Anxious of receiveing a letter from you, and waiting with this expecttation for some time, I have neglected writeing to you; but I hope this neglect will be pardoned, as it was not through any want of respect for you, and I likewise hope that it will not be long before I receive a letter from you. I informed you in my last what I was studying, therefore I think it unnecessary now to do so. There are now at this University about 90 students, among whom there appeares to be a great regularity, and an ardent desire to acquire knowledge, which is the only quality that will carry a man through this life with respectability, provided it is used in a proper manner, and conducted through the chanels of reason, usefulness, and virtue, to this we are indebted for our independance, and many other advantages which we injoy. One of the students by the name of Mr Soloman Kittrall lately lost his Farther, and on that account has quit this place. I was lately at Raleigh in the time of the Methodist conference, where I saw many of our acquaintances from Hallifax; and likewise of Raleigh they all desiered their compliments to you and the famerly It is with the utmost satisfaction that I am able to inform you that there is a gentleman by the name of Mr Close 2 from Stokes county, who has undertaken to compleate the new building in two years for $23,000,3 he has lately arrived here and is now preparing the necessary articles to carry on the building; it is to be supposed that when this building is compleated that the number of students will be greatly augmented. Tell my sisters that they must write to me together with all my acquaintances. Give my love to them all here is wishing that you and the famerly may ever enjoy all the blessing that can flow from the hand above

1. Brownrigg Family Papers, SHC. The letter is addressed to "Mr Thomas Brownrigg, esqr/Near Edenton/NCarolina"; in the lower left corner appear the words "per mail." The following postage endorsement appears in the upper right corner: "Chapel Hill/7th March} 18." Another hand has written "Richard T Brownrigg /March 5 1811" down the right margin, underneath the address.

2. Close was the contractor who in 1814 completed the Main Building, known today as South Building. Begun in 1798, the building had become an embarrassing symbol of the Legislature's anti-Federalist refusal to advance the funds necessary to complete it. It became known as "Davie's Temple of Folly." By 1804 when the building was 1 1/2 stories tall, students built cabins in the corners of the brick walls, accommodations preferable to the cramped quarters of Old East. In 1809 and again in 1811, Joseph Caldwell traveled the state to raise $8,220 in donations from alumni and friends of the University to complete the building (Henderson Chapter 8).

3. "In 1812, 1814, and 1815, the sums paid John Close , the contractor, totaled £4,513 or $9,026. In 1816-17 the expenditures on unpaid debts and contracts amounted to $7,863, giving a total of $16,889" (Henderson 82, note 19).