Extract from Virginia J. Randolph (Trist) to Nicholas P. Trist, 13 May 1823
Extract from Virginia J. Randolph (Trist) to Nicholas P. Trist
Monticello May 13th 1823
We have all had a dreadful shock at an accident which was near proving fatal to my dear Grand-Father the other day in the river; and are more miserable than ever at his persisting in the practice of riding without a servant to attend him, while his arm is still in a sling and quite helpless. his horse mired in the river, & fell, confining Grand-Papa’s legs under him, and although not hurt by that, he would inevitably have been drowned had not the rapidity of the current carried him down to a much shallower place, where by reaching the bottom of the river with his hand he was enabled to rise on his feet1 & get out. he says it would have been thought by every one that visited the spot, if he had been drowned, that he had committed suicide. as yet he has experienced no ill effect from the thorough wetting that he got.—
I have always forgotten to tell you of our circulating Library in Charlottesville! 2.000.$ have been already subscribed, instead of a few hundred as Grand-Papa expected, and he is chosen with Mr. Beauman the presbyterian preacher, & Mr. Ormond the c—xc—mb to make the Catalogue of books. novels are voted out, for which all the ladies in the county, I have no doubt, will ‘tear their ’air & disporridge their faces’—I have not time to describe my elegant Boudoir tonight.
RC (DLC: NPT); extract, consisting of dateline, first half of second paragraph, and postscript; unsigned; addressed: “To Nicholas P. Trist Esquire Donaldsonville Lafourche Louisiana”; stamped; postmarked; endorsed by Trist as a letter from “Randolph (V.J.).” In the unextracted portion of this letter, Randolph (Trist) states that she will leave for Poplar Forest the next day and return in two or three weeks; commiserates with Trist over news of his “bad fortune” but encourages him to make the best use of his extended time in Louisiana to settle his affairs and study for a career in the legal profession so that they will be better able to afford married life; and shares updates on various family members.
mr. beauman: Francis Bowman. c—xc—mb: “coxcomb.” tear their ’air & disporridge their faces is adapted from Tobias Smollett’s novel, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (London, 1771), 3:169.
1. Preceding three words interlined.
Index Entries
- Albemarle Library Society; Catalogue of Books search
- Albemarle Library Society; establishment of search
- books; novels search
- books; TJ recommends for Albemarle Library Society search
- Bowman, Francis; and Albemarle Library Society search
- Charlottesville, Va.; libraries in search
- horses; TJ falls from search
- horses; TJ rides search
- Jefferson, Thomas; Health; broken arm search
- law; study of search
- Ormond, John James; and Albemarle Library Society search
- Poplar Forest (TJ’s Bedford Co. estate); TJ’s grandchildren visit search
- Rivanna River; TJ falls in search
- slaves; TJ refuses attendance of search
- Smollett, Tobias George; The Expedition of Humphry Clinker search
- subscriptions, nonpublication; for Albemarle Library Society search
- suicide; TJ on search
- The Expedition of Humphry Clinker (T. G. Smollett) search
- Trist, Nicholas Philip; and legal education search
- Trist, Nicholas Philip; correspondence with V. J. R. Trist search
- Trist, Nicholas Philip; La. business of search
- Trist, Nicholas Philip; letter to, from V. J. R. Trist search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); and TJ’s riding accident search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); correspondence with N. P. Trist search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); courtship of search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); letter from, to N. P. Trist search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); on Albemarle Library Society search
- Trist, Virginia Jefferson Randolph (TJ’s granddaughter); plans visit to Poplar Forest search
- women; and reading search
- women; letters from; V. J. R. Trist to N. P. Trist search