I will begin a letter to you, my dear Virginia, but whether my jewel will allow me to finish it or not, is more than I can tell. the nurse is gone out and I must supply her place until she returns. in the mean time the baby is lying in a sort of precarious sleep which threatens every moment to...

We are arrived, and meet only with disappointment: after leaving you, yesterday, we suffered very much from the heat, and did not reach Mrs Tingley’s before 7½ o’Clock. having rode the last mile or two in the rain. we were off again this morning at 5—and breakfasted at Goochland Ct House. it was...

I intended dear Virginia to write to you from Richmond, but had not one moment to do it in. I committed your gingham &c to Martha W. praying her to send them immediately. the packet contained besides the gingham (which you will be surprised to hear was the best I could get,) some cambric &...

Mr Jefferson inherited a large estate, and his wife brought him a handsome fortune, but encumbered by British debts, of her father’s, to a great amount: to affect the payment of these Mr Jefferson sold a part of his property, & received the proceeds in depreciated paper money, which were of...

Four weeks have nearly elapsed since I received my dear Virginia’s letter which I meant to have answered sooner, but have had not a moment’s leisure. (as usual.) for my life is a very troublesome one & my time so frittered away in little occupations & interruptions that I have scarce a...

It is long, dearest Virginia, since I have written to you, because I thought you heard regularly from Mama & Cornelia, & would therefore know all that was interesting to you to know concerning your friends here; but now I shall again make a regular correspondent, for, not for worlds,...

I have sometimes thought ...

A letter which I received yesterday from Mary, dearest Virginia, gave me the first feeling of anxiety on the subject of Papa’s health. my impression has hitherto been that it was probably a case of dyspepsia (a complaint inherent in the Randolph constitution) & the idea of it’s being at all...

It is late in the morning of Tuesday, dearest mother, and I should not attempt to write, as I dislike so much to be hurried in writing to you, but having in my last mentioned Ellen’s illness I thought you might be anxious to hear again. she is very much better, but still pale & thin; I...

I have been most anxiously expecting a letter for some time past, my dear mother, that I might hear something more of this appointment of Nicholas’s. Burwell wrote me that Mr Clay had named him to a place worth $ 1600. a year, but from you I have heard not one word, and know not how to account...

I will at least begin a letter to you, my dearest mother, although I scarcely know when I shall have time to finish it, perhaps now, perhaps not until next time week. my baby has been very unwell for several days and this morning I sent for Dr Warren whose prescription seems already to have...

I take so little note of time, my dearest mother, even by it’s loss, that I do not know exactly when I last wrote to any of you, but it seems to me more than a fortnight, and perhaps you are beginning to be surprised at my silence. I have been very busy getting the little girls ready to go into...