University of Virginia Library

LETTER CLXXXVII.

Your letter of the 25th has just now come in, with my coffee,
and I find it more exhilarating than even that refreshing beverage;
although I am now taking a long (possibly, a final)
farewell of it. My disease has gained upon me so rapidly,
that I have just despatched a note to my good friend, Frank
K., requesting a daily supply of new milk from Mrs. K's.
dairy. To it and crackers (bis cuites) I shall confine myself
strictly, for at least six weeks; unless I find, at the end of one-third
of that term, that animal food, of a solid kind, is indispensable
to me. I have used no other bread besides crackers,
(Jamieson's,) heated over again, for some time. My
breakfast is two of these, and as many cups of coffee; but not
like old E's. At dinner, I take the lean of roast mutton, or
the breast of a turkey or pheasant, (without gravy,) and rice;
abstaining from salted and smoke-dried meats and vegetables.
My drink is toast and water, made by boiling the latter, and
pouring it on highly toasted bread—so that it acquires the colour
of Cogniac brandy. I had, until the day before yesterday,
indulged in a few glasses of genuine Madeira; shunning
all other liquors, whatsoever;—but now I have given up
that indulgence: for my experience in 1817, proved the hurtful
effects of stimuli, in any shape; and I now labour under
the same form of disease. I have taken, once or twice, one
grain of calomel, at night, and, frequently, magnesia and rhubarb.
I have also used alkalies, in the form of salt of tartar
and potashes: the latter having been recommended to me;
although I cannot see in what it can differ from the other.
Yesterday, I dined out with the speaker. I would not have
gone for any other "dignitary" here. I made Johnny carry
my cloth shoes, and a bottle of toast and water. The colour
deceived the company, except one or two near me, whom I

was obliged to let into the secret, to preserve my monopoly.
Notwithstanding all this, I am persuaded that I was the liveliest
man in the whole company; and, like Falstaff, was not
only merry myself, but the cause of mirth in others. Mr. Secretary
C., I think, will remember, for some time, some of
my rejoinders to him, half joke and three parts earnest, (as
Paddy says,) on the subject of the constitutional powers of
Congress, and some other matters of minor note—although
he tried to turn them off with great good humour. To say
the truth, I have a sneaking liking for C., for "by-gone's"
sake; and if he had let alone being a great man, should have
"liked him hugely," as Squire Western hath it.

I had the pleasure to pass a very pleasant evening in Georgetown,
at B's., (olim C's.,) on Thursday last. I dined with
Mr. and Mrs. O., and Mr. K., of New York. After dinner,
Miss O. had a small party of about half a dozen, exclusively
of Mrs. F., who sang for us some Scotch airs, in a very
pleasing style. Among others, she sang "There's nae Luck
aboot the House" very well, and "Auld Lang Syne." When
she came to the lines

I cast my mind's eye around for such a "trusty feese," and
could light only on T., (who, God be praised! is here,) and
you may judge how we meet. During the time that Dr. B.
was at Walker M's. school, (from the spring of 1784, to the
end of 1785,) I was in Bermuda; and (although he was well
acquainted with both my brothers) our acquaintance did not begin
until nearly twenty years afterwards. Do you know that I
am childish enough to regret this very sensibly? for, although
I cannot detract from the esteem or regard in which I hold him,
nor lessen the value I set upon his friendship, yet, had I known
him then, I think I should enjoy "Auld Lang Syne" more,
when I hear it sung, or hum it to myself, as I often do.

You may remember how bitter cold it was on Thursday.
The change took place about midnight of Tuesday. I slept

the fore part of it with my window hoisted, and rose about
two o'clock on Wednesday morning, and shut it down. Well!
I rode from Georgetown home, after ten o'clock, without suffering,
in the least, from the cold, except a little in the fingers.
This was neither owing to the warmth infused by Mr. O's.
very fine old Madeira, nor by his daughters' beauty and accomplishments;
although either, I believe, would have kept
up the excitement for a longer time than it took Wildfire "to
glance" along "the Avenue." But, superadded to the influence
of wine, and beauty, and music, and good company, I
had a leathern "justicore," as old Edie would call it, (justaau-corps,)
under my waistcoat—which I recommend to all
who desire to guard against our piercing winds—and cloth
shoes over my boots. My horsemanship was, indeed, put
into requisition, on meeting a rattling hackney coach, with
lights, driving at a furious rate. It was where "the Avenue"
is crossed by a gutter, and impeded by ice. Nevertheless, I
did what Cambey[1] could not do with his wretched curb-bridle—and,
as Simon[2] says, "I consequenced her with a snapper."
My disease, which had been very troublesome for
some days, and particularly that morning, and which I had
checked, "for the nonce," with absorbents, recurred, with tenfold
violence, in the night. My apartment is unwholesomely
warm, in spite of all I can safely do to ventilate it. I rise
before day, make up my fire, and, at day light, raise my windows,
(unless the "weather" drives in,) however cold it may
be. The stage-coach men return my salute every morning,
and I find the air quite "caller" and refreshing.

I have just got a letter from G., in Frederickburg, to whom
I wrote, immediately on the receipt of your penultimate. It
is dated yesterday, (the 26th.) He writes, "Your horse was,
agreeably to your expectations, delivered here on yesterday,"
(which "on," prefixed to "yesterday," is a wretched barbarism,
of modern date. In poetry, I have seen "on yesternight;
but the day was never put upon stilts, even in blank

verse.) "I had anticipated your wishes as to having him well
shod; the shoes on him being very much worn, and one of
them broken. He is in pretty good condition, and, I promise
you, shall not be worsted by remaining in my stable," &c.

If you can, conveniently, send me the prices of the live
stock, (a list of which I enclose you,) purchased by "Mr.
L.," I will thank you. Return the list, or get a copy of it.

If the carriage be actually described by J. H. ["as good as
new, having been used only two or three times,"] and is not
too heavy for a pair of horses, I will buy it, if it can be had on
a reasonable profit to the coach maker who bought it. Dr. B.
will, I am sure, be good enough to look at it with you, and
give me his opinion about it. I want one, sur le champ,
sooner than I can have it made, and I am on the purchase of
a pair of boys, to replace poor old Sterling and his mate
Steady. Spot, I fear, is irreparably ruined, by a disease, which,
when of the worst type, is as incurable as the glanders, or farey.
I succeeded, you may remember, with poor old Rosetta, but
she always carried a stiff neck; but that case was treated "secundum
artem," and not in the stupid, sottish style of our
soi-distant farriers.

Show this long tirade of egotism to the doctor, and tell him
that I suspect every hack attorney in the house is to "let off"
a speech on the bankrupt bill; although, from the tenor of the
conversation, yesterday, at the speaker's table, I thank Heaven,
my hopes of its defeat are greatly strengthened.

I pray you, take to Latin and French. If I were you, I
would learn Italian and Spanish. As I am not you, but myself,
I have begun the latter tongue at a more advanced age,
than that at which the elder Cato acquired Greek.

My love to E. You may give her yours too, if you can
prevail upon her to accept it. She is not "forbidden fruit."