TJ’s granddaughters ellen W. Randolph (Coolidge) and cornelia J. Randolph accompanied him to Poplar Forest. The previous day Ellen had written to her mother, Martha Jefferson Randolph, that they had “met with no accident on the road, no misadventure of any kind, except being driven into Hunter’s yesterday morning by a shower of rain, which forced us to take a neat comfortable breakfast at half after seven oclock, instead of one both dirty and ill-cooked which we should have found between eleven and twelve at Chilton’s.” She went on to say that “Poplar Forest looks rather more dismal than usual; the long absence of the family, appears to have encreased the wildness and desolation of every thing around. the weeds growing to the very door of the kitchen, as high as your head, the planks of the terrace torn up in places by the violence of the wind, the front of the house offering nothing but the sashes of its windows, except where they were protected by the portico, the dining room darkened by the boarding up of the skylight, and the floors stained and moulded by the entrance of the rain-water; add to this the close musty smell which a house long shut up continues for some time to retain—and yet in spite of all this, I have felt no depression of spirits.” Further on in the letter Ellen remarked that “Grandpapa is so little fatigued by his journey as to have ridden to see his old friend Mr Clay this morning” (RC in ViU: Coolidge Correspondence; partially dated “July 18th”).