LETTER CLXXXVI.
Your letter of the 23d, is just now received, and I am gratified
at once more getting my horse; or, rather, at the prospect
of getting him. You say nothing of his condition—
shoes, &c. I am afraid you were too much in a hurry about
him; because you know it will take Johnny two days, in the
stage, to get to Frederickburg. Let me request you to mention
his plight, when you received him.
Is it not, in a great measure, (if not altogether,) your own
fault, that you are without valuable standard medical authors?
Do you remember my asking you for a list of such books,
that I might transmit it to London? It would but have diminished
the balance due me by those swindlers, T. & M.
I should suppose, however, that the Richmond library would
afford you some good reading. What has become of your
Latin and French?—the last, especially.
Last night, I had the pleasure to hear Mrs. F. (whose concert
I attended on Tuesday evening) sing, in a private party,
at Mrs. Q's. apartments, at Georgetown. I say Mrs. O., although
my invitation to dinner was from the husband—and,
for the evening, from the daughter. She sang "There's nae
Luck aboot the House," and some other simple airs, very pleasingly;
(although I have heard them, frequently, better sung;)
but I found she could not accompany herself on the piano, being
out of time, and playing, sometimes, false notes. Nevertheless,
we had a very pleasant party; and, at half past ten, I
mounted Wildfire, and alone, (Witch being lame—for life, I
fear,) came home like a flash of lightning. She is very scary,
(the word is not English, and I have no time to seek, in my
mind, for a better,) and, at the sight of a carriage, rattling over
the frozen road, with two glaring lamps in front, meeting her,
put all my horsemanship in requisition. The cold was, and
is, intense.
Tell Dr. B. I have got his letter of the 23d, but am deep
with T., on the bankrupt bill, and cannot write by this
mail.
Yours, truly,
JOHN RANDOLPH, of Roanoke.
A very skilful physician, who has studied my constitution,
going on three years, there is no salvation for me but
removal to another climate, and a particular course, which he
has prescribed.
