From Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr., [27 October 1793]
To Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr.
Sunday eveng. [27 Oct. 1793]
Th:J. will be obliged to Mr. Randolph to make George prick out the inclosed grains of wheat below the garden wall or wherever he thinks best. It is of the genuine early wheat gathered by Mr. Jones in a field here which was reaped on the 5th. of June.—So far all well. I set out in the stage between 3. and 4. in the morning. Adieu.
RC (DLC: TJ Papers, 94: 16106); partially dated; addressed: “Mr. Randolph” endorsed by Randolph as received 29 Oct. 1793; with notation in an unidentifed hand indicating that the letter was sent from Fredericksburg. Not recorded in SJL.
Not long after TJ’s departure from Monticello, the merchant Thomas Bell of Charlottesville commented on TJ’s passions for architecture and farming: “Mr. Jefferson set out a few days ago to meet the president at German town and is determined to resign the first of the year—And is resolved to—play the <fool>. You know how easy he can take down one house and build another &c.—has got a Jersey farmer and has laid off his land in 40 acre fields with his Own hands &c. in fact you can get no News out of him untill you tyer him out on farming” (Bell to John Breckinridge, 30 Oct. 1793, DLC: Breckinridge Family Papers).