I shall not apologise for keeping your letter 3 weeks by me unanswered, exact punctuality is not in my power, fortunately perhaps for my correspondants. as you did not receive the Louisville packet in due season I am almost sorry that my part of it at least had not gone to the bottom, for old...

I received Your last some weeks before I left Monticello, but I believe you are so much accustomed to my bad ways that you do not require a fresh apology for every letter—I have in vain tried to be punctual, but bad habits are not so easily conquered, particularly when the causes which first gave...

I should not have waited for Your letter My very dear Nicholas to have written to you, could My mind have suggested one solitary argugment of comfort. time alone, can soothe the heart, and all that the strongest reason can do, is to assist its operation by attention to the physical as well as...

The floor of the portico is ript up and the red dirt in it all loosened and partly thrown out. Gormon says that he can do nothing without Thrimston and that it will take him still a week. if it is possible to spare him so long for pity sake let him remain, as we shall all be mired in the very...

Ellen is still very sick this morning not at all able to stand to try on her peticoats this has brought to mind a subject that has been talked over between us, considering how often she is sick and how violent her attacks are, that she will pass through all the great towns making some stay in...

I wrote to Mrs Coolidge by the last mail, but really in a state of mind so unfit that if there had been any probability of it’s being more composed before the crisis of the 8th was passed I would certainly not have sent the letter. but it had been already too long though unavoidably delayed, and...

I must write to you My dear Ellen, when I can, and not wait for time to do it quietly and rationally. I have literally not one quiet hour from 5 in the morning my usual hour of rising, till 10 at night, when we generally retire. the odd half hours and quarters that I can command I will most...

I wrote a hurried scrawl to Mr Coolidge by the last mail which would have been burnt if I had had time to collect my thoughts to do better, but although I went in to Nicholas’s pavillion and it rained furiously while I was there, I was so often interrupted, and even forced to leave My letter to...

I have only time to write you a few lines My dearest Ellen, to prevent a longer silence than usual and which might alarm you. I recieved Your letter last monday was a week, and would have answered it with in the same week, but the next mail mail brought one from Col. Peyton informing us of the...

I have not written for a long time My dear Sister because in truth I had nothing but painful subjects to communicate. the unfortunate event of the sale I have long anticipated not altogether however to the extent it has gone. the property has fallen very far short of the payment of the debts. it...

Your most affectionate and welcome letters, My ever dear Ellen, have been almost the only pleasures of this most afflicting winter. your separation from us has been a comfort even, as it has spared me the anguish of witnessing your sorrow and when I have been most oppressed I have looked to your...