1. GW left Mount Vernon on 25 Oct. and reached Philadelphia on 31 Oct. (see GW to Alexander Hamilton, 2 Nov., and n.1).

2. GW’s presidential household accounts for 10 Oct. record payments of $17.21 for whitewashing the house” and $206.37 “pd Jno. Stock for painting sundry rooms.” On 19 Oct., Dandridge recorded payments of $21.60 to “Wm Poyntell for 34 pss paper hangings &c.” and $17.45 to “Thos Vizer for papering entry” (Household Accounts description begins Presidential Household Accounts, 1793–97. Manuscript, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia. description ends ).

Despite the efforts to repair the presidential mansion in Philadelphia, GW commented on the poor condition of some household items in an undated inventory headed “Household furniture, made shortly before his return to Mount Vernon in March 1797.” In that document, GW recorded the dilapidated state of table linens, china, and other articles, some of which had been broken or stolen. He further noted that “The Carpets also are entirely worn out” (DLC:GW; see also Elizabeth Willing Powel to GW, 8 Feb. 1797, and n.4 to that document; and GW to Henry Knox, 2 March 1797, n.6). In March 1797, newly inaugurated president John Adams also observed the deplorable state of the executive mansion: “Last night for the first time I slept in our new House.—But what a Scene! The Furniture belonging to the Publick is in the most deplorable Condition—There is not a Chair fit to sit in. The Beds and Bedding are in a woeful Pickle. This House has been a scene of the most scandalous Drunkenness and Disorder among the servants, that ever I heard of. I would not have one of them for any Consideration. There is not a Carpet nor a Curtain, nor a Glass nor Linnen nor China nor any Thing” (Adams to Abigail Adams, 22 March 1797, in Adams Family Correspondence description begins Lyman H. Butterfield et al., eds. Adams Family Correspondence. 13 vols. to date. Cambridge, Mass., 1963–. description ends , 12:44–45).

3.  GW’s next extant letter to Dandridge is dated 8 March 1797 (see Papers, Retirement Series description begins W. W. Abbot et al., eds. The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series. 4 vols. Charlottesville, Va., 1998–99. description ends 1:23–24).

4. GW must have caught his cold during his travel to Mount Vernon between 19 and 27 Sept. (see GW to the Fairfax County, Va., Court Justices, 28 Sept., and n.1 to that document). Martha Washington, who already was at Mount Vernon prior to GW’s September arrival there, also appears to have been ill. On 3 Sept., Martha’s granddaughter Eleanor Parke Custis wrote her friend Elizabeth Bordley from Mount Vernon: “My Beloved Grandmama has had four attacks of that horrid disorder the ague & fever but I hope she will soon get over it” (ViMtvL). In another letter, of 6 Sept. from Mount Vernon, Eleanor wrote Bordley in part: “My Beloved Grandmama missed her ague yesterday, & I hope will soon be entirely restored” (ViMtvL; see also GW to William Pearce, 28 Aug. 1796, postscript). GW and Martha again fell ill with colds at the end of the year (see GW to Tobias Lear, 14 Dec.).

5. Eleanor Calvert Custis Stuart, who resided at the estate Hope Park with her husband David Stuart, was an expectant mother at the time and probably suffered from a pregnancy-related illness. Despite giving birth in early December, she remained ill into the summer of 1797 (see David Stuart to GW, 18 Dec., and n.2 to that document). In addition to Eleanor Stuart’s younger children, Nelly and George Washington Parke Custis, visitors to Hope Park included her older daughters Martha Parke Custis Peter and Elizabeth Parke Custis Law, and their husbands, Thomas Peter and Thomas Law (see Law to GW, 6 Oct.; and Peter to GW, 19 Oct.). For Nelly’s earlier stay at Hope Park, in winter 1796, see GW to David Humphreys, 12 June 1796.