The First President in London

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George Washington is claimed to said that he would never set foot in England or London, depending on which source you read. In 1921, the Commonwealth of Virginia present to the UK a bronze statue of the first president. So that he would remained true to his word, there is layer of soil from his native Virginia under his feet. So far I have not been able to verify if this true, but everyone tells me it is! The statue was cast from a mould made of the marble original that is in Richmond, Virginia. Commissioned in 1794 by Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, the French sculptor used a plaster cast of Washington's face in completion of the work. Other copies are dotted around the United States, as well as one at Versailles Palace, in France. The mould has since been destroyed. Washington's left hand rest on a bundle of rods. These are ‘fasces', the Roman symbol of authority. There are 13 rods representing the original 13 States. Hard to read but the inscription on the plinth reads Presented to the people of Great Britain and Ireland by the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1921. The Washington statue is in Trafalgar Square and looks down on Whitehall, the site of King Charles I execution, where England became a Republic until Charles II reclaimed the throne, 11 years later in 1660.