1797] A HOUSEKEEPER 63 If you are in habits of free communication with Mr. Brooke or with others who had opportunities of judging competently of the qualifications and conduct of Mrs. Forbes as a housekeeper, I would thank you for ascertaining and giving it to me in as precise a manner as you can obtain it. Among other things it wd. be satisfactory to know. What country woman she is? Whether Widow or Wife? if the latter Where her husband is? What family she has? What her age is? Of what temper? Whether active and spirited in the execution of her business? Whether sober and honest? Whether much knowledge in Cookery, and understands ordering and setting out a Table? What her appearance is? With other matters which may occur to you to ask, and necessary for me to know. Mrs. Forbes will have a warm, decent and comfortable room to herself, to lodge in; and will eat of the Victuals from our Table, but not set at it, at any time with us, be her appearance what it may; for if this was once admitted, no line satisfactory to either party, perhaps, could be drawn thereafter. It might be well for me to know however whether this was admitted at Govr. Brookes, or not. Is it practicable do you think to get a good and well disposed Negro Cook on hire, or purchase? Mention this want of ours to Mrs. Forbes. She, from the interest she would have therein might make enquiry. Yours always and Affectionately. P. S. Since writing the foregoing Mrs. L. Washington informs me that Mr. Swan is anxious to learn from the Returns, or Records in the General Court. or from the best information you can obtain, whether it has been the invariable practice to Survey the Land Docked by a writ of Ad quod damnum; whether it has been frequently dispensed with, and what has been the consequence. Let me thank you for making this enquiry and furnishing me with the result of it." *To DOCTOR JAMES ANDERSON Mount Vernon, November 4, 1797. Sir: Your favours of the 21st of June and 3d of August last have both been received and are entitled to my best acknowledgments and thanks. The last was presented by William Spence, who arrived here the 27th. Ulto via New York, in very good health and in very good time, my old Gardener having left me, as I wished it might happen, about a fortnight before. For the prompt attention you paid to this business I feel myself under very great obligation; and shall strictly fulfil the engagement you have entered into on my behalf with Spence; who, though rather younger than I should have chosen (if time and circumstances had admitted of a choice) seems to be decent in his appearance, and as far as time and opportunity have hitherto allowed me to form an opinion is orderly in his conduct. Experience must decide on his skill as a Gardener. He speaks of this confidently, and goes to work handily, as one who knew what is to be done. He has deceived you or me however, with his tale of Matrimony; for he has brought no wife with him, and says it was a promise only, of marriage from the Girl you saw; which, ultimately, she would not com From a photostat of the original through the kindness of Judge E. A. Armstrong, of Princeton, N. J. 1797] AGRICULTURE 65 ply with. I am well satisfied as matters are, and perfectly approve, and thank you for every step you have taken in this business. This letter will, I expect, find you in your new abode and if my best wishes could contribute any thing to the happiness you must enjoy in the circle of an amiable family, I offer them to you with the utmost sincerity. The circumstance attending it, as related by yourself are not only singular, but from the independence with which it is accompanied, must be the source of pleasing reflections to you, rare indeed is the case, in countries composed, in great parts, of such numerous fleets and armies, as is that of G. Britain, that neither the father or any of a numerous off spring should be engaged in either, and be under no other controul than the Laws of the Country: When to this, the reflection, that all parts of it are in competent circumstances and happy, it must be highly gratifying to your feelings. A situation of this sort is free from cares and more to be envied than wealth or honours by a rational mind. Free as I now am from the toil, the cares and responsibility of public occupations and engaged in rural and Agricultural pursuits; I hope aided by the reflection of having contributed my best endeavours to promote the happiness and welfare of that Country which gave me, and my Ancestors birth, to glide peaceably and easily on in the shade of retirement; and with good will to all men until my time shall be no more. In doing this I promise myself more real enjoyment than in all the bustling with which I have been occupied for upwards of 40 years of my life which as the wise man says, is little more than vanity and vexation. I shall thank you for any information you can give me of the prospect of disposing of the Lands I had advertised for sale, and to be let but would have no engagements entered into respecting them as overtures are making to me in this Country part of them in both relations. for I pray you to accept my thanks for the addition to the two first volumes of your Essays on Agricultural Subjects and to be perfectly assured of the high Esteem etc. *To THE SECRETARY OF STATE [N. Y. P.L.] Mount Vernon, November 6, 1797. Dear Sir: Since writing to you a few days ago, I have been favoured with your letters of the 26th. and 30th. Ulto. 44 If you should have occasion to write to Mr. Parish ** of Hamburg, you would oblige me, by thanking him in my behalf, for his very polite and friendly offer of sending me any thing I might have occasion for from that place. It would be more formal than necessary, to introduce Mr. Bucknall's Orchardist to the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia otherwise than through you. If then you will be so good as to relate the manner in which it came, and present it with best respects to that body, I will thank you. With very great esteem and regard I am etc. *To SIR JOHN SINCLAIR my [N. Y. P. L.] Mount Vernon, November 6, 1797. Sir: Since I had the honor of writing you on the 15th of July, I have been favoured with your letter of the 13th of Feby. introductory of Thos. Macdonald Esqr. and your note of the 9th of June by Genl. Koscuisko; together with the Surveys, and papers accompanying both. For your goodness in sending them, I pray you to accept my best thanks, and that I may not be a "John Parish, formerly United States Consul at Hamburg, Germany. 1797] MOUNT VERNON REPAIRS 67 burthensome member of the Board, I enclose a small Bill of Exchange to be deposited in the hands of your Bookseller to defray the cost of the several copies of your works which may be forwarded to me. When this is expended, I will make another deposit for the same purpose. As neither of the notes, the receipt of which is acknowledged above, nor any other, has intimated in the most distant manner that my letters of the 10th and 11th of December (the latter a private one) had ever reached your hand, I now do, as well for the purpose of evincing that I was not inattentive to your request, as to give information which may yet (though late) be useful, forward a duplicate of the private letter from a Press copy taken at the time, and of my last also, of the 15th. of July; being more disposed to trouble you with a repetition of the sentiments then expressed than to lay under the suspicion of inattention to yr. commds. I can now, with more certainty than on the 15th. of July, inform you that lands have fallen in price; ascribable to two causes, the shocking depredations committed on our Commerce (within the last Six or eight months by the French) and the reduction in price of our produce. Both contributing to render Cash a scarce, and of course a valuable article. Our Crops of Grain are, in places, tolerable, but upon the whole below mediocrity in quantity, whilst the grain is fine. This also, that is the shortness of the Crop, will assist in reducing the price of lands still lower. An eight years absence from home (except occasional short visits to it) has thrown my buildings, and other matters of private concern, into so much disorder, that at no period of my life have I ever been more engaged than in the last six or eight months to repair and bring them into tune again. This has prevented me from looking into the Agricultural Surveys of the |