A pleasant afternoon ride brought me back again to this place, where my first care was to run to the post office, nothing doubting that I should find a letter; but I was wofully disappointed, and yet it is the 20th of the month! This is too bad. Do beseech the doctor to write; and especially if I should be detained here until the fourth or fifth day of next month, as I fear may be necessary, ask him to write every other day until you hear from me again.
I am glad to get back here again on one account. The fare here, which is no great matter, I assure you, is excellent compared with the hotel at Ann Arbor. Indeed, I have not taken my place at a single dinner-table for ten days without being reminded of Charles Lamb and his memorable essay on Roast Pig. Here he might riot in his favorite dish (which is in my opinion wretched stuff), as one of the aforesaid juvenile quadrupeds, with a sprig of parsley in his mouth, has been regularly presented to my eyes ever since I left the State of New York. I am sadly bothered as to the course I should take. I suppose I might be able to leave here on Thursday of this week, and, staying over Sabbath at Oswego (making no stay at the Falls), arrive at my father’s Tuesday evening, and at New York on Friday morning. But before I could reach New York, Mr. Davis, according to his appointment, would be at Detroit, and it is possible that a very few days would enable us to settle almost everything about the arrangement of the grounds, the internal disposition of the university building, and the plan of professors’ houses. I feel so strong a hope that the doctor will be persuaded to take a professorship that I have fixed upon the place for his house, should my plan for the arrangement of the grounds be adopted. And I am very desirous to return to you with the plans in my hands, that I may submit them to Dr. T., Prof. Henry, etc., in time to correct our mistakes and suggest improvements. I see also that if I leave now (although I have explained that I made arrangements on leaving to be back by the first of September, and that it is very necessary I should return by that time), I should lose much of the influence I have acquired, and it is more than probable that some error would be committed that we should not see in time to rectify.
I am anxious that the proper means should be adopted to supply the university and houses with water in abundance, and at such a level that it can be taken into the second story of the professors’ houses; I think you may imagine one reason why I am so solicitous about this matter. I was pleased to find on my arrival here that this subject had already received much attention, and there is a determination, on the part of nearly all the regents I have conversed with, to effect this object at whatever expense. Of the different plans in contemplation only one, I think, will effectually answer the purpose. I have some hope that the subject will be acted upon at the first meeting after Mr. Davis arrives. Before that time I suspect we shall not be able to secure the quorum necessary for the transaction of this and other matters of business. I hope also to secure an appropriation for the library, and philosophical and chemical apparatus. I feel pretty confident of accomplishing this result by early autumn.
This is my last entire sheet of large paper, so you may expect no more such tedious letters, unless I find more like it. But if I do not hear from you, and that speedily, I shall be very unhappy. Ask Dr. T. to open any letters that may have come from Norfolk or Washington, and apprise me of the contents, or take any steps that become necessary. Adieu, my dear friend. May our Heavenly Father bless and keep you and yours is the sincere prayer of your attached,
A. Gray.
TO DR. TROWBRIDGE.
New York, October 1, 1838.
Dear Doctor,—My arrangements are now so far completed that I may say, with as much confidence as we may speak of any event subject to ordinary contingencies, that I hope to sail for London on the first of next month. I am of course hard at work; there is no need to tell you that. The second part of “Flora” we hope, by hard work, to have published about the 20th inst.
Yours truly,
A. Gray.
TO HIS FATHER.