I have been waiting since the Reciept of your kind Letter for the Return of my Son who is out on a Summer Excursion, & as the Weather has been bad, I expect he will prolong his Absence. When he returns I will endeavour but I do not believe it will be possible for me to give any extensive Account of my Responsibilities in the Country. I have abandoned the Hope of accomplishing it, as they are scattered thro' every Quarter of the State, & no regular or any Account kept.

I did not recieve your Letter of the 22d Feby 'till yesterday. I am much obliged by your Attention to my Request relative to the Enquiries on Plaister of Paris. I find that taking an Airing, or indeed a Gallop, now & then on some of my old Hobby Horses, relieves me from the small & sometimes the great Maladies of the Mind. If I can make these Excursions useful to others, a double Purpose will be answered. The Account given by Mr L. Lewis is exactly as I expected. Your Land is not of the Quality calculated for Plaister.

Very soon after the rect of your kind favor, whilst the Hack from Washington was here to take us to Trenton, & the night before the Journey was to commence, I was attacked by a bilious fever, which with the necessary evacuations have so prostrated my strength, that I have scarcely enough left to enable me to move, but with great difficulty, about the room. Mrs W. is equally indisposed with the same Complaint.

     I beg you to accept my thanks for "the Memoir" relating to your unsettled claims upon the government of the U. S. which I have read with much interest, and with my former opinion of the Justice of those claims more fully confirmed.

     Believe me to be with very great respect, and with best wishes for your happiness, Dear Sir Your Mo. ob. Servt

     So soon as I found myself the legatee of the papers of my late Uncle Genl Washington, I presumed that the public would expect from me the history of a life so conspicuously employed as his was in the civil & military affairs of this Country. Your observations have impressed me very fully with the propriety of having such a history prepared for publication as speedily as circumstances will admit.

     I had the pleasure some days ago to receive your friendly letter of the 20th Ulto which company, at that time & for many days afterwards, prevented me from sooner answering.

     I beg you to accept my thanks for your kind letter of the 7th,¹ which holds out so strong a temptation to embrace the offer it contains that it requires all my fortitude to resist it, & to persevere in a course of conduct which I have seldom if ever departed from—that is, always to return to the same house, at which I have been well treated.

I wrote you some days ago describing the Situation of Mrs W. & myself, and expressing my anxiety (which I most sincerely felt & yet feel) to attend the Phila. Court, and my doubts whether it would be practicable. I am now distressed, (as well on account of the effect as of the cause) to inform you, that I altogether despair of being able to go forward. I am yet very weak myself, although I should risk the attempt to get on, if I had myself alone to attend to. But Mrs W.

I have not recd a line from you since yours of the 7th altho I have with infinite anxiety sent to Alexa. in the hope of recieving a letter to inform me what was done on the 11th as to the adjournment of the Court. Mrs Washington has not even yet recovered her strength, but it was our intention at least to set out on our Journey & to endeavour to perform it by slow rides in case you had informed me that the adjournment was to any day in this month.

I am requested [b]y¹ two of my friends to write to you in their behalf for some of your Tunis Sheep which, Livingston & Humphreys, to the contrary notwithstanding, they prefer to Merinos. There are many Sheep of the Tunis breed in our State equal to yours perhaps in Size, & for aught I know, in flavor; but my friends say that yours excel them decidedly in the fineness & weight of the fleece. One of these gentlemen wishes to obtain two rams & one Ewe about 12 months old—the other, one ram & one Ewe.