The carriage returned the day before yesterday by which I recd your letter & the distressing information of your being still very unwell in consequence of the cold you carried with you from hence. I hope that with care & the proper application of medicines, you will soon remove your Complaint.
I have to return you my sincere thanks for the articles sent up by Captn Coard all of which I have recd safe. They are such things as are of great value to Town House Keepers it being difficult for them to get such. The Jugs I return.
After encountering a number of disappointments I have arrived here— I found that Coll Harry Lee could not accomodate me with a conveyance to Court— I then had hopes of getting my Brothers Phaeton, but unfortunately found my Sister from home and the Phaeton broke— at length getting here, I shall get a driver & two horses from Mr Turbervilles— I have borrowed a Saddle & Bridle from Mr George Turberville to get Lewis as fare as Haywood, and have to request of my friend Mr Washington to lend Lewis an old saddle & Bridle up to Colo.
I Rec'd your Letter Hond & D Madam by Mr Buckner yesterday, I am happy to hear by him that you are now in a good state of health— I discover from your sentiments that you are contented, & your Son most ardently hopes Happy.
John has asked permission to go down; I suppose it is to be marryed; I have consented, although it is very inconvenient to want a Servant— he has promised me to return on Tuesday next, which I have insisted upon his doing, though I hardly expect it— whether he can wait on me with a wife in Westmoreland is a matter of great doubt, but he is clear that no inconvenience will attend it, and expresses so much anxiety to remain with me, and makes such fair promises of amendment in his behaviour, that I intend at least to make the trial.
There is no one to whom I am so much indebted in the Letter way as yourself, and I'll assure there are few Debtors who take so much pleasure in discharging these accounts As I do when you are Creditor— I am not only contented with repaying you Letter for Letter, but the Bargain always turns out so much in my favor, that I think myself called upon by Gratitude to acknowledge the superior obligation You confer.
After having so often neglected to write you for some time past rather from necessity than inclination, and from a sense of your goodness in forgiving me, and in admitting those excuses which one less generous would have been more tenacious of, I am determined to shew myself not entirely unworthy of your benevolent disposition towards me, by omitting to embrace any opportunity which can afford safety to my Letters— I say, safety, because I never can meet with any conveyance which goes nearer to you than Fredg where they are necessarily left to the conduct of Chance,
Yes, it is a long year indeed, and by a Son's Calendar two, since he has known the happiness resulting from the company and instructing conversation of his beloved Parents— He often sees them in idea, and their sentiments remain impressed on his mind; but ideal Pleasure is a poor substitute, for real, nor is the expression of the Pen equal to that of speech— The Prospect before me is pleasing, perhaps too much so—to attain it, I rather hurry, than make haste— A few months will alter my situation from Infancy to Manhood— I would wish that my studies should terminate with th
To anyone but yourself my first words would utter murmurs of complaint for this long, unexpected and disagreeable silence; but as I am too well acquainted with your sentiments of affection & attention to your children to concieve that anything but adverse accidents could have produced this seeming neglect, I must only lament as a misfortune what I cannot censure as a fault.
Your Health concerning which I have been very uneasy papa writes me he thinks is better this is a Comfort which would have been great indeed had I not too credulously prided myself up with the hopes of hearing of a total Recovery However I earnestly pray that by the greatest attention on the Doctors side & care on yours this last will be soon affected.
Jerry returning from Frederick gives me an opportunity of writing to you but seems so much in haste that I must measure my letter by my time & write only for those things which I am most in want off. but I will first write all the news in Town least you should not have heard it. There is a Handbill in which there is a treaty of alliance between France & America that they declare us Independent States & are to assist us to support in that we are to aid one another in any dispute whatsoever.
The uneasiness I have suffer'd since the reception of yours can scarcely be exprest. Is it possible you can believe I could be so lost to every Idea of Gratitude as to forget my duty to the best of parents to whom I owe my being & everything else which has rais'd me above the meanest of my species? I cannot conjecture by what means you could possibly be inform'd of a Report which never had any other foundation than the busy tongues of tho<se> who seem to wish for Strife.