I transmit to you a few lines in which I expect to make mention of
a good many things, which may be of
but little
It
erest & concern to you, but since you
came forth in such scolding terms in your letter because I did not obey all of
your directions, I will endeaver to comply with at least one, mamely to write
you soon & write you much, but do not draw the inference from this promise;
that my disconnected & detached piece will contain any news of importance,
you yourself too well know by experience that one at Colledge can scrape up but
few things worth mentioning
2
Enough of this long preamble, All of us from
Leasburg
&
Person, are well,
3 With
respect to myself I have enjoyed as good health or even better since I came
here, than I have for
some time, but with all
my care & exercise I cannot gain any in weight It, I might say, is againt
my nature, but when I reflect on many who are very corpulent & see how
unfit they are oftentimes to study I have no reason to complain because I am
not corpulent & fleshy, I am sorry that your map & books were so
injured, but it was out of
my power to have
fixed them any better, Inasmuch
as I had
neither room nor time, from the time that I came from
Raleigh
untill eleven o,clock at night I was as busy as I could be, settling accounts,
fixing my room & your books Had I known that
Mr Terry
4 was
to carry
your trunk before the servants were
going to leave the
Hill, I
might have arrainged them in some better way, But that I was totally ignorant
off untill I had packed your dry goods as well as I could in the saddle bags,
you did not make mention in your letter whether you received your money, nor
how much you did receive, but I suppose you found your monied affairs nearly
correct, or else you would have said something about them, I believe I
neglected
5 to
mention in my letter to you before, that
Brother
William
sent three dollars & fifty cents by me to buy him a lexicon
which I did not do, but one thing I done, I kept the money, so that he will
have to charge father with it, as it was taken out of the store,
6
Mr Bird
paid me one dollar& 25¢
Page 2
which he said was due
you, I have gott
en those books from him
which you
left in his care, I will try to send
you all of your books which I do not immediatly
stand in need off when ever I shall meet with a favourable opportunity, your
note book, (as you call it) which you so much need I did not send
you, I ransacked & hunted in every
place expecting to find an old [triangle, circle, square] book, but when
I came to think about it again I found out that you meant your blank book,
& with respect to mustering I was disposed to take it in the way of a joke,
so you may plainly see that I go to clear myself & make apologies, The
faculty have not had the good luck to get a tutor yet although they are
continually trying, I understood that they have offerred the office of a tutor
to
Mr
Backhouse
,
7 but
I have not heard whether he has accepted it
or
whether he is going to do it, your friend
Bird
is
the same old seven & six, he can
tell more
anecdotes of great men & crack
more dry
jokes than any man I ever met with, he came to my room this evening & kept
Jacob
& myself laughing nearly till ten o,clock If I should have a touch of the
hyppocondriae at any time hereafter, I believe I shall visit friend
Bird
& I am sure that I shall get well.
Mr
Richard Shepard
&
Thomas
Dulany
8 are
on the hill yet, they both study as hard as any of the students, reading
historys, theological books &c. &c., Both of them has some idea of
studying law,
Hawks
our seccond mite man
9 has
returned to the
hill
again, but he is no more that playful & talkative fellow that he was
before, I have never in all my life seen a person so hurt & so cast down as
he is, on account of a mite, or even on any occassion, he makes but little
exertions to stand first or even seccond, I will now enter upon a history of my
class, I am aware however that I am making mention of several things about
classes & students which will perhaps afford you but little satisfaction or
interest, But because you have been a
Tutor &
perhaps have lively recollections of the conduct & abilities of the
students, I take the liberty, The freshmen class consists (I believe) of about
16)
10
& they are a rattling set as ever you came cross, I do not mean all of
them, for
11
there are exceptions almost to every rule, My class has increased in number
& I might add in knowledge too, considerably, It consists of thirty four,
& thirty one of them are regular on all the studies,
Mr
Cadwallerder Jones
&
John
Taylor
12
Page 3
have been received in the sopomore class on regular
standing, All of the glistered fellow[s]
13
have returned except
Mr
Lock
, There are about a dozen who are upon equal footing in geometry, on
french I am inclined to think that
James
Dobbin
stands first, on Latin & Greek they are about the same as
when you were here, The Junior Class stand about the same except
Calvin
Jones
who it is thought is failing a little &
Jacob
is gaining
a ground a little You know my
old complaint, that there is to much visiting, but I can assure
you that it is ten
times as worse as ever it was before, My
expurgated
Horace
14
attractes a great many of the sopomores to find what odes are skiped & how
far the lessen goes,
Jacob
has
Williamson
&
Allen
Jones
nearly always about him, so that
on the
one hand there is a continual cry,
Sol
,
Sol
, &
Gundy Gundy I want to see your
expurgated Horace,
on the other Shedrick, Jack, I wish you would show me how to commence
this sum & likewise add by way of an ornament a few
blessings upon
John
Bull's
[
James
Phillips'
] head, for giving such long & hard lessens, Upon the whole
I believe it is best for it to be so, because I am inclined to forsake company
more perhaps than I oug[ht to] be. At the beginning of this session
Mr
Hooper
gave us a [sponsor] for to establish a temperate
society,
15 I
believe that we are about to succeed, although there are a great many sneers
& approbrious epithets thrown out againt it, there are
16
about fifteen or twenty students who are going to join, for how long a time it
is to be established I do not know, but I suspect it will continue for one year
or through Colledge course, & then
it will
be renewed again, upon the whole the students do not drink half so much as they
formerly did, yet there are more squ
ibs
17
& crakers fired every night than I have heard since I have been at this
place,
Jacob
is a warm advocate in favour of a temperate society. After this long epistle
(which if you can make
18 out
you must be a very good reader) I will win[d] up with something more solid,
Surely it must be a source of great pleasure to hear that religion is gain
ing ground at
Leasburg,
would to
God that the same
was the case here, we would not hear so many oaths & profaness
Page 4
if virtue & morality
19
were regarded here, It is religion which distinguishes one man from another,
which elevates one nation above another, But this place unfortunatly has never
been famious for morality & virtu[e] & I am afraid that it never will,
Write me as soon as you shall find an opportunity, tell
William
&
Addison
that I shall expect a letter from them,