 | Letters of Mrs. Adams, |  |
TO MRS. SHAW.
I Do not expect to date you any more letters from this
place. Delightful and blooming garden, how much
shall I regret your loss! The fish-pond and the
fountain are just put in order; the trees are in blossom,
and the flowers are coming on in succession; the
forest trees are new clad in green, several beautiful
rows of which form arched bowers at the bottom of
our garden, the tops being cut so that they look like
one continued plain; their leaves and branches entwine,
and shade you entirely from the rays of the
sun. It will not be easy to find in the midst of a city
so charming a scene. I shall quit it, however, with
less reluctance, on account of my son's absence,
which would be more irksome to me here, than in a
country the language of which I shall be able to speak
without an interpreter, or so much twisting and
twirling of my tongue, and then pronouncing badly
at last. I expect to be more scrutinized in England
than here. "I said, I will take heed to my ways,"
is a text of holy writ fruitful of instruction in all
sustain public characters.
It is so long since I heard from my American
friends, that I begin to grow impatient. I had hopes
that another year's wandering would have put an
end to our pilgrimage. You can hardly form an
idea how difficult and expensive it is to be housekeeping
a few months at a time in so many different
countries. It has been Mr. Adams's fortune, ever
since he came abroad, not to live a year at a time
in one place. At the Hague he has a house and
furniture, but they could not be removed five hundred
miles; therefore it was necessary to hire a
house and furniture here, to buy table linen, bed
linen, china, glass, and plate. Here we have resided
eight months, and now we must quit this for
England. Removal in these countries is not so
easy a matter as in ours; for, however well you may
pack up your things for the purpose, they must undergo
so many scrutinies, besides paying heavy duties
for passing from one country to another. Of this
I can give you one instance, which happened a few
moments ago. A gentleman in one of the provinces
sent Mr. Adams a present of five bottles of wine
which he wished recommended in America, and this
was to serve as a sample. The duties, which we
had to pay upon only those five bottles, mounted
them up to three livres a-piece, and the real value
of the wine might be nine or ten coppers a bottle;
be sure, not more.
The injury which clothing sustains, in such long
I never related to you a droll adventure which happened
to me on my journey here. My friends advised
me, when I came abroad, to take my money in
crowns and dollars, as being the most advantageous
for me; but, when arrived, I found I could not part
with them without much loss, so I concluded to take
them with me to France. There were about two
hundred, which I had put into a strong bag, and at
the bottom of my travelling trunk they were placed,
in the middle of which I had put a large band-box
in which I had packed a very nice gauze bonnet,
four caps, handkerchiefs, &c., (to the amount of about
five guineas,) which I had made for me whilst I was
in London. The third day of our journey, when I
had occasion to open the trunk, I found a prodigious
black dust upon the top. I directed it to be taken
out, when O! terrible to behold, "dust to dust, and
ashes to ashes," nothing was left of all my rigging
but a few black rags; so that, when I got to Paris, I
could not be seen until I had sent to the milliner's
and bought a cap. You can carry nothing with any
safety, but what is upon the top of the carriage.
| Letters of Mrs. Adams, | |