one would suppose that the waters between N york and Road Island had produced the same effect upon you, that the Poets feign of the River Lethe, not a Line, not a word from you since you quitted Richmond Hill. are you so wholy absorpd in the study of the Law of Nations as to forget those of Nature?

I have been very sorry since you left us that your visit was made just at the period it was. a few untoward circumstances combined to render it less agreeable to you than it would have proved since. I should not have consented to your leaving us, if I had thought I should not have follow'd in a few days but the season of the year in which I must have returnd, & the arrangments I must have made to have tarried only two months quite discouraged me. at the next adjournment I hope to come on and pass several Months at Braintree.

Since I saw you, you have had an illusterous visiter. I hope you was one of the Choir who so aptly Serenaded him, with “the Hero comes.” he was much gratified with the attention shewn him: I have it from his own Mouth. is it in Humane Nature to be otherways? he ought to be immortal, for who can ever fill his place— I ought to inform you that the day after you left us, you had an invitation to dine there.1 we live in a most friendly intercourse, & madam makes very few visits but those of ceremony when she does not request my Ladyship to accompany her and I have several appointments of that kind now on Hand Let not the Busy fiend envy propogate reports so basely false as that there is any coldness Subsisting between the Families— Massachusetts alone could be guilty of such baseness. I hope the presence of the Late visiter has banishd antifederialism

I hope you have visited your Father since the misfortune of his Horse has prevented him from the excursion he intended.

Your Friends here desire to be rememberd to you and chide you for not writing. believe me most affectionatly / your &c

I congratulate you and the Lady to whom you are united upon your Nuptials, and most sincerely wish you a renewall of all your former happiness, with corresponding dispositions, and inclinations. the domestick circle is alone capable of yealding satisfactions, which an intercourse with the word and all its amusements never can afford. in Buisness or in pleasure the participation of a dear Friend, makes more than half the enjoyment. there is a period of Life too, when neither buisness or pleasure can be persued with the ardour of Youth. then it is that we feel more sensibly the want of domestick tranquility and retirement. may your declining years my dear sir be as repleat with happiness as the visisitudes of Humane Life will permit, and when this transitory scene ends, may you meet the Reward of a good and Faithfull Servant

I wrote to you by my son sine which I have not heard from you.1 I have now to request you to procure for me 400 wt of Butter and to send it by Barnard. I have been dissapointed here, and it is so scarce and dear that I am sure I cannot now procure it. Barnard has orders to bring several hundred firkins, & I wish you to secure mine as soon as you receive this Letter, I also wish to have a Barrel of Beaf put up by Baldwin & a couple of dozen of Hams. mr W Smith will tell you who I mean if you are at any loss. there is also a sley to be sold for 8 dollors by packard who Lives with mr Black2 Mears has an other with harness for 11.3 I will thank you to see them both & to Buy one or the other & send by Barnard I must give ten pounds currency for one here, and we must have one, for to go to market in winter, living two miles from it, and never being able to Buy at our door the marketting all being carried into the city by water. if you 444will be so good as to procure these things and send me the Bill by Barnard with an order for him to receive the money I will pay it to him the Horse cart & sled if not sold will amply repay us if we can get it here, as we cannot get a carman to come out of Town to bring any thing under four shillings.

Barnard is to sail this Day & will tarry not more than ten days after he arrives if he should be full the sley will be of more importance to us this winter than the cart. if one must be left I wish it may be that. the fruit which I have received this year was gatherd a month too soon, badly packd and is half ruind but, as I expected nothing better I am not so much dissapointed—

I hope I may be able to come home at the next adjournment of congress—

Present me affectionatly to my New Aunt to your son daughter and Neice to mr & mrs Norten and believe me my dear sir most affectionatly / your Neice