's granddaughter, I was helping to serve, when, seeing two
dear old ladies, one very short, the other very tall, both dressed in
simple black with big bonnets and long veils, looking about in the crowd
as if they were trying to see something particular, I went up and asked
them if I could bring them some refreshments. They said, "No, thank you,
we really don't want anything, we are just trying to see if there are
the same ornaments on the table as when Britannia was married." I found
out afterward that the ornaments were three beautiful alabaster groups
of classic figures. The two old ladies were Miss Mary and Miss Rosa
Nourse, of The Highlands.

Britannia Peter was a first cousin of Mary Custis, of Arlington, and was
one of the bridesmaids at the wedding there which united the daughter of
George Washington Parke Custis to the handsome United States army
officer, Robert Edward Lee. The friendship was an enduring one, and
General Lee visited Tudor Place when he paid his last visit to
Washington City in 1869.

Britannia Peter was bridesmaid for another first cousin, Helen Dunlop,
when she was married at Hayes to William Laird.