After graduation from St. John's, in that famous class known as the
"Tenth Legion" because of its brilliancy, Francis Scott Key studied
law in the office of his uncle, Philip Barton Key, in Annapolis, where
his special chum was Roger Brooke Taney, who persuaded him to begin
the practice of his profession in Frederick City. In 1801 the youthful
advocate opened his law office in the town from which the
Revolutionary Key had marched away to Boston to join Colonel
Washington's troops. Francis Key invited his friend to visit Terra
Rubra with him, and Mr. Taney found the old plantation home so
fascinating that many visits followed. Soon there was a wedding at
beautiful Terra Rubra, when pretty, graceful Ann Key became the wife
of the future Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

In 1802, at Annapolis, in the mahogany wainscoted drawing-room of the
old Lloyd house, built in 1772, Key was married to Mary Tayloe Lloyd.

After a few years of practice in Frederick City, Francis Scott Key
removed to Georgetown, now West Washington. Here at the foot of what
is known as M Street, but was Bridge Street in the good old days
before Georgetown had given up her picturesque street names for the
insignificant numbers and letters of Washington, half a block from the
old Aqueduct Bridge, stands a two-storied, gable-roofed,
dormer-windowed house, bearing in black letters the inscription, "The
Key Mansion." Below is the announcement that it is open to the public
from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. daily, excepting Sunday. On a placard between
two front doors are printed the words, "Home of Francis Scott Key,
author of The Star-Spangled Banner," the patriotic color-scheme being
shown in the white placard and blue and red lettering.

For more than a century the house has stood there, and the circling