University of Virginia Library

Benjamin Waterhouse to Thomas Jefferson

I rejoice, and so will you, that I am enabled to inform you that our aged friend Mr Adams
has recovered, remarkably, from that sunken state of debility which appeared to indicate his
dissolution last November, & the following winter. He cannot, besure, walk without help,
nor see objects distinctly, neither can he feed himself; but he sleeps well & wakes refreshed,
& eats very hearty. From a mere whisper, he has regained a firm voice & a good flow of
spirits, and his functions are again obedient to the will. His sense of smelling is so good, that
about then days ago, he told me he had not a good night's rest, owing to his being disturbed,
soon after he got into bed, by the smell of tar, or something burning, which he was fearful
was within his own house, and which proved to be burning of the woods in the State of
Maine, & in Nova Scotia, & which the papers say was perceptible at Washington.

Mr Adams was able, about 3 weeks ago, to accompany his son, in a carriage, on the field of
review, not far from his own house, where a brigade of infantry & artillry were display'd.
Althô he could not see distinctly, he could hear the acclamations of the camp, & surrounding
multitude, at the sight of himself and his son. In my system of therapeuticks, at the head of
cordials, I place popular acclamations, for those whose constituion they may suit, which are
by far the greatest part of mankind. But all this, however pleasing, is not to be the burden of
my letter.

Yesterday Mr Simon Willard called on me, and Said that he had received a proposition, or
some inquiries for "Mr Jefferson's University"; but that he heard that the price for it of eight
hundred dollrs. was thought too high; that therefore he had called on me to explain all about
it, [for Willard is a man who cannot express himself to his own satisfaction to strangers.]
and to request my friendship in the business, & which I readily promised him.

I have Known Mr Simon Willard between 30 & 40 years, and have ample reason to esteem
him for his ingenuity as an artist, and integrity as a man. It is very seldom, if ever, that he
comes into Cambridge without calling on me; and it is not often that I pass by his door in
Roxbury without stopping to look at some speciman of his skill; so that I Know as much of
him, & more perhaps, than any one in Cambridge, and have a respectable opinion of the
fairness of his character, & particularly of his disinterestedness; for he is a man who loves
reputation more than money, and he has, accordingly, more of the first than the last.

He has business enough; but is desirious, I should say, very ambitious to make your clock;
and I see clearly that he would be mortified if any other one made it. He says he can make a
clock of the dimensions required, for 600 dolrs. which shall go well perhpas 20 years, after
which it is commonly a plague, and a bill of expense. He made such an one for this
University, and they have repented ever since that they did not proceed by his advice.
Several younger clockmakers have underworked him in Boston, & those who employed
them have also repented. He told the President there that an 800 dolrs. clock would be, in a
long run, cheapest. A church in Boston, where our great merchant Mr. Gray had a voice,
took his advice, and he made them a clock that is looked up to as the standard time piece of
the city. It is said, that it does not vary a minute in three months. He made another for a large
& splendid church in New York, with three dials, for which he asked 1,100 dolrs. and
received 1,200, considered the best specimen of American horology. In this sum was
included his labour & attention in putting it up.--

The striking of the University clock in this place is not heard commonly more than a mile. It
is about ¼ of a mile from my house, & its bell & dial full in sight from the table whre I am
writing, yet, were the wind from my house towards it, it might strike every hour through the
24 without my noticing it; nevertheless the bell, is I conjecture, 400 pounds weight. The
bell, I take it, and the clock, are seperate articles, as no clock maker is called on here to
make a time piece, but for a tower already provided with a bell. I have been thinking since
my conversation with Willard, that you might substitute for a bell, the Chinese Goonge,
which I suppose, unless the novelty of the thing deceived me, might be heard two miles, or
at least 1½--or in other words, from Charlott's ville to Montecello. The only one I ever saw
in this country, was in a Museum in Baltimore Kept by one of the Peale's, who is a painter.
It is one peice of sonorous metal, in shape & size not unlike a alrge tamboureen. The
Chinese use it instead of a bell, and so might we. But should you have a bell, I should advize
you to import it from England. Of the numerous bells in Boston, the English ones are
decidedly the best. At Newport R. Island, there is one large Danish-bell, cast in
Copenhagen; but it does not speak English. I have so much of the obtuse nerve of John Bull,
my mother being an Englishwoman, that I take pleasure in loud sounds, such as drums, bells
& cannon, hence my attention to the "iron tongue & brazen-mouth" of Shakesp. for when
the wind sets fromthe city of Boston, & in a peculiar state of the atmosphere, I stand at my
door to enjoy the music of her bells, and I have thought I could discover the predominancy
of the London bells. I used to tell my children that one of the earliest-cast American bells in
Boston was a classical-bell, or Virgil's-bell--"bella, harida, bella!"--

I observed in one of our news papers, within a week past, the death of the "Rev" Dr Parish,
at or near Andover; but no other notice of him, as usual, when clergymen die. I have
understood he lived poor and neglected. Dr Osgood shared a better fate, he died in pretty
good circumstances, and left behind him a tolerable volume of sermons, but not one of a
marked political cast. Even Timothy Pickering has testified some compunction for his
railings, and at a late large publick meeting at Salem, he was the first man that came forward
to greet the President of the U.S. and to follow him in a long procession through the
principle streets of that most ancient town of New England.

Excuse this long and meddlesome epistle, and allow the motive to compensated its
tediousness, and believe me to be, with an high degree of respect, your steady friend

Benjn. Waterhouse

ALS, DLC:TJ, 4p, with TJ docket "Waterhouse Dr. Benj. Cambridge. Oct. 22. 25."