He afterwards took us to the drawing room, in the dome 26 or 7 feet diameter—It is a noble & beautiful apartment—perfectly round with 8 circular windows & a sky-light—It was not furnished, & being in the attic story, is not used.—which I thought a great pity, as it might be made the...
When we descended to the Hall, he asked us to pass into the library, or as I called it his sanctum sanctorrum, where any other foot than his own seldom intrudes.
my essay in Architecture has been so much subordinated to the law of convenience, & affected also by the circumstance of change in the original design, that it is liable to some unfavorable & just criticisms.
We left Charlottesville on Saturday morning, the 4th of February, for Mr. Jefferson’s. He lives, you know, on a mountain, which he has named Monticello ... The ascent of this steep, savage hill, was as pensive and slow as Satan’s ascent to Paradise. We were obliged to wind two thirds round its...
Our return to Oak Ridge, and thence to Castle Hill, brought us again among our new and old friends. Among these we were honored by a visit from Mr Jefferson ... It was the first time I had ever seen the sage of Monticello, though I had heard of him often through friends and foes, through good...
The mansion-house of Mr Jefferson occupies the summit of an eminence, constituting a part of the South west mountain of Virginia, elevated about 600 feet above an arm of the James River, which meanders at its base. This ascent eminence, the ascent of which following the flexures of the road, is...
But one of the greatest curiosities I met with was Thomas Jefferson. Whether you will call this a natural or an artificial curiosity, I am puzzled to know. At all events, I went to see him at the exhibition-house at Monticello, up a long hill, which is almost daily trod by many a weary pilgrim’s...
I have never told you of the nice little cuddy that has become my haunt, and from which I am now writing. do you recollect the place over the parlour Portico into which the dome room opened? since the columns to the portico have been completed, Grand Papa has had the great work bench removed from...
in the house in which I live, and it’s offices I have flat roofs of a different construction. they consist of rooflets 30. I. wide with gutturs between them. there are 2. strata of joists, the one about 9. I. higher than the other. arranged thus ... a single length of shingles reaches from the...
Much has been said of the elegance of Mr Jefferson’s establishment at Monticello but there is no person of candour who has ever visited there who could not testify to the contrary of all this. The house has been fifty six years building and is still unfinished. A great deal of the work has been...
I have frequently heard Mr Jefferson say that this germ of a fondness for building, was developed in him by the accidental circumstance of his purchasing a book on Architecture, when at College from an old drunken Cabinetmaker who still resided near the College gate in my time & whom I...
From this northern terrace the view is sublime; and here Jefferson and his company were accustomed to sit, bare-headed, in the summer until bed-time, having neither dew nor insects to annoy them. Here, perhaps, has been assembled more love of liberty, virtue, wisdom, and learning than any other...
“In every Pole there is Jefferson more than anyone else, a love of freedom, free expression—and having a house of one’s own,” he said with a laugh. He predicted all Poles will “pick up Monticello as a symbol of what is needed in Poland—a fruitful place, because it has the land—but also a place...